We put up $10.5 billion to bailout an Italian company...

Chrysler will now be fully owned by Fiat...

Via CNN:

U.S. automaker Chrysler will become fully owned by Italy's Fiat under terms of an agreement announced Wednesday that also involves the United Auto Workers union.
The agreement comes more than 4-1/2 years after the Obama administration brought Fiat in to keep Chrysler in business as part of a packaged bankruptcy proceeding.
In a statement, Fiat said it has agreed to pay $3.65 billion for the 41.46% of Chrysler it doesn't already own from the UAW's medical benefits trust for retirees.
In addition to the deal, Chrysler will contribute $700 million to the benefits trust over a 4-year period. For its part, the UAW has agreed to support the automaker's plans to roll out vehicles and will drop a Delaware court proceeding over options exercised by Fiat in the acquisition of Chrysler.

GM CEO not interested in paying back $10 billion bailout loss...

I, and many other Americans,  will never by a GM car.

WASHINGTON -- The General Motors bailout may have cost the government $10 billion, but GM CEO Dan Akerson rejects any suggestion that the company should compensate for the losses.
He says Treasury officials took the same risk assumed by anyone who purchases stock.
"I would not accept the premise that this was a bad deal," Akerson said during a question-and-answer session at the National Press Club in Washington. He also said the government's $49.5-billion aid to GM helped save billions of dollars in tax revenue and government social services.
Akerson spoke in the wake of Treasury announcement last week that it sold its last shares in GM and Akerson's decision to retire in January. The automaker's board of directors named Mary Barra, the company's first CEO, to succeed Akerson.
The speech also came as GM announced it is investing $1.2-billion in five U.S. plants, which Akerson said is a recognition that after 15 straight profitable quarters the automaker can't rest on its success.

Spin: Obama claims "GM has now repaid every taxpayer dollar my Administration committed to its rescue...."

Couldn't we just as easily say "GM has now repaid every taxpayer dollar the previous Administration committed to its rescue, plus billions invested by my Administration?"

Via WhiteHouse.gov:

When I took office, the American auto industry – the heartbeat of American manufacturing – was on the verge of collapse.  Two of the Big Three – GM and Chrysler – were on the brink of failure, threatening to take suppliers, distributors and entire communities down with them.  In the midst of what was already the worst recession since the Great Depression, another one million Americans were in danger of losing their jobs.
As President, I refused to let that happen.  I refused to walk away from American workers and an iconic American industry.  But in exchange for rescuing and retooling GM and Chrysler with taxpayer dollars, we demanded responsibility and results.  In 2011, we marked the end of an important chapter as Chrysler repaid every dime and more of what it owed the American taxpayers from the investment we made under my Administration’s watch.  Today, we’re closing the book by selling the remaining shares of the federal government’s investment in General Motors.  GM has now repaid every taxpayer dollar my Administration committed to its rescue, plus billions invested by the previous Administration. [...]
 

That nuanced change still omits the fact taxpayers lost $10.5-billion.

Treasury sells rest of its GM stock, ends bailout with $10.5-billion loss, says it prevented further economic damage http://t.co/tGefctSg0u
— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) December 9, 2013

Barney Frank: "the federal government made money on the advances to the banks. What cost us money was the automobile industry bailout."

Barney Frank is finally telling the truth...

Via Newsbusters:

Most of America’s media think President Obama’s 2009 bailout of General Motors and Chrysler was a huge success.
Former Massachusetts Democratic Congressman Barney Frank threw cold water on this meme on NBC’s Meet the Press Sunday correctly informing viewers that the auto bailout lost money for the federal government. By contrast, we made money from George W. Bush’s 2008 bank bailout (video follows with transcript and commentary):
BARNEY FRANK, FORMER CONGRESSMAN (D-MASSACHUSETTS): First of all, many of the banks didn’t want this money. It’s not that we did it for them. But secondly, the federal government made money on the advances to the banks. What cost us money was the automobile industry bailout. But we made money on the banks.
HENRY PAULSON, FORMER BUSH TREASURY SECRETARY: We got all the money back plus $32 billion.
Keep on reading…

Not Shocking: Dems Want To Bail Out Detroit...

Dems love bailouts...

Via RCP:

A new national poll from Quinnipiac University shows that a majority Democrats believe the federal government should bail out Detroit, but an even larger majority of Americans oppose such a move. Fifty-one percent of Democrats support Washington providing federal assistance to Detroit, which last month became the largest American city ever to seek bankruptcy protection.

Not surprisingly, there is a strong partisan divide on the question of a federal bailout for the Motor City. Seventy-three percent of Republicans oppose a bailout, while only 18 percent support the idea. Independents are nearly of the same mind as Republicans on the issue: 68 percent oppose federal assistance for Detroit and 28 percent support it.

