Govt bailouts

[ripvanwinkle]

The other night I was watching Shark Tank. This woman wanted $150k to expand her business. One of the sharks said he'd do it for a 30% share of the business. It got me thinking. Over the years our govt has bailed out car and bank companies. Big money too.

Why doesn't the govt also do like shark Tank. We'll give you the bailout money with interest but we also want a percent of your business and a seat on the board. Is this something doable??  

[pulmonarymd]

You want the government to be involved in private businesses? What country do you live in?

[Opti]

Apr 23, 2022 0:54:54 GMT -5 ripvanwinkle said:

The other night I was watching Shark Tank. This woman wanted $150k to expand her business. One of the sharks said he'd do it for a 30% share of the business. It got me thinking. Over the years our govt has bailed out car and bank companies. Big money too.

Why doesn't the govt also do like shark Tank. We'll give you the bailout money with interest but we also want a percent of your business and a seat on the board. Is this something doable??  

The government has done something similar in the past with some financial institutions. However the government gets involved to stabilize failing companies that will hurt the US economy and Shark Tank stars invest in opportunities likely to make them money. Very different goals. Also, like the financial companies back then, it adds overhead to the government to do something like that, which can lead to more people in government not less. 

Interesting thing about Shark Tank is we rarely hear about the failures after the show. Not too long ago there was an article on a company that got a Shark offer but was dead within a year. Unclear if the deal fell through or what. 

[billisonboard]

Apr 23, 2022 0:54:54 GMT -5 ripvanwinkle said:

The other night I was watching Shark Tank. This woman wanted $150k to expand her business. One of the sharks said he'd do it for a 30% share of the business. It got me thinking. Over the years our govt has bailed out car and bank companies. Big money too.

Why doesn't the govt also do like shark Tank. We'll give you the bailout money with interest but we also want a percent of your business and a seat on the board. Is this something doable??  

How about instead of percent and seat, we take a cut of the profit and have some say in how the business is run? We could call the take "taxes" and the say "regulatory oversight".

[Cheesy FL-Vol]

Wait, I thought Republicans want LESS government?

[dannylion]

Apr 23, 2022 15:08:37 GMT -5 Cheesy FL-Vol said:

Wait, I thought Republicans want LESS government?

Only when "less government" offers opportunities to deny rights, opportunities, services, and sometimes even life to people who are not white, male, heterosexual, patriarchal christians.  

[tskeeter]

Apr 23, 2022 0:54:54 GMT -5 ripvanwinkle said:

The other night I was watching Shark Tank. This woman wanted $150k to expand her business. One of the sharks said he'd do it for a 30% share of the business. It got me thinking. Over the years our govt has bailed out car and bank companies. Big money too.

Why doesn't the govt also do like shark Tank. We'll give you the bailout money with interest but we also want a percent of your business and a seat on the board. Is this something doable??  

During the 2008 government bailouts, the government did get a part of many businesses.  For example, after the bailout, the federal government owned 92% of finance and insurance company AIG.  The US Treasury also became the owner of 60% of the stock in General Motors.  And a good chunk (I couldn’t find exactly how much) of the stock of Chrysler.

Having a representative of the federal government on the board of directors of a bailed out company sounds like a great idea.  That would give the government one vote on a board  of 10, 15, or 20 people.  Another approach would be to do what the government actually did.  Appoint Steven Rattner to be “Car Czar”, and dictate to the car companies what they are going to do.  Given the level of government regulation in the financial and insurance industries, I expect the same level of government control was exercised over the banks and financial companies who received bailouts.

Although many media outlets reported that the federal government lost money on the 2008 bailouts of the auto industry, that’s not true.  Much of the money that auto manufacturers borrowed from the federal government was repaid well before it was due.  The media claimed that the interest on the loans that the government didn’t earn was a loss.  Only the government and a media that fully intended to mislead the public would claim that interest you didn’t earn was a loss.  Think about it.  If you buy a US savings bond, and redeem it before the bond is fully mature, will the IRS let you claim an investment loss for the interest you didn’t collect for the time between when you redeemed the bond and when the bond would have been fully mature?  

[formerroomate99]

I could see if they can government a silent partner that got a share of the profits but doesn’t have any say on the day to day operations. Pulmonary is right. Having a government bureaucrat sitting on the board of a private business may not be the best idea.

[tskeeter]

Apr 23, 2022 6:07:35 GMT -5 pulmonarymd said:

You want the government to be involved in private businesses? What country do you live in?

Formerroomate’s comment made me go back and check out the MD’s post.  That got me thinking about the extent to which the government is involved in private business.  Many government agencies exist primarily, or in part, to tell you how to run aspects of your private business.

OSHA
EPA
FDA
the Department of Labor
NLRB
SEC
HHS
DHS
and I’m sure many, many more

[pulmonarymd]

Apr 29, 2022 16:12:52 GMT -5 tskeeter said:

Apr 23, 2022 6:07:35 GMT -5 pulmonarymd said:

You want the government to be involved in private businesses? What country do you live in?

Formerroomate’s comment made me go back and check out the MD’s post.  That got me thinking about the extent to which the government is involved in private business.  Many government agencies exist primarily, or in part, to tell you how to run aspects of your private business.

OSHA
EPA
FDA
the Department of Labor
NLRB
SEC
HHS
DHS
and I’m sure many, many more

That is regulating the businesses. The original post had to do with ownership. Not sure we want the government our own many businesses in our economy. Many government agencies sprang up to regulate businesses as a result of bad actors or outcomes, but I do not believe thse are the same thing as what the OP was alluding to.