southchild

Did you know that Tuesday’s “GMAC Bowl” — the lousy game which featured Ball State vs. Tulsa — was sponsored by a company that recently got TARP “Bailout” money? Perhaps it should have been called “Screw the Taxpayers Bowl” or the “FU Bowl”.

George Will has the details of this debacle in his article, Your Tax Dollars at Work in GMAC:

Immediately after GMAC became eligible for TARP money, GM reduced to zero the interest rate — for up to 60 months — on certain models. This, of course, penalizes GM competitors, including Toyota, Honda and other “transplants” whose cars are made in America by Americans for Americans, and Ford, which does not have the freedom of maneuver conferred by TARP money because Ford is not taking any.

This redundant evidence that no good deed goes unpunished might be a reason for Ford to take some. Then it could join GM in using taxpayers’ money to produce more troubled assets. The New York Times reports that GMAC has begun making loans to borrowers with credit scores as low as 621, a significant relaxation of the 700 minimum score the company adopted just three months ago as it struggled to survive. America’s median credit score is 723. GMAC’s lowered standards will increase the number of people eligible for its loans by an estimated 50 million.

What should one call loans made to applicants who, three months ago, were thought to be trying to buy more expensive cars than they could afford? How about “subprime loans”? Thus does the economy, which is suffering a fierce hangover after going on a bender of reckless borrowing, try a familiar remedy — the hair of the dog.

The $6 billion for GMAC comes from the federal government buying $5 billion worth of preferred shares in GMAC and lending another $1 billion to GM for it to invest in GMAC. All this makes GMAC partially nationalized, so taxpayers should be able to indulge a wholesome curiosity concerning, for example, how much GMAC paid for its sponsorship of the bowl game. But GMAC will not say. …

You might think that a company forfeits a right to such secrecy when it takes the public’s money. You would, evidently, be mistaken. Although GMAC is now attached by an umbilical cord to the U.S. Treasury, GMAC’s position is that the sponsorship price is none of the public’s business.

Have you finally realized that the TARP bailout is an unmitigated disaster? If not, then please wake up.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 8th, 2009 at 1:34 pm and is filed under General, libtopia, politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.