Leave my kitten alone
“How much do you want for the puppy?”
The child thought for a moment, then briefly channeled Dr. Evil. “One million dollars.”
A frown, and then: “How about two kittens at $500,000 each?”
And so a deal was made in the neighborhood, and everyone was happy.
It’s going to take something like that for the taxpayers to recoup their quite-involuntary investment in the American auto industry. From a new GAO report [pdf], we find this little jewel:
Equity value of company necessary to recoup investment:
Chrysler: $54.8 [billion]
GM: $66.9 [billion]
By comparison, Ford, an automaker not owned by the government, which is for the moment marginally profitable, has a market capitalization around $24 billion. How in the world is Chrysler, maybe half the size of Ford in a good year, ever going to be worth $55 billion? Somebody’s going to need an awful lot of high-priced cats.