Obama administration dumping GM shares for a $10 billion loss...

Taxpayers spent $10 billion to save 70,000 American-based UAW jobs UAW extravagant pensions. 

Washington — The U.S. Treasury said Wednesday it plans to sell 30 million additional shares of General Motors stock in a new public offering in conjunction with GM’s return to the S&P 500 index on Thursday.

The United Auto Workers Retiree Medical Benefits Trust — which holds about 14 percent of GM — will also participate by selling 20 million shares, making the total offering size 50 million shares. It represents about 12 percent of Treasury’s outstanding GM stock.

The move may mean that Treasury completely exits in 2013, rather than by the end of March 2014. The return to the S&P will prompt significant demand for GM shares and the stock has recently traded near its highest level since February 2011. GM is filing a new prospectus ahead of the sale.

The Treasury sold nearly 20 percent of its remaining shares in General Motors Co. in the first three months of the year, the Detroit automaker disclosed Thursday.

The Treasury, which initially held 60.8 percent of GM as part of the U.S. $49.5 billion bailout, now owns just 16.4 percent, or 241.7 million shares. In December, the Treasury sold GM 200 million shares of its stake for $5.5 billion to reduce its stake to 300 million shares.

In total, Treasury has recouped $30.6 billion. At current trading prices, Treasury would lose around $10 billion on its GM bailout.

This will make you want to keep your money buried out back...

The Cypriot government has seized 6.75%~9.9% of all bank accounts as part of a bailout deal...

(Reuters) - Europeans' faith in the safety of their savings has been shaken by a levy on Cypriot bank deposits to pay for a bailout, even though there was no sign of a rush to withdraw cash in Madrid or Dublin.

People told Reuters they were angered but unsurprised that politicians should dip into citizens' deposits. And as bankers expressed concern the proposed terms of Cyprus's bailout could unnerve savers elsewhere, some leftist leaders voiced outrage.

Euro zone finance ministers want Cypriots to pay up to 9.9 percent of their deposits in return for a 10 billion euro ($13 billion) aid package. If approved by the island's parliament on Monday, it will be the first time savers have had to foot part of the bill for a European bailout.

"What they did to the Cypriots was a disgrace," said Maria Spyrou, 57-year-old Athens housewife who says she must support a daughter, a nurse, who hasn't been paid for nine months.

Can you imagine the envy Barack Obama feels? 

AIG: Thanks for the bailout and have a lawsuit?

AIG made a thank you ad (above) after they paid back the $182 billion bailout. Now, the may launch a lawsuit?

Fresh from paying back a $182 billion bailout, the American International Group has been running a nationwide advertising campaign with the tagline “Thank you America.”
Behind the scenes, the restored insurance company is weighing whether to tell the government agencies that rescued it during the financial crisis: thanks, but you cheated our shareholders.

The board of A.I.G. will meet on Wednesday to consider joining a $25 billion shareholder lawsuit against the government, court records show. The lawsuit does not argue that government help was not needed. It contends that the onerous nature of the rescue — the taking of what became a 92 percent stake in the company, the deal’s high interest rates and the funneling of billions to the insurer’s Wall Street clients — deprived shareholders of tens of billions of dollars and violated the Fifth Amendment, which prohibits the taking of private property for “public use, without just compensation.”

Taxpayers to take multibillion-dollar haircut on GM bailout...

Taxpayers hardest hit...

Via FOX News:

The U.S. Treasury plans to sell its stake in General Motors Co over the coming year, all but assuring a multibillion-dollar loss in a move that will end the automaker's "Government Motors" era.

Treasury's plan - a two-step process that includes a $5.5 billion stock sale to GM - is part of a broader push to wind down the controversial financial bailout under the Troubled Asset Relief (TARP) program. TARP was created by former president George W. Bush to prevent the collapse of the U.S. banking industry during the 2007-2009 financial crisis.

The planned GM sale will raise the proceeds that Treasury has recovered to $28.6 billion of the $50 billion bailout GM received. With $20.9 billion left from the original bailout, the government would have to sell its remaining shares at an average price of $69.72 to break even.

Read more here...

Remember the campaign video where Obama claimed they repaid their loans?

A new Barack Obama campaign video narrated by Tom Hanks portrays the president’s bailout of General Motors and Chrysler as courageous and successful — with loans repaid by car companies.

"Because of the tough choices the president made, the stage was set for a resurgent U.S. auto industry," Hanks says in the 17-minute highlights reel of Obama’s presidency, titled The Road We’ve Traveled.

"With business booming, (GM and Chrysler) repaid their loans," he later concludes.

The Federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. ran a $34 billion in last fiscal year...

