U.S. taxpayers no longer own any of automaker General Motors. The Treasury sold the last of its remaining 31.1 million GM shares today. It started with 500 million shares in 2010.
The taxpayer loss on the GM bailout is $10.5 billion. The Treasury department said it recovered $39 billion from selling its GM stake, and had put $49.5 billion of taxpayer money directly into the GM bailout.
The federal government — funded by those of us who pay taxes — have now shed all GM shares. But because the federal government — funded by those of us who pay taxes — has taken it in the shorts to the tune of $10.5 billion, we are forced to live with the consequences and the precedent for bailing out companies whose management was unable to keep the business afloat in the marketplace.