US Treasury left with 10 billion dollars loss, after GM bailout

In 2008 and 2009, one of the world's largest car manufacturer - General Motors, was in a time of economic instability, and was making losses upon losses, hurting the image of the business, as well as the moral of the employees. As GM is one of the largest, the government authorised a bailout, and subsequently bought up about 61% of the country, in shares, about $49.5 billion dollars. This was to protect the US car market from collapse and failure, as well as to stop the shut down of more than 13 car plants, and redundancies of more than 27,000 jobs. This was able to get the business some money, and buy them some time to fix their act. Sure enough - the company reestablished, restarted and reorganised, and continued to do what it has always done best.
The United States Government has now sold its remaining shares in the corporation, with the confidence it can continue on its own. However, it has left the weight of a 10 billion dollars debt, after the share prices dropped dramatically during the reorganisation.
"With the final sale of GM stock, this important chapter in our nation's history is now closed," said US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew.

http://www.sacarfan.co.za/2009/07/judge-approves-general-motors-sale-plan/

The rescue was first administered by President George W. Bush, then hooked onto the efforts of President Barack Obama, when Chrysler was also taken over, while the Canadian government began to get involved. As Mr Jack Lew said, the sale of the stock closes an important chapter in the history of the United States. As the US Government lets General Motors' hand go, it looses 10 billion dollars, however The iBusiness Times believes it was worth it, as it would be more of a headache to patch up 1 million lost jobs and an entire market collapse.
The General Motors chief executive then released his statement,"We will always be grateful for the second chance extended to us and we are doing our best to make the most of it."
The government has done well.

Source(s):
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25309673