U.S. Final Loss on GM Bailout: $11.2 Billion

A new analysis says the American government lost $11.2 billion on the $50 billion it invested to bail out General Motors Co. in 2009.

That's $900 million more than the U.S. Dept. of the Treasury estimated when it sold off the last of its GM shares in December.

The final calculation of the total loss comes from the Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program. TARP funded GM's emergence from Chapter 11.

The bailout temporarily made the government a 61% owner of GM. The Treasury Dept. began selling off its holdings at a loss in late 2010.

TARP also loaned $12.5 billion to Chrysler as it emerged from bankruptcy in 2009. The government wrote off $1.3 billion, and Chrysler repaid the $11.2 billion balance in 2011.

The Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich., has estimated the two bailouts averted a collapse of the American auto industry and saved about 1.5 million U.S. jobs.