Biden lends billions to nearly bankrupt EV manufacturer in Georgia.

0:00 Speaker 1 Sunday Morning with us today is Andrew Stutterford. Uh, and he’s with National Review and in the National Review Institute. And Andrew Stutterford, you uh, you are one learned person, and and you worry about our country. You worry about our taxpayers. Uh and Uh, all of a sudden, President Biden is emptying out the coffers and giving away whatever’s

0:27 left in the in the treasury, uh to for instance, uh, an electric car company six billion dollars. Can you tell the American public what’s going on with this?

0:42 Speaker 2 Well, I mean the really nitpicky about it. Of course, there is nothing in the treasury. Uh. So it’s it’s really in the end, probably borrowed money. But basically, what he’s trying to do, and it’s not only confined to electric vehicles, he’s trying to get as much money out of the door before he leaves office because he’s worried that Donald Trump is going to take

1:07 a look at some of these green subsidies. I’ll say no more. And what he’s doing, what you’re asking about, in particular, is a loan of six and a half billion dollars to a TV maker called Rivian. And you know by what the scheme of these things. You know, it’s eight hundred eight it’s a loan, so of course

1:29 it’ll be repaid one day and I will not laugh. And it’s only eight hundred and eighty thousand dollars.

1:34 Speaker 1 A job, And why what is it usually for a job? Because I don’t think the American people know when the government loans money to companies and how many jobs they create? Is there a rule of thumb?

1:49 Speaker 2 No, I don’t think it’s normally just a lot that they’re creating seven and a half thousand jobs, so they say, And it’s down in Georgia, and the company’s actually had quite a lot. Its cars are said to be not bad, and it loses about currently and although it’s a little unfair, it loses between thirty and forty thousand dollars a car itself,

2:18 which is not ideal. But things are, we’re told meant to get better, and maybe it will if you invested in the company. It went public in twenty twenty one at seventy eight dollars. It peaked very briefly for about a nanosecond. That was in November twenty twenty one. It peaked at one hundred and seventy two dollars not so

2:44 long later, very shortly thereafter, and it now trades a little over twelve dollars, So it hasn’t been a great investment. Ford invested a bunch of money in it and then sold at the right time, and so they got out Volkswagen, who are a lot of trouble on all sorts of fronts.

3:03 They invested in it recently. So we’ll see how it works out for Volkswagen. But the point is is that this is a company which several years in it has yet to make it, and one has to want and you know, maybe it will. As I said, some people say the cars are good, so I have no particular

3:23 beyond the cars. But at the moment, the free market has yet to make it. We do know that customers are very skeptical about electric vehicles, the reasons that you and I have discussed in the past. And I don’t think it’s great to be shoving a lot of money towards the company. You know, when you are the lamest

3:43 of lame. Duck was only two months left in office.

3:48 Speaker 1 Understood it’s number.

3:51 Speaker 2 I should say, sorry, John, just to interrupt. It loses about a billion dollars a quarter and the most recently results which came out the other day were another disappointment. So you know, it’s it’s an early you know very well, it’s still you know, early days, but it’s a very big bet to be making on.

4:14 Speaker 1 Money. Yeah. Who was he? Who was President Biden rewarding in Georgia.

4:23 Speaker 2 Well, I don’t know, because I don’t think that’s it. There are the VEC has wondered whether and you know, maybe this is unfair, but he has I think he’s speculated. I think he saw somewhere, I saw speculation that this might have been a little blow at Elon Musk. In fact, Uh yeah, he wrote this smells more like a political

4:47 shot across the bow and Elon Musk and Tesla. Uh Now, Tesla had had financial support, and it’s it’s it’s early days too, but we you know, uh that was quite a long time ago. And uh, the the here we have and it’s still a beout benefits from the carbon credits and all the rest of it, but it’s up

5:10 and running. It’s the top, you know, it’s field at the top manufacturer in the world, and here we have here, we have Retha, And I just wonder whether, given what we now know, that people are not that happy about electric circles. Is it really appropriate to be to be lending six and a half billion dollars? Uh, it’s a

5:33 conditional one. It’s not all fine field and delivered. They will race to get it done by, you know, on the on the way out of the door. And I’m not sure it is I agree with you.

5:43 Speaker 1 Well, Andrew Stutterford, thank you so much for giving the American people up to date. And let’s catch up again real soon.

5:52 Speaker 2 I’ll look forward to it.

5:54 Speaker 1 Okay, let’s happy Thanksgiving weekend.

5:58 Speaker 2 I’m down to you too,