Michael LaFaive, director of the Morey Fiscal Policy Initiative, was cited in both The Detroit News and Detroit Free Press on the $10.5 billion loss incurred by taxpayers after the federal government sold the final stock shares it owned in General Motors.

“Clearly in terms of return on investment, this was a bad deal for the taxpayers,” LaFaive told The News, calling the $49.5 billion bailout an “unfortunate large scale precedent for federal intervention in private business.”

LaFaive told the Detroit Free Press that the bailout was unnecessary.

“Even under Chapter 7 liquidation, the economy doesn’t necessarily lose in the long run. Other companies, be they Ford or Honda, swoop in and pick up assets at a discount, which they re-employ elsewhere — and taxpayers aren’t on the hook, and cars get made more efficiently and inexpensively.”

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