On yesterday's Your World, the topic was Toyota overtaking GM in sales – and then using that factoid to argue that the entire bailout was a waste of taxpayer money. Substitute host Eric Bolling set the stage for the attack by asking guest Jim LaCamp, of Macroportfolio Advisors, "They (GM) still owe us a lot of money, don't they?"
LaCamp answered, "Yeah, there's an insinuation that because they were number one at one point in time or another point in time that this was a good deal for taxpayers. Eric, This is not a good deal for taxpayers. Taxpayers aren't going to get any of this money back, and in fact the government is losing money on that investment. You'd have to get a market valuation of nearly twice where GM shares are trading today for the government just to break even on their taxpayer dollars on their investment."
LaCamp cavalierly waved off any concern that letting GM go bankrupt would have thrown the entire industry into chaos. “That's what happens in capitalism. You reward the strong and you become stronger because of it,” he said.
But according to the Car Czar, the bailout saved about 2 or 3 million jobs. Not only that, but the final cost is now projected to be 60% less than the Treasury Department previously estimated. In fact, Fortune says taxpayers may come out ahead by $40-$100 billion by the end of the deal. Furthermore, Fortune notes:
A key reason for the rescue's profitability is that the Federal Reserve System has already turned over more than $100 billion of bailout-related income to the Treasury, and is on track to turn over $85 billion more this year and next.
Those facts were not brought up, of course.
That’s 2 or 3 million people who did NOT get added to the unemployment rolls and made it so much harder for FoxNoise and their GOP cohorts to make the unemployment rate a bigger part of the Romney campaign.
From WSJ:
“Toyota and its Japanese rivals came back in 2012 with full production and higher discounts in a bid to gain market share. In many cases, Toyota increased sales incentives by trimming the cut of profit that previously went to dealers, owners of Toyota franchises said.”
So…..in order to compete with the Americans, Japan was forced to cut profits, offer incentives and also build a better car. And the morons at Fox STILL want us to believe that the bailout was a bad thing? Maybe one of our erudite trolls could explain that to us??
