Who woulda thunk?

no comment

U.S. Unlikely to Recoup Auto Bailouts, G.A.O. Says - DealBook Blog - NYTimes.com:

"A government report released Monday concludes that taxpayers will probably never recoup all — or even close to all — of the $67 billion that the Treasury Department lent to General Motors and Chrysler in the last year to prevent their collapse, Nick Bunkley of The New York Times reports from Detroit.

The report, by the Government Accountability Office, estimates that G.M. and Chrysler would need to be worth a combined $121.7 billion, or roughly 30 percent more than their values about a decade ago, for the Treasury to break even on its investments. The report said it already was assuming that $6.4 billion of the money lent to the carmakers before their bankruptcies would not be repaid.

“Treasury is unlikely to recover the entirety of its investment in Chrysler or G.M., given that the companies’ values would have to grow substantially above what they have been in the past,” the report said."