U.S. boosts estimate of auto bailout losses to $23.6B

[Javaman]

http://www.detnews.com/article/20111114/AUTO01/111140434/1361/U.S.-boosts-estimate-of-auto-bailout-losses-to-$23.6B

The Treasury Department dramatically boosted its estimate of losses from its $85 billion auto industry bailout by more than $9 billion in the face of General Motors Co.'s steep stock decline.

In its monthly report to Congress, the Treasury Department now says it expects to lose $23.6 billion, up from its previous estimate of $14.33 billion.

The Treasury now pegs the cost of the bailout of GM, Chrysler Group LLC and the auto finance companies at $79.6 billion. It no longer includes $5 billion it set aside to guarantee payments to auto suppliers in 2009.

The big increase is a reflection of the sharp decline in the value of GM's share price.

more at link...

[PoliticAverse]

1. "the cost of the bailout of GM, Chrysler Group LLC and the auto finance companies at $79.6 billion"

$79.6 billion/ 309 million US population = ~ $258 for every man woman and child in the US.

[denverbill]

3. And the war in Iraq cost us $3236 for every man woman and child in the US.

So far.

Of course, about 3000 American families lost a lot more than $3000, and several hundred thousand Iraqi families did as well.

At least we got something for our $258 investment in the auto bailout.

[PoliticAverse]

5. According to Brown University's Cost of War project...

http://costsofwar.org/

The Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan wars have cost the US at least 3 trillion dollars.
So per person this would be $3 trillion / 309 million = ~ $ 9,709. per man, woman and child in the US.

[markpkessinger]

4. Nice try ...

... but the NET cost would be to divide the loss of $23.9 billion by 309 million, for a result of $77.35 per every man, woman and child. Considering the impact on the economy if those companies had just been permitted to fail, that strikes me as quite a bargain. What's more, for a calculation that puts this into REAL perspective, calculate the net loss of $23.9 billion as a percentage of the total 2010 budget, and then report back to us.

[PoliticAverse]

6. That's what the Wall Street Bailout defenders tell me too. n/t

[markpkessinger]

7. Do you have any clue how many related industries rely on the auto industry?

And like I said, calculate the net loss of $23.9 billion as a percentage of the country's entire 2010 budget, and you'll see what a microscopic portion of total spending it really was. And the amount pales next to the size of the banking bailouts.

And your cute one-liner fails to address your dishonest use of statistics in not factoring in the portion of the auto bailouts that the government was able to recover, and instead just using the total sticker price.

[PoliticAverse]

8. Your argument assumes that the companies would have gone away if they didn't get governemnt bailouts

They wouldn't have. All we did in Chrysler's case for example is subsidize the purchase of the company by
some rich people.

[madrchsod]

2. what have been the cost of not bailing out gm and chrysler?

[Swede]

9. People can't have it both ways.

They moan about this,then they moan about no manufacturing in the US.

[saras]

10. Both ways are wrong. They have failed. We are creating a different way.

Manufacturing doesn't have to be owned and controlled by multinational corporations with no interest in the communities surrounding their manufacturing sites. That particular structure is completely unnecessary, and has fucked up every resource anywhere in the world it's touched.

When people say they want jobs, they are NOT saying they want corporate slavery, just that it's better than starving and freezing to death in the short term.

The jobs we want are family-wage jobs where
* we know what the project is that we're contributing to, it's not a secret from us
* we're doing the best work we can, we're not trying to rip off our customers with the cheapest crap possible
* we're treated like responsible adults and equal partners, not submissive primates.
* the product is not harmful, and any harmful byproducts are processed, not dumped on the public

It is NOT my employers job to control my behavior after work. On the contrary, it is MY job to control the behavior of the organization that employs me, to an equal degree as any other employee.