The U.S. government is starting another phase of selling off its General Motors stock after cutting its stake in the automaker to just over 7 percent, the Associated Press reported yesterday. The Treasury Department says that it still owns 101.3 million GM shares. It got 912 million shares, a 60.8 percent stake in the company, in exchange for a $49.5 billion bailout of GM in 2009. So far taxpayers have recovered about $35.4 billion, but are still around $14.1 billion in the hole. To break even, the remaining shares would have to sell for nearly $140 each. At yesterday's trading price of $36.92, the government would get about $3.7 billion more, meaning that taxpayers are likely to lose around $10 billion on the deal. The Treasury plans to sell all of its shares by April 1.
