Posted on 07/21/2011 6:11:43 PM PDT by lbryce
The federal government on Thursday ended its partial ownership of Chrysler, completing a sale of its stake in the automaker to Fiat S.p.A. of Italy for $560 million.
The sale, which gives Fiat majority control of Chrysler, leaves taxpayers $1.3 billion short of recovering the $12.5 billion lent to the company as it slid into bankruptcy protection a little more than two years ago. The remaining balance belongs to the “old Chrysler” — a collection of unwanted assets being liquidated in bankruptcy — and is unlikely to be repaid, the Treasury Department said in a statement.
“With today’s closing, the U.S. government has exited its investment in Chrysler at least six years earlier than expected,” Tim Massad, the Treasury’s assistant secretary for financial stability, said in the statement. “This is a major accomplishment and further evidence of the success of the administration’s actions to assist the U.S. auto industry, which helped save a million jobs during the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.”
Fiat, which has controlled Chrysler’s operations through a minority stake purchased in 2009, paid $500 million for the Treasury’s 6 percent stake in Chrysler. It also paid $60 million for the Treasury’s rights to buy additional Chrysler shares owned by a health care trust fund for retired members of the United Automobile Workers union.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
What is Tim Massad talking about? What's he drinking? What's he smoking? Even the NYT seems puzzled by the delusional sense in which the administration claims victory. Taxpayers are the losers in the raft of recent incidents of govt. bailout foolhardiness, the consequences of which are yet to unfold with a vegeanace.
WSJ:The Real Cost of the Auto Bailouts
President Obama's visit to a Chrysler plant in Toledo, Ohio, on Friday was the culmination of a campaign to portray the auto bailouts as a brilliant success with no unpleasant side effects. "The industry is back on its feet," the president said, "repaying its debt, gaining ground."The problem with this happy story is that neither of its parts is accurate. Commandeering the bankruptcy process was not, as apologists for the bailouts claim, the only hope for GM and Chrysler. And the long-term costs of the bailouts will be enormous.
Right! Didn’t obama say that the taxpayers would not lose a dime over the bailout?
Compared to the annual $1.7T that the wasteful Obama Regime is adding to our national debt, this almost seems trivial. Almost. The problem is that each year in DC there are too many hundreds of stupid ideas that each waste as much as the corrupt Chrysler bailout.
This is effectively a transfer of wealth ($1.3 billion?) from the taxpayers to the union workers at Chrysler.
Billions lost on GM and Chrysler.....They should have invested in Ford. I got in at $1.76/share and sold for $12 a share a year later.
How true, and they want us to believe they just can’t cut the budget.
(nice move, btw)
At least the motor is made in the U.S.
And the UAW will now donate millions to Obama’s re-election campaign, purely by coincidence of course.
I guess the Chrysler bondholders are double screwed now.
it’s a very, very good car. Exquisitely designed, lasting looks — I’m sure this will appreciate in value over the years. Quite comfortable. The only problem (and the glaring one for US roads) is size.
Once again, “Screwed by your government’s stupidity”.
When will these so called elected officials start doing the RIGHT thing instead of the WRONG thing?
What I wouldn’t do to become in charge of wasteful spending.
First thing I would do is cut off their salaries and then go on from there.
Close. This effectively transferred $1,300,000,000,000 from the taxpayers to the union leadership. Who will then “donate” to their favorite democrat party candidate.
The dims have looted the treasury to fund their own campaigns by routing the cash through their union buddies.
Before anyone corrects me.
$1,300,000,000. got carried away with the zeros.
The dims have looted the treasury to fund their own campaigns by routing the cash through their union buddies.
You got the big picture! I doubt that we will ever know the total wealth transfer accomplished by the Obama Administration. One bail out that's fallen out of view is the dims bailing out the NEA's retirement fund. $100 billion for education grants! $144 billion for state and local education relief! Another $53 billion for training. How much did the teacher's get in total???
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.