By Rick Pluta, Michigan Public Radio Network
LANSING, MI –
President Obama's manufacturing advisor says he expects the federal government will start selling some of its shares of General Motors stock before the end of the year. Ron Bloom says the Obama administration is anxious to get taxpayers' money out of GM and Chrysler. But he says it will still be years before the government is fully divested of its auto company stock.
"You could say, just sell it tomorrow, dump all the shares at once, but we've got to be conscious of our responsibility to the taxpayer and I think if we did that, we'd find the price we could get for that big a stake in that big a company all at once would not be a responsible thing to do, so I don't think you'll see us sell all our shares all at once," he says.
Bloom says GM and Chrysler are hitting the right benchmarks in their recovery plans. But he says there's still no guarantees the companies will return to prosperity.
Bloom was in East Lansing to address a conference of Michigan manufacturing executives.