Car Czar: Auto Bailouts a “Great Deal” for Taxpayers

By Aaron Task | Daily Ticker – Fri, Jun 3, 2011 12:04 PM EDT

The government has reached a deal with Fiat to sell its remaining 6% stake in Chrysler for $500 million and is preparing to unload its remaining GM shares later this year, according to numerous reports.

Based on GM's current share price, the entire auto industry bailout will end up costing U.S. taxpayers $10 to $12 billion; that's money well spent, according to Steven Rattner, the former head of the government's automotive task force and author of Overhaul: An Insider's Account of the Obama Administration's Emergency Rescue of the Auto Industry.

"As an economic recovery matter, the $10 billion plus or minus the auto intervention will cost was a great deal for American taxpayers and a critical part of the economic recovery," Rattner says. "We saved 2 or 3 million jobs, at least in the short run, because the entire industry would have shut down had we not helped these two companies because of the interlocking nature of the suppliers."

Full article:
http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/car-czar-auto-bailouts-great-deal-taxpayers-govt-160422632.html