Re: Obama administration predicts $30B loss on auto bailout
another fake name by Sordo above
wrote:
>Obama administration predicts $30B loss on auto bailout
>
>David Shepardson / Detroit News Washington Bureau
>http://www.detnews.com
>
>Washington -- The Obama administration will tell Congress Wednesday that
>it expects to lose about $30 billion of the $82 billion government
>bailout of the auto industry.
>
>Gene Sperling, senior counsel to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner,
>confirmed in an interview late today that the administration's forecast
>is that it will lose $30 billion on its auto investments -- but that's
>down from an earlier estimate of $44 billion.
>
>"The real news is the projected loss came down to $30 billion from $44
>billion," Sperling said, noting that auto sales have improved ahead of
>what many analysts had forecast. The administration still holds out hope
>that if things improve, the administration could still recover more.
>
>Advertisement
>
>Saving General Motors and Chrysler saved hundreds of thousands of jobs,
>President Barack Obama said today.
>
>"It was right decision then and the right decision now," Sperling said,
>calling it a "courageous decision by the president" to give the two
>automakers a "rebirth even though he knew it was not going to be
>politically popular."
>
>The estimate -- the first public accounting of losses connected to the
>rescue of General Motors and Chrysler -- is in line with what the
>Government Accountability Office, the Troubled Asset Relief
>Congressional Oversight Panel and former auto czar Steve Rattner have
>suggested.
>
>The Treasury Department has loaned $50 billion to General Motors, and
>swapped all but $6.7 billion of it for a 61 percent majority stake in
>the automaker. In order for taxpayers to be repaid fully, GM's stock
>would have to be worth far more than current estimates when the company
>goes public as early as next year.
>
>GM chairman and CEO Edward Whitacre Jr. said that GM will make a $1
>billion payment of its outstanding loans on Dec. 31 and plans similar
>quarterly payments. In a Web chat with reporters today, he said the
>company could opt to make a lump-sum payment.
>
>The administration forgave much of Chrysler's $12 billion in government
>loans. Fiat SpA, which owns 20 percent of Chrysler and controls the
>company, must repay $6 billion of the loans before it can acquire a
>majority stake in the automaker. It can get 15 percent by meeting three
>benchmarks.
>
>The Treasury Department has also injected $13.5 billion into auto
>finance company GMAC and now owns a 35.4 percent stake. It is not clear
>if the government predicts it will lose any of that stake.
>
>President Barack Obama defended the rescue of the auto industry at a
>speech on the economy today.
>
>"We also took steps to prevent the rapid dissolution of the American
>auto industry, which faced a crisis partly of its own making, to prevent
>the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs during an already fragile
>time," Obama said. "These were not decisions that were popular or
>satisfying; these were decisions that were necessary."
>
>Obama has noted that the bailout was deeply unpopular and not something
>he wanted to do.
>
>"I didn't run for president to pass emergency recovery programs or to
>bail out banks or to shore up auto companies," he said Saturday during
>his weekly radio address.
>
>The administration's report to Congress will disclose that the costs of
>the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program will shrink by at least
>$200 billion below the projection released in August. Obama wants to tap
>some of those funds for job creation and to pay down the deficit.
The above posting is Sordo. He's posting with a fake
name again because although he's unable to compose
anything original of much interest himself, he wishes to
monopolize the group anyway, by constantly making up
new fake names in order to avoid killfiles. He gets few
replies, even fewer if he doesn't disguise his identity,
because most people aren't much interested in reading
copy-and-paste political commentary in a discussion
group, which (other than catcalls) is all most of Sordo's
posts are.