Autos Talk

Loans

Don't confuse bailouts/loans/loan guarantees. The pre-bankruptcy taxpayer "bailout" money that went to GM and Chrysler is gone. In bankruptcy, the feds gave GM and Chrysler money that is a "loan", which was backed by equity in the companies. The value of the shares is TBD, and won't be known until the companies go public/IPO. The prediction is that about half of that money is gone (when the feds are able to sell their shares, they will likely get half of what the feds gave the auto companies while they were in bankruptcy). The nuclear industry gets "loan guarantees". The taxpayer does not give utilities money to build power plants. Because the regulatory environment is so unpredictable, normal sources of money won't loan utilities money for any power plants unless the government offers a guarantee that some government entity (federal, state, local, etc) won't shutdown the plant construction and strand their investment. BTW, the Cape Wind windmill construction project in Massachusetts now exceeds the average nuclear plant in regulatory delays (when a family named Kennedy says you are going to hurt their views and sailing, and when the Native Americans say you are going to ruin their ritual of greeting the rising sun over the water, your project will likely experience trouble).