Comments on: Whitacre says priority on repaying loans, finding CEO

By: leftwingagenda

leftwingagenda — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 16:08:19 +0000

ashes, nothing personal, but saving millions of jobs in the midst of the biggest financial crisis in 80 years is a “taxpayer holocaust” and yet the 600 billion dollar war in iraq during the same period is ok?

your position is fundamentally flawed, and easily dismissed…

By: carstuff

carstuff — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 14:54:21 +0000

Card, have you been gone? GM has $43 billion in CASH. We gave them too much money (by our choice, not theirs). They increased their cash assets by over $3 Billion in the 3rd quarter. They have cut their overhead and structural cost so much they are the low cost auto producer in this country. Bankruptcy can do that.

They still have more restructuring money to put out (Delphi, UAW, Dealers, etc) but they should, even after paying off the government the pre bankruptcy loan, have $20 billion in cash assets. They need about $10 billion for day to day business. So unless we hit a big economic downturn they are going to have plenty of cash.

I think the issue was that Henderson was being the old culture, very conservative GM. Whitacre and the board want GM to play a bit looser and take some chances. And yes, eliminating the loan will make GM more attractive during an IPO and more attractive to consumers who may be put off by a government owned company (anybody here fit that description?).

By: Cardemon04

Cardemon04 — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 14:27:10 +0000

could you imagine how interesting it would be if Ashes and NMOFGM were actually the 2 personalities of a schizophrenic person?
Is this why they booted Henderson? He wasn’t making bold enough false statements. I doubt they’ll be able to pay back $6.7 Billion in 6 months without worsening their already delicate financial situation. I’d rather see them use that money to improve the company before they take GM public, then begin repaying the loan. But maybe eliminating this loan will improve the company value more than investing the money in infrastructure. we’ll see

By: carstuff

carstuff — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 11:57:49 +0000

aa, making things up again? Article is on paying back early.

By: Ashes to Ashes_Dust to Dust

Ashes to Ashes_Dust to Dust — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 02:26:48 +0000

A historical travesty for the American way of life, and the American taxpayers. White collar crime as its finest brought to you by America’s top lobbyists, supposed top executives, and your shoddiest politicians. Add to that a historical blow for American innovation, competition, and the way America now does business. Not only is this corporation unashamed for stealing from the taxpayers—GM is downright proud of it.

GM, an American Taxpayers Holocaust

By: carstuff

carstuff — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 01:14:57 +0000

GM will pay off the $6.7 billion BY June, 2010. Do not be surprised if it is paid off sooner if the economy continues to improve as forecasted.

By: psiclone

psiclone — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 01:06:31 +0000

Glad to hear the news but somehow the math in this story isn’t adding up. At a repayment of $1 billion per quarter, it would take less than two years to repay the $6.7 billion loan. Paying until mid-2015 would be on the order of $20 billion.

This other article (link below) states, “[Whitacre] aims to repay $8.1 billion in U.S. and Canadian government loans by the end of June. Henderson’s target was late 2011.” That evidently means June of 2010 or more likely 2011, not 2015. The story is linked on two other auto news sites.

source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091215/ap_on_bi_ge/us_gm_whitacre