I was simply trying to put this post in perspective. The fact is that GM lost only about $400 million, the rest was a NON-CASH CHARGE. I said it so Toyonda apologists like YOU would NOT spin it and say that GM has lost a crapload of money. Because in reality, if they had lost 39 Billion, they would most likely be out of business because that is more than their market cap and a large portion of their 3rd quarter revenues (look up all these terms if u don’t understand them

GM Executive: Mr Designer, did you design the car we asked for?
GM Designer: Yes Sir, the desing is ready, here it is.
GM Executive: Hmmm, lets see. Give me a minute to think about this. Hmmm…… You know. I am affraid this design is just too bold. Too stylish. Too many people may like it. Let’s scale back a bit. Let’s target 80 year old gradmas. Please go back to your drawing board and make this vehicle a little boring.
GM Designer: Ok Sir.

Designer leaves the meeting, scratches his head and thinks to himself, what the hell is GM thinking?

Listen you fucking idiots, it’s not a real 39 billion dollar loss. Does losing 600 million one year, then 250 million the next, then 39 BILLION the next sound like a natural progression to you?

R-Head: I’ll buy GM stock when i have confidence in the management.
I’ve spent year reading 10-Ks and 10-Qs, and this isn’t anything to get panicky about. Just, as Robert said, to satisfy the SEC.

cd5: Gm has already paid for the Fiero and Citation.

planetdrive: ” Those worthless higschool sic) dropout assembly line workers should be fired (sic) and replaced with proper skilled workers who love the work they do.”

Maybe somebody should take away your job ignoring nonexistent customers at ALCO. Idiot!

f451: making multiple cars off one platform is supposed to SAVE money. It’s not working, because the divisions don’t have enough dedicated cars, and they’re competeing against themselves.

This is all paper. Toyota is carrying something like $10 billion in tax assets forward right now, and if Toyota’s profits turn south on weaker demand, dollar weakness, higher commodity prices, etc, they would have to write off their tax assets as well according to SEC regulations.

What this really means, which is actually the critical part of this, is that GM expects its income going forward to be lower than originally planned so that it cannot, in fact, realize these tax gains that it is carrying forward (if you have no income, you can’t actually take tax deductions). No cash is burned. Nothing is actually lost, except its assets – which will make their balance sheet look weaker, but more realistic and possibly start looking better faster in the future if income increases (and tax assets can be added back in).

It’s not great. But that $39 billion is just media sensationalism at its best. Why think when you can read headlines!?!

The announcement can best be summed up as “still making you cringe,” but no overreaction is necessary. You can be that every big company has a small army of accountants and tax lawyers who constantly maneuver credits, debits, etc. into the best possible slots for tax liability. Toyota’s huge, but you can bet there’s accounting behind some of those profits posted as well.

In sum: stay the course GM, keep costs down, keep sales up, let the accountants do what they want with their fancy calculators and late-afternoon lunches with the IRS, but stay focused on the product. And in that sense, I like GM’s chances better than Chrysler or Ford for the moment….

GM is no longer projected to receive these tax credits for the next few years because they have been unprofitable for a certain amount of time. However, in another overly-confusing tax code scenario, the moment GM turns a profit again, they can claim it all back and post a $39 billion PROFIT.

God bless the USA, eh? If we simply rewrote our tax codes to NOT punish companies that operate on our soil, we wouldn’t need all these idiotic tax rules.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119438884709884385.html?mod=djemalert

Without the charge, GM would have lost only $400 million dollars. That is the REAL amount that they have lost. The charge is misleading and really has no affect on anything.

Don’t get all pissy just because you expected to click this thread and enjoy some nice GM bashing to feed your Toyotaphile bias.

This is basically paperwork.

The bleeding wound is healing thanks to much improved models over the past few years. I imagine the core of GM, the automotive sector, will be profitable in around 3/4 years and climb in profitability from there provided GM doesn’t lose the momentum they’ve built. GMAC, though, needs to go and should’ve been gone a long time ago.