We're Unlikely To Get Our Money Back

We've spent billions on bailouts. Now it looks like General Motors and Chrysler will need another bailout. We've spent about $200 billion on propping up AIG. Don't hold your breath waiting for us to get our money back on that.

General Motors has sucked in about $50 billion in bailouts. It is extremely unlikely the company will be able to repay that, let alone survive on its own without bailouts.

All the GM bailout did was buy the carmaker time. It delayed the inevitable.

Bloomberg News says:

U.S. taxpayers are "extremely unlikely" to earn any return on the $700 billion government effort to invest in banks and other companies as the financial system teetered on the edge of collapse, according to a quarterly audit of the program.

In a report to Congress, Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general overseeing the Troubled Assets Relief Program, said that recouping the billions of dollars given to insurer American International Group and automakers General Motors and Chrysler "is far from certain." He also noted that $50 billion set aside for helping struggling homeowners lower their mortgage payments will yield "no direct return."

While Barofsky said that the bailout "played a significant role bringing the system back from the brink," he faulted the Treasury Department for not following his recommendations to make the program less secretive.