How Much Money Did The US Government Spend On The Auto Bailout?

Dec. 31, 2014 3:24 PM ET by Jay Traugott / 97 Comments

A lot more than you'll ever earn.

This will always be a controversial topic. But what's done is done whether or not you were in favor of the US government bailout of General Motors and Chrysler back in 2009. And now the US Treasury has come up with some final numbers. All told, the government lost in the region og $10 billion in rescuing the automakers and, believe it or not, that's not all that bad. Earlier estimates from the Treasury predicted a loss of about $44 billion. That number was revised again in 2009 to $30 billion.

If government accounting rules are applied, meaning that interest and dividends paid is applied toward the principal owed, then the government lost $16.56 billion all in. Looking into specifics, the government put up $49.5 billion to save GM alone, but recovered just $39 billion of that after loans were repaid and stock was sold. However, GM's former finance wing, GMAC (now called Ally), was given $17.2 billion, but the government actually made a profit of $2.4 billion. Saving Chrysler proved to be cheaper. The government gave it $11.96 billion and $10.67 billion was returned. All told, the government gave the automakers $79.69 billion and recovered $70.43 billion (without the interest and dividends added).

Source Credits: www.thedetroitbureau.com

How Much Money Did The US Government Spend On The Auto Bailout?

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