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Saturday, September 29, 2012

The Truth About Obama's Bailout


Obama did something no other president has done. When he bailed out businesses, he didn’t’ give our tax dollars away instead it was loans or a purchase of assets. As part of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), General Motors (GM) received $50.7 billion. Per Kgbanswers.com - As of September 2012 GM is still indebted to the US Government for $27.2 billion and the government holds an approximate 26% stake in the equity of GM. Chrysler, on the other hand, repaid all of it TARP loans in May 2011 and they were not due until 2017. A current report issued to Congress showed that if the government were to sell its position in GM, it would be at a loss of $25.1 billion to the American taxpayer; however GM also has until 2017 to pay off its loan so it’s undecided if the government will lose money overall on the auto industry bailout. The government disbursed $245 billion to the banks and received principal repayments of $230 billion and interest payments of $34 billion for a total of $264 billion subsequently making money on the bank bailout.
Per a September 11 MoneyCNN report the Treasury still holds about 500 million shares of GM, worth about $11.5 billion at current prices and those shares would have had to rise to almost $57 from its current price of $23.14 in order for taxpayers to break even. The Treasury sold $20.7 billion worth of American International Group (AIG) stock, cut its stake in the company to 15.9% from 53%, and counting the TARP and Fed bailouts together, the AIG bailout has already turned a $15.1 billion profit for taxpayers and when it sells off its remaining stake will make more of a profit for taxpayers. But about $14.8 billion is still owed by nearly 400 smaller banks that received TARP help. Only 3 banks still owe taxpayers more than a half-billion dollars (Synovus Financial of Columbus, Georgia, Popular of Puerto Rico and Zions Bancorporation of Salt Lake City, Utah). The Treasury has written off losses of about $2.8 billion in other TARP money given to smaller banks and financial firms, with most of that -- $2.3 billion -- due to the CIT Group bankruptcy. Outside of TARP, billions were given to mortgage finance firms Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac; the Treasury received $45.7 billion in dividends from the firms and made an estimated $25 billion profit on the sale of mortgage-backed securities during the last year; it is also due to receive all future profits from the two firms. The other financial firm with significant bailout funds still at risk is Ally Financial, formerly GMAC. The bank, auto and home finance firm was rescued as part of the auto bailout since it was a major source of financing for many of the nation's auto dealers. Ally received $16.3 billion and has only paid $5.7 billion back to Treasury, primarily in dividend payments. The Treasury owns 74% of its stock but won't be able to cash out until Ally has an initial public offering. The Treasury estimates there's another $10 billion yet to be repaid from a number of other smaller programs that fall under the TARP umbrella.
Contrary to what the Republicans want you to believe, the government is recouping much of the taxpayer dollars.  

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