The sad part is people will still bit*h about this.

The payments came early as a result of GM selling SAAB’s technology to the Chinese. Since GM will not be selling Opel, I guess the next payment will not come so quick.

I cant wait to hear people explain how this is a bad thing.

It is best explained by someone at an Xmas party my wife, and I attended: It’s a cartoon showing a US taxpayer answering his doorbell to a bag of burning dog **** with the words Taxpayers (aka Government) Equity on it as Bob Lutz sits street-side driving a tow truck (made by Mercedes) with a Chevy Malibu in tow and Ed Whitacre in the drivers seat holding a match in his hand.

Ashes – actually, it’s not.

0-60/Cardemon04 – correct.

Glad to see it….keep it coming.

0-60/Cardemon04 – People will bitch about anything on here

Yes, I will continue to bitch and whine and complain. That’s our money they’re paying back. Exactly what did you think when Obama announced that taxpayers will lose $30B on GM? Do you think he was lying? Wrong? Misunderstood GM’s real financial situation?

All you GM apologists need to quit sniffing glue and buying whatever crap comes out on their press releases. I call this early payment a good start. I’ll quit bitching when the totality of the money that has been lent to GM is repaid with interest.

Or is that still too vague to understand?

“Ic3m4n” – REALLY?

h82w8 – Upset that they have our money..understandable. Upset that they’re beginning to pay it back…certifiably demented.

@h82w8
You are right GM needs to pay all the money back plus interest..NOW!
I can’t believe they waisted are tax money and we will never see it again.
As a matter of fact I will never see the TRILLIONS of dollars that went to the war so I say we get that money back too. Let’s have all the soilders that risked there lifes in battle and have their kids and wifes work in sweat shops making shoes for people in china till we get ALL of are money back.

On second thought your an IDIOT for the dumb comment you just made.

ok…sorry. That was a little much, but I think you get the point.

Obama lying? Wrong? Treasury incorrect? Well I never ever thought that was possible. I am sure Social Security will continue to be fully funded since I have been putting in all that money for 30 years and I am sure it is right there in a safe account. Just like Medicare is also fully funded forever.

Come on. Does anybody really believe the government is correct on much? And I do not believe they said GM would lose the $30 billion. I thought it was all the automotive loans. Heck old Chrysler just said they were not paying the $4 billion the got.

@ 0-60

Good points. I find it odd, amongst all the pork barreling and political BS that has been around for years, that now, when the government pumps money into a company that has done a lot for this country over the last 100+ years, it all the sudden “their money going to waste.” For crying out loud, they are working to pay back the loan. We, America, had a huge national debt, before TARP, during TARP, and after TARP. The billions they pumped into GM, for example, is pocket change compared to the rest of the mess.

H82, I do not get the press release comment. Better off listening to the financial experts:

“JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded General Motors Co. bonds to “buy” from “hold,” citing
“better than expected operating results.” “We believe GM bonds offer the largest upside in the
automotive credit sector,” New York-based analysts Eric Selle and Atiba Edwards wrote yesterday in a report. The automaker’s debt is “still undervalued versus our recovery valuations,” they said.
Detroit-based GM, in reporting its first financial data since leaving Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July, said yesterday it generated $3.3 billion of cash in the third quarter and had $42.6 billion of cash on hand at the end of September.
“This cash number was above our estimate of $29 billion primarily due to a higher starting cash balance, higher profits and larger working capital source than we estimated,” the JPMorgan analysts said.”

They ended the 3rd quarter with $14 billion more than the experts expected. No kool aid here, just data.

We loaned/bought into GM with $50 billion and GM now has $42.6 billion in cash. That does not include the assets of plants, etc. GM also has very little debt (other than to us). I think we should demand they pay back the $6.7 billion now, not next year.

@scot88….well said. @carstuff, well said

dudes…here’s the thing…saying the government won’t get back the 30 billion it pumped into gm is a bit of a short-sighted view…this money didn’t just disappear into a black hole, it went into continuing gm’s operations…operations that included buying parts, selling cars, and paying workers…all three of those activities generate tax revenue – some of it federal, but a lot of it state and local taxes…

in other words, by virtue of continuing to operate, tax money is generated…the government, to an extent, is actually paying itself, but at a low rate of return…the benefit is that thousands of people have jobs and continue to participate in the economy in an incredibly tough time…

i’ve said it before, and i’ll say it again, but if you believe that we as a country would be better off having had millions of additional job losses this year due to chrysler/gm folding shop, you’re mother effing crazy…irresponsibly crazy, and i hope you never are in a position of power over others in your entire life!

