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The Treasury Department said on Wednesday that it planned to sell off its entire stake in General Motors within 15 months, eliminating another reminder of the bailouts precipitated by the financial crash of 2008. The news comes a week after the Obama administration completely sold off its entire stake in the American International Group, one of the most controversial rescues of the market crisis. According to a plan outlined on Wednesday, the Treasury Department will sell a little less than half of its stake, or 200 million shares, back to General Motors for $5.5 billion by year end. The purchase...

A New York federal judge may rule imminently on a case that could reverse the General Motors (GM) bailout and send the company back into bankruptcy, according to sources close to the case. At issue is a backroom deal hatched by GM to fulfill the Obama administration’s demand for a quick bankruptcy, draining the automaker of nearly all of its cash on hand and leaving it in worse shape than it was when it collapsed in 2009. One condition of GM’s bailout was to shore up its overseas subsidiaries. On the eve of entering bankruptcy, the company cut a $367...

General Motors' Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid car topped Consumer Reports' annual owner-satisfaction survey for the second straight year. Ninety-two percent of Volt owners surveyed by the influential consumer magazine said they would definitely buy the Volt again, earning the electric car the top ranking. Last year, 93 percent of respondents said they would buy the car again. "The Volt's two-year reign at the top of our satisfaction survey points to the continuing trend of owners' enthusiasm for cars that are fuel-efficient, especially as we see more and more hybrid and electric models hitting the market," Consumer Reports' auto editor, Rik...

DETROIT (AP) -- General Motors is giving its Chevrolet Spark a jolt of electricity. An all-electric version of the mini-car will debut this week at the Los Angeles Auto Show. It goes on sale this summer in California, Oregon, Canada and South Korea, where it's made. Other markets will follow. Unlike the Chevrolet Volt sedan, which can run in all-electric mode but also has a backup gas engine, the