As you may recall, the GM bailout costs taxpayers $25 billion. In return the UAW and government became the largest shareholders in GM. The Government owns 500,000,000 shares of GM stock. Yesterday the closing price of GM stock was $20.21. To break even on it’s investment the stock would have to rise to $53 a share. Only the bungler in chief would call this a victory for taxpayers.
On the jobs front the bailout tells even a worse story. First, as a result of the GM restructuring many dealers lost their dealerships. The decision as to what dealers would lose their dealership was not based on who did the best job or was the most profitable. Rather, the decision was based on gender and race: female and minority dealerships were allowed to remain open no matter how poorly they performed. In 2008 GM employed 252,000 workers. Now that figure is 207,000 – with 131,000 working in foreign plants.
GM joins the ranks of Solyndra and other alternative energy companies as horrible investments. If Obama were a financial consultant and put his clients’ money in such investments he would be sued for negligence and incompetence. Instead, the bungler in chief is asking for another four years in office.
Written by Jim Pirretti
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