Here is a graphic that suggest that corporate bailouts are beneficial on the most part. Yikes!
http://www.creditloan.com/infographics/the-history-of-us-government-corporate-bailouts/
I doubt those are the only bailouts over the last 40 years. It seems skewed.
It’s not a positive outcome, the companies just didn’t fail(whodathunk it…you throw billions of dollars at a failing company, and it helps them..) The problem with bailouts is that they do they exact opposite of what the market is saying to do. Businesses are failing for a reason…to save them, you have to redirect capital from other, more profitable investment. Because no one is willing to do this voluntarily(because it would be idiotic), the government steps in with their guns and forces them to do it.
Sure, they “saved” the company, but it ends up as a net loss. It’s the basic broken window fallacy.
Oh, and to make matters worse…they don’t even end up saving the company a lot of the time!