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"  The U.S.&amp;#039;s largest automaker will no longer be accountable to the American taxpayer, hopefully, within a year. In a pair of announcements today, both General Motors and the U.S. Treasury Department announced plans to eliminate the government&amp;#039;s stake in the Detroit automaker. First, before the end of the year, GM plans to repurchase 200 million shares of its own stock from the Fed for $5.5 billion at $27.50 a share. Then, beginning in January, the Treasury Department will sell off the remaining 300.1 million shares within the next 12 to 15 months &amp;quot;subject to market conditions,&amp;quot; the department said in a release. &amp;quot;The government should not be in the business of owning stakes in private companies for an indefinite period of time,&amp;quot; said Assistant Secretary for Financial Stability Timothy G. Massad in today&amp;#039;s statement. Enacted at the end of the Bush administration, between 2008 and 2009, the Fed invested $49.5 billion to keep GM from collapsing\u2014part of a larger $79.7 billion bailout program aimed to keep Chrysler, General motors, and GMAC, now Ally Financial, alive\u2014reportedly saving 1 million jobs industry-wide. The company bounced back after emerging from bankruptcy in 2010, posting a $4.7 million profit by years-end, the largest in more than a decade. &amp;quot;This announcement is an important step in bringing closure to the successful auto industry rescue, it further removes the perception of government ownership of GM among customers, and it demonstrates confidence in GM&amp;#039;s progress and our future,&amp;quot; said Dan Akerson, chairman and CEO of GM in today&amp;#039;s statement. While its not clear yet how much the federal government\u2014and by extension, the American taxpayer\u2014will lose on this investment until all of the shares are sold; as it stands now the Treasury Department has recovered more than $28.7 billion on its investment in GM &amp;quot;through repayments, sales of stock, dividends, interest, and other income,&amp;quot; the department said. According to ProPublica research, GM has repaid $22.9 billion of that total.  If the Treasury sells the remaining 300.1 million shares at today&amp;#039;s stock prices\u2014which jumped 7 percent in early trading today in response to the news\u2014the GM bailout will cost taxpayers close to $13 billion, a 25 percent loss on investment. In comparison, the government lost 12 percent of it&amp;#039;s $10.7 billion bailout of Chrysler, when they sold their remaining stake to Fiat in July 2011\u2014leaving taxpayers to swallow $1.3 billion. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/a8576/treasury-announces-escape-plan-from-gm-automaker-buying-back-shares-14879786/>