Income Taxes	9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2012
Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]
Income Tax Disclosure [Text Block]	Income Taxes We recognized total income tax expense from continuing operations of $93 million and $172 million during the three months and nine months ended September 30, 2012, respectively, compared to $93 million and $106 million for the same periods in 2011. Income tax expense resulted primarily from tax expense attributable to profitable foreign entities. Our U.S. net deferred tax assets continue to be offset fully by a valuation allowance, and as such, we continue to experience a significant variation in the customary relationship between income tax expense and pretax accounting income. As discussed in Note 1, during the nine months ended September 30, 2012, we incurred material U.S. pretax charges related to the Debtors' Bankruptcy filing. No net tax benefit was currently recognized on these charges due to an offsetting increase in the valuation allowance. This was partially offset by a $23 million reversal of a valuation allowance on net deferred tax assets in our Italian subsidiary. As discussed in Note 1, on May 14, 2012, we deconsolidated ResCap for financial reporting purposes. For U.S. federal tax purposes, however, ResCap will continue to be included in our consolidated return filing until ultimate disposition of our ownership in ResCap. Under the proposed Bankruptcy Plan and given that the Debtors are disregarded entities for U.S. tax purposes, we do not anticipate a reduction to our net deferred tax assets as a result of the Bankruptcy filing. We assessed by tax jurisdiction the available positive and negative evidence to estimate if sufficient future taxable income of the appropriate character will be generated to utilize the existing deferred tax assets. A significant piece of objective negative evidence evaluated for certain tax jurisdictions that have legal entities with net deferred tax assets was the cumulative loss incurred over the three-year period ended September 30, 2012. The weight of the negative evidence stemming from U.S. cumulative losses in recent years continues to decrease as losses incurred during 2009 become more distant, and our more recent profitability in the United States continues. Furthermore, based on current projections, we expect to be in a cumulative profit position in the United States for the three-year period ending December 31, 2012. This would represent a significant change in the available evidence in the United States as compared to September 30, 2012. As a result, it is likely we will reverse a material portion of our U.S. valuation allowance in the fourth quarter of 2012, which would favorably affect net income and equity in that period. The portion of the U.S. valuation allowance that likely will be retained relates primarily to deferred tax assets associated with capital loss and foreign tax credit carry forwards.

Income Taxes

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2012

Income Taxes

We recognized total income tax expense from continuing operations of $93 million and $172 million during the three months and nine months ended September 30, 2012, respectively, compared to $93 million and $106 million for the same periods in 2011. Income tax expense resulted primarily from tax expense attributable to profitable foreign entities.

Our U.S. net deferred tax assets continue to be offset fully by a valuation allowance, and as such, we continue to experience a significant variation in the customary relationship between income tax expense and pretax accounting income. As discussed in Note 1, during the nine months ended September 30, 2012, we incurred material U.S. pretax charges related to the Debtors' Bankruptcy filing. No net tax benefit was currently recognized on these charges due to an offsetting increase in the valuation allowance. This was partially offset by a $23 million reversal of a valuation allowance on net deferred tax assets in our Italian subsidiary.

As discussed in Note 1, on May 14, 2012, we deconsolidated ResCap for financial reporting purposes. For U.S. federal tax purposes, however, ResCap will continue to be included in our consolidated return filing until ultimate disposition of our ownership in ResCap. Under the proposed Bankruptcy Plan and given that the Debtors are disregarded entities for U.S. tax purposes, we do not anticipate a reduction to our net deferred tax assets as a result of the Bankruptcy filing.

We assessed by tax jurisdiction the available positive and negative evidence to estimate if sufficient future taxable income of the appropriate character will be generated to utilize the existing deferred tax assets. A significant piece of objective negative evidence evaluated for certain tax jurisdictions that have legal entities with net deferred tax assets was the cumulative loss incurred over the three-year period ended September 30, 2012. The weight of the negative evidence stemming from U.S. cumulative losses in recent years continues to decrease as losses incurred during 2009 become more distant, and our more recent profitability in the United States continues. Furthermore, based on current projections, we expect to be in a cumulative profit position in the United States for the three-year period ending December 31, 2012. This would represent a significant change in the available evidence in the United States as compared to September 30, 2012. As a result, it is likely we will reverse a material portion of our U.S. valuation allowance in the fourth quarter of 2012, which would favorably affect net income and equity in that period. The portion of the U.S. valuation allowance that likely will be retained relates primarily to deferred tax assets associated with capital loss and foreign tax credit carry forwards.