Bailout alert...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal agency that insures pensions for more than 40 million Americans last year ran the widest deficit in its 38-year history.

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. says its deficit grew to $34 billion for the budget year that ended Sept. 30. That compares with a $26 billion shortfall in the previous year.
Pension obligations grew by $12 billion to $119 billion last year. Assets used to cover those obligations increased by only $4 billion to $85 billion.

The agency has now run deficits for 10 straight years. The gap has grown wider in recent years because the weak economy has triggered more corporate bankruptcies and failed pension plans.

If the trend continues, the agency could struggle to pay benefits without an infusion of taxpayer funds.

Obama demands fact check about Romney's auto bailout editorial

Here it is. Obama was lying wrong...

Via Mitt Romney’s 2008 NYT op-ed:

IF General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout that their chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye. It won’t go overnight, but its demise will be virtually guaranteed.

Without that bailout, Detroit will need to drastically restructure itself. With it, the automakers will stay the course — the suicidal course of declining market shares, insurmountable labor and retiree burdens, technology atrophy, product inferiority and never-ending job losses. Detroit needs a turnaround, not a check. [...]

But don’t ask Washington to give shareholders and bondholders a free pass — they bet on management and they lost.

The American auto industry is vital to our national interest as an employer and as a hub for manufacturing. A managed bankruptcy may be the only path to the fundamental restructuring the industry needs. It would permit the companies to shed excess labor, pension and real estate costs. The federal government should provide guarantees for post-bankruptcy financing and assure car buyers that their warranties are not at risk.

In a managed bankruptcy, the federal government would propel newly competitive and viable automakers, rather than seal their fate with a bailout check.

Barack Obama: We got back every dime of bailout money. CBO: $24 billion is missing

Barack Obama really needs to check with the CBO before spouting off.

(CNSNews.com) – President Obama falsely claimed that “we got back every dime we used to rescue the financial system” during a campaign rally Thursday. However, government figures reveals that his administration stands to lose an estimated $24 billion on the bailout.

“We got back every dime we used to rescue the financial system, but we also passed a historic law to end taxpayer-funded Wall Street bailouts for good,” Obama said at a campaign rally in Miami Thursday.

However, the claim that the government has recouped all of the money it spent bailing out banks, insurance companies, and two auto makers is not even remotely true.

According to a report from the Congressional Budget Office – based on figures from Obama’s own Office of Management and Budget – the government stands to lose $24 billion of bailout money.

Keep on reading…

Congratulations: The UAW bailout cost each federal income taxpayer about $357

About 140 million people file tax returns, but only half of them actually owe any federal income tax liability. That makes about 70 million federal taxpayers. Divide that number into the $25 billion cost of the auto UAW bailout and each federal income taxpayer is out about $357.

Washington -The Treasury Department says in a new report the government expects to lose more than $25 billion on the $85 billion auto bailout. That's 15 percent higher than its previous forecast.

In a monthly report sent to Congress on Friday, the Obama administration boosted its forecast of expected losses by more than $3.3 billion to almost $25.1 billion, up from $21.7 billion in the last quarterly update.

The report may still underestimate the losses. The report covers predicted losses through May 31, when GM's stock price was $22.20 a share.

Apparently, the $25 billion loss is a conservative estimate.

Turbo Tax Timmy Geithner driving force behind termination of 20,000 salaried retirees at the Delphi auto parts?

It appears several Obama administration figures may have perjured themselves before Congress. That is becoming par for the course for the Obama administration.

Emails obtained by The Daily Caller show that the U.S. Treasury Department, led by Timothy Geithner, was the driving force behind terminating the pensions of 20,000 salaried retirees at the Delphi auto parts manufacturing company.

The move, made in 2009 while the Obama administration implemented its auto bailout plan, appears to have been made solely because those retirees were not members of labor unions.

The internal government emails contradict sworn testimony, in federal court and before Congress, given by several Obama administration figures. They also indicate that the administration misled lawmakers and the courts about the sequence of events surrounding the termination of those non-union pensions, and that administration figures violated federal law.

New Mitt Romney ad that features an Ohio GM Dealership Owner put out of business by Obama’s taxpayer-funded UAW bailout.

New Mitt Romney ad that features an Ohio GM Dealership Owner put out of business by Obama’s taxpayer-funded UAW bailout.

Clueless: Chris Matthews credits Ford's success to Obama'a auto bailout

Ford wasn't part of the auto bailout.

Via Newsbusters:

CHRIS MATTHEWS: It seems to me one thing that somebody of a business background like Romney, and that’s where he spent his life, making money, should be very good at picking winners, testing business character, who’s got it, who doesn’t have it. Alan Mulally, the head of Ford now, has taken them to number five in the country as a profitable corporation. Ford is back as the number five most profitable company in the country right now.

