GM To PAYOFF US/CAN Loans before June 2010!!!! (unemployed, Reagan, Canada)

[plannine]

General Motors CEO Ed Whitacre will announce Wednesday that the automaker will soon pay off $5.8 billion in loans from the U.S. and Canadian governments.

Whitacre has made paying back the government loans originally due in 2015 a priority.

GM will use the move to highlight its steps toward issuing shares to the public and helping the U.S. government get out of its 60.1% ownership stake in the automaker. GM officials have said the company could break even this year,


GM to pay back U.S. and Canadian loans way early | freep.com | Detroit Free Press (http://www.freep.com/article/20100419/BUSINESS0101/100419058/1318/GM-to-announce-early-full-payoff-U.S.-Canada-loans - broken link)


Will those who said that we'd never see the money returned please stand up.

[texdav]

that is just a small amount to what they owe including interest. There are not going to be many junker programs and such come in the future either.

[AnUnidentifiedMale]

Excellent news.

Meanwhile, Toyota issues another recall, faces major fines, and prepares for class-action lawsuits.

Go USA!

[Toyman at Jewel Lake]

Good for GM. I was opposed to the auto bailout, and still am. If they repay the tax dollars they received it will be a start. With the government out of the way as far as dictating management decisions they will be on their way to recovery. Though after the scr**ing the stockholders got when the government handed the company to the union, I don't know that I'll ever own another GM vehicle.

It's interesting that several GM divisions and Ford are kicking Toyota's butt on many quality and reliability studies in the past couple of years. Too bad GM dumped Pontiac, the G8 was the most interesting car in the corporation.

[SLCPUNK]

Wait a second! I thought this was all a "Socialist" gubbermint take over of the auto industry??? Next thing you'll tell us a lot of TARP has been paid back already!

[Bluefly]

A lot of people were opposed to the GM bailout on principle, and I can appreciate that, but I can't help but feel that it was a necessary evil. If GM went under, that's another 2 million jobs lost on top of what already happened. The market would absorb the jobs, but probably not in the US.

The fact that this administration gave them the money with heavy strings attached - including government oversight - was bold but seems to have been wise. Hopefully GM can get back on its own again, pay us back more than we lent, and swallow its humble pie.

I keep finding myself impressed with Obama administration decisions, even though they seem to go against common sense at the time.

[Wayland Woman]

Good for GM! What ever will the neo-cons complain about when the bailout money has been repaid and the government can start selling off the GM stock as per the bankruptcy agreement and recoup the rest of the tax payer money?

Bluefly: Those workers wouldn't have been absorbed. We can't even absorb the unemployed in this country now. The bailout was necessary.

[Frank DeForrest]

Uh maybe you all were so overcome with joy you didn't read the entire piece.

From the link:

The U.S. government has put nearly $50 billion into saving GM from collapse, an amount that Obama administration officials have contended was unlikely to be returned entirely when GM begins selling shares publicly. But based on analysts' estimates of its value, the government's stake could approach the $30.1 billion spent by the Obama administration solely on GM's bankruptcy.

The taxpayers have over 50 billion into GM and are getting 5.7 billion in return.
No cause for celebration.

[odanny]

I believe that Chrysler borrowed from the Carter Administration and paid back Ronald Reagan, in full, the principle that the U.S. government profited over 300 million (in 1983 dollars)

[Oerdin]

Great news.