I am sick and tired of GM’s smoke screen. Just read the last paragraph above :”the U.S. Treasury gave GM $16.4 billion in exit financing to be held in a restricted cash account. GM is using these federal funds in order to pay back the $6.7 billion in TARP loans.” They use our tax dollars to pay us back, not a damned dime form their own money yet. I am not that easy to be fooled by you GM!

What smoke screen? They have said what you said. the government gave GM too much money because they thought GM was in worse shape than it is. It is part of the $43 billion that we used to buy into GM. Now they are giving it back.

Excellent news. I wasn’t for the bailout but I don’t see how this story could possibly be interpreted as negative. Some of you guys reek of desperation for negative GM news. Especially Ashes to Ashes_Dust to Dust. Lame “party” story.

Do the picture choices of Whitacre always have to make him look somewhat odd? How about using a good picture of him like the one you used for Mulally in Ford’s debt-repayment story? I’m seeing a pattern emerge.

Nice.

All the haters would have rather have GM go down in flames and put a million people out of work.

True patriots they are.

Leftwing, I applaud your response. I have also stated if you consider the amount of TOTAL tax revenue GM has been responsile for generating in the last 80 years & going forward, the loans were actually a fantastic investment. Think of this way all you naysayers, Helping GM when they we about to collapse has retained BILLONS of future tax revenues for Federal, state & local governments all accross our country. It just makes sense. Any arguments to the contrary are simply ignorant & stupid.

I hope the bitter ignorant GM bashers out there all need financial help some day. When that day comes, I assure you they won’t be of the “let me die or collapse” mind-set like they were for GM & their entire work force & business affiliates.

Want keep your jobs, BUY AMERICAN!

I get a kick out of GM’s PR department trying to convince the American public that they are solvent (let alone even paying the government back what they actually received as a bailout). They do so through all types of justifications, but the reality is that the US taxpayer got royally screwed. I love all the incessant GM TV commercials as they clearly come off as a corporation in trouble. You want to buy American? Buy Ford, Tesla, or Fisker. At least you know Ford will be around. You can’t say that about GM.

Very good. That should shut everyone up. GM is not going to pull a Chrysler lol.

the “reality” is that certain taxpayers want to feel screwed because it justifies their frustration with their lives…

AA, I just do not get your comments. Are your really that misinformed or are you just trying to raise a fuss?

GM is more than solvent. They went through bankruptcy and got rid of most all their debt and it looks like soon they will have paid off all their debt, using cash assets, to the government.

Yes we will still own them but we are like stockholders just like the Ford stockholders. Ford owes nothing to its stockholders. To keep their stock price up they need to pay dividends or increase profits but they really owe nothing to the stockholders. Heck the stock could go to 0 and Ford would still be in business.

So I just do not get the solvency comment.

Does anyone have any idea what GM’s market cap would have to be to make taxpayers whole? About $60B. I sure hope you GM apologists have a lot of change in your couches to buy up all the stock necessary to repay the rest of us who believe this was a huge boondoggle.

To those trying to politicize this by dragging Iraq into the discussion, go pound sand. A more factually correct analogy would be the bailouts that have been handed out to the banks that were also “too big too fail” or farm subsidies to ensure we’ve got plenty of cheap corn syrup and e.coli burgers to enjoy.

You folks need to wake up and realize that in all 3 of these cases, there are VERY powerful special interest groups and lobbyists paid handsomely to protect their interests regardless of what it costs the average taxpayer.

GM will only be solvent in the future because it is “Government Motors,” subject to bailouts and government handouts to the very end. So $60B according to my calculations is $200 per American.

It’s getting done so STFU.

TOZO I would go out out of my way to take 400.00 dollars from you.

h, how did you come up with $60b? It is now about $47 billion and by June it will be ~ $40 billion. And by then they should have ~$20 billion in cash assets. Not saying that we will get all our money back but t]lets not push the facts in your biased mind.

Now TOZO has me thinking. What is the trillion + health care costing me? Oh crap.

““JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded General Motors Co. bonds to “buy” from “hold,” citing
“better than expected operating results.” “We believe GM bonds offer the largest upside in the
automotive credit sector,” New York-based analysts Eric Selle and Atiba Edwards wrote yesterday in a report. The automaker’s debt is “still undervalued versus our recovery valuations,” they said.
Detroit-based GM, in reporting its first financial data since leaving Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July, said yesterday it generated $3.3 billion of cash in the third quarter and had $42.6 billion of cash on hand at the end of September.
“This cash number was above our estimate of $29 billion primarily due to a higher starting cash balance, higher profits and larger working capital source than we estimated,” the JPMorgan analysts said.””

I WANT MY PORTION OF THAT MONEY, IN COLD HARD CASH, NON-SEQUENTIAL BILLS PLZ….