Again, back to you, John, it seems to me that somebody should have paid attention to the fact that Mulally having this kind of gift and ability to do this kind of thing, and he didn’t bet on him. Obama bet on him.

Inspector General for TARP: Taxpayers will actually lose $60 billion

The White house claims taxpayers will make $24 billion off the TARP bailout. The Tarp Inspector General has a different number.

The current estimate of the eventual loss that taxpayers will be left with from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) is $60bn, according to a report from the watchdog for the programme.

"It is a widely held misconception that TARP will make a profit," said Christy Romero, the inspector general for TARP.

Taxpayers are still owed $119bn from TARP, with the majority of that still tied up in the rescue of insurer AIG, carmaker General Motors and mortgage lender Ally Financial. The figure fell $133bn in January, according to the watchdog's quarterly report to Congress, as more banks have repaid the loans they received.

A reluctant Congress passed TARP in the autumn of 2008 as stock markets plunged, credit markets froze and America's financial system tottered. Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke is said to have told a meeting of top Congressman that the country would not have an economy the next day if Congress did not find the votes needed.

Congratulations: Your Tax Dollars Saved 8 of the 10 Worst Built Cars in America

President Obama thinks you should thank him for saving bailing out GM and Chrysler. What did you get for your money? 8 of the 10 Worst Built Cars For 2012 in America are made by either GM or Chrysler according to this list compiled by Forbes. Thanks President Obama and the UAW. The Smart ForTwo and Toyota FJ Cruiser are the only two not made by Chrysler LLC and General Motors.

That said, we poured over the latest data from Consumer Reports’ 2012 Annual Auto Issue to identify which models, based on a convergence of objective test results, could be considered the 10 Worst Built Cars for 2012. (See the accompanying slide show for the complete rogues’ gallery and selection criteria.)

We started by examining CR’s road test ratings and isolated the models that were ranked at or near the bottom, as noted by an aggregate score under 50. Overall ratings are based on more than 50 individual tests and evaluations, and are presented on a 100-point scale. We then identified those models that received the lowest marks for reliability, based on Consumer Reports subscriber surveys, and were cited for at least two other “worsts,” including bottom-of-the-pack value ratings, highest five-year operating costs, lowest owner satisfaction, poorest fuel economy in a given class and/or worst performance in accident-avoidance tests.

Of the 10 models that comprise our final list of 10 Worst-Built Cars for 2012, all but two of them, the Smart ForTwo and Toyota FJ Cruiser, come from domestic-brand automakers, specifically Chrysler LLC and General Motors. While those automakers have been making great strides in recent years with new and recently redesigned models, they’re still recovering from their near-death experiences in 2008-2009 and the laggards in their respective lines awaiting major makeovers or replacements continue to haunt them. Keep on reading...

Obama campaigns on bailing out Detroit, but 55% of Americans think it was a bad idea

Screen shot from here

The term bailout is still toxic.

Via National Journal:

A majority of Americans think the federal government should not have helped out U.S. automakers that were in financial trouble, but rather should have allowed them to go it alone, according to a new United Technologies/National Journal Congressional Connection Poll.

Thirty-six percent of Americans think the government should have provided help, but 55 percent think “these companies should have been allowed to succeed or fail on their own,” the poll shows. The results echo other surveys, including a May 2010 poll conducted by CBS News in which a third of respondents thought the government should have helped, while 61 percent thought they should not have.

Keep on reading…

Why is Greece broke? Hairdressers in Greece can retire at 50 because they have a hazardous job.

Much of the reason for Greece's financial crisis is an overextended social net. Hairdressers and musicians can retire as early as 50 because they are deemed to have hazardous jobs.

ATHENS — Vasia Veremi may be only 28, but as a hairdresser in Athens, she is keenly aware that, under a current law that treats her job as hazardous to her health, she has the right to retire with a full pension at age 50.

“I use a hundred different chemicals every day — dyes, ammonia, you name it,” she said. “You think there’s no risk in that?”

“People should be able to retire at a decent age,” Ms. Veremi added. “We are not made to live 150 years.”

Perhaps not, but it is still difficult to explain to outsiders why the Greek government has identified at least 580 job categories deemed to be hazardous enough to merit retiring early — at age 50 for women and 55 for men...

As a consequence of decades of bargains struck between strong unions and weak governments, Greece has promised early retirement to about 700,000 employees, or 14 percent of its work force, giving it an average retirement age of 61, one of the lowest in Europe.

The law includes dangerous jobs like coal mining and bomb disposal. But it also covers radio and television presenters, who are thought to be at risk from the bacteria on their microphones, and musicians playing wind instruments, who must contend with gastric reflux as they puff and blow.

An alternate title for this post is "My Big Fat Greek Retirement."