Ex-Auto czar says US could get $40B back from GM

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By TOM KRISHER and TIM MARTIN

DETROIT (AP) -- The U.S. government could get back $40 billion of its $50 billion investment in General Motors Co., and the difference will have been well spent because it prevented mass job losses and at least a regional depression in the Midwest, the former head of the autos task force said Monday.

Steven Rattner, who ran the task force as GM and Chrysler Group LLC went through government-funded bankruptcy protection last year, also told a conference on the auto industry in Detroit Monday that GM and Chrysler have performed better than he expected they would a year ago.

His comments came on the same day that Ron Bloom, who now oversees the government's autos investment as President Barack Obama's senior counselor for manufacturing, said in Lansing, Mich., that GM and Chrysler are moving in the right direction.

"These companies have been given the unique opportunity to start over and they're seizing it with both hands," Bloom said during a speech at a Michigan Manufacturers Association event. "It takes time to turn a supertanker, but the talented and energetic directors and management teams and employees at GM and Chrysler have already made a lot of progress."


Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_AUTOS_RATTNER?SITE=CAGRA&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

[Demeter]

1. it prevented mass job losses and at least a regional depression in the Midwest

What drug is he on? We've been in Depression since 9/11 killed the tourist and airline industries.

[Dappleganger]

2. I thought the tv commercial man said they paid it back?

:eyes:

[4lbs]

3. They already paid back the 'loan' portion, not the $30 billion stock purchase.

So, GM is now getting ready to buy back the $30 billion in stock that the federal government owns.

[msongs]

4. can we get back 80% from the money spent on the military and corporate war profiteers? nt