Christmas comes early for General Motors

In case you missed Becket's story from earlier today, let me recap with a little holiday cheer of my own:

The U.S. taxpayers loaned General Motors $49.5 billion.  To date, the Treasury has recovered just $28.7 billion.  That's like a complimentary gift certificate for GM from the taxpayers for about $21 billion.

And Santa Obama is well aware of the cost:

The repurchase price of $27.50 per share represents a 7.9 percent, or about $2, premium over the stock's Tuesday closing price. The share buyback is expected to close by the end of the year, according to officials.

GM will record a $400 million charge on its balance sheet in the fourth quarter.

The Obama administration is poised to lose a substantial amount of money with the announced exit strategy. In August, it was reported to recoup all of its nearly $50 billion from GM, the U.S. Treasury would have to sell the remaining shares at about $53 per share.