Credit where it's due: GM Pays off Gov't Loans w/Interest

Re: GM's lack of profits

They have not made a profit in 6 years, but they "paid" off the loan.
Fuzzy math anyone??? If you pay off a loan with borrowed or government funds, have you PAID of the loan???

I hope the Volt is a run away success, but even that will not save these fools.

 

The repayment was bullpoop. They used the bailout money to pay back the part of the loan that was a loan, not earnings.

GM is what is wrong with America.

 

GM is now reporting a profit.

GM posts its first quarterly profit in 3 years - Autos- msnbc.com

 

Only at GM, can the Gvt own over 1/2 the company, make loans to it, and discharge their debt, plus clean up their toxic/abandoned manufacturing plants .... and it can still be called profit. They used to call that kind of book keeping, "stopped the bleeding".

The more I think about it, maybe we need to apologize to Enron corporate heads ... their finance/rational wasn't that different ... they simply didn't get a blessng from the feds for their behavior. Even so ... 'go-Volt'.

 

gm is just a microcosm of america. they borrow from us, we borrow from the chinese. everyone's happy.

 

Re: GM's lack of profits

They didn't really pay it off, they refinanced. Hard for most of the US population to argue with refinancing for improved terms.

They shouldn't have paid off the loan right now but it was for political reasons. They want to get another Government retooling loan which they can get at a lower interest rate. It's the same (though larger) "retooling" loan that Ford got last November. They are repaying it to avoid the politics of asking for "more", even though with the current bills in place it shouldn't be a problem.

They also made an operating profit this quarter. Now that they are no longer hamstrung by high wages, excessive labor force, excessive dealership network and high health-care costs they actually have a chance to make regular profits as long as the management doesn't get lazy again. For years GM had to keep the volume churn high just to stay afloat and needed high-margin SUVs to get close to profit. Now they have lower costs and are much more flexible, so they can vary production with demand and avoid deep discounting.

 

last night they announced that they made a profit for 2010 Q1... modest. a few hundred million. i am glad they "woke up"... well actually, they were picked up and thrown out of bed.

too bad they had to be treated like a delinquent teenager before they started flying right. but they still have a long way to go. i am sure many will think the Volt concept is a good idea. i am just not one of them

 

not true... my 401 K is the same way. i claim 6 on my tax withholding and pay an average of $200 a year in income tax withholding.

this year at tax time, i borrowed from my 401K to write my considerable tax check. i pay it back in 26 installments (a year) with interest which is paid back to my 401 K account. so i essentially pay myself interest.

the ONLY reason i do this is to do what i can to not pay taxes. now, i have been to jail and have determined it is not for me. so this does not complete my objective, but does make me feel better about myself

 

wha?

 

GM should thank Toyota and their timely publicity for some of that.