"Successful Bankruptcies" - report says Detroit bailouts were worth it

The Center for Automotive Research released a report today that analyzed the government bailouts of General Motors and Chrysler.

$80 billion was given to the auto companies. To date $13.4 billion has been repaid.

Tomorrow the GM "initial public offering" is expected to raise another $22 billion.

The reports authors say that even if the government doesn't get all of the $80 billion back, the government's investment will still have been worth it.

The report concludes:

 The updated analysis contained in this memo demonstrates that even if the net return to the U.S. Treasury is $28.6 billion... lower than the outstanding public investment in these two companies... the public will have at least met a two-year break-even. This means that if the Treasury recovers $0.57 on the dollar or more in upcoming equity sales, the public will have been made fully whole. Additionally, the government’s actions avoided personal income losses totaling over $96 billion, 1.1 million net job losses in 2009, and another 314,400 in 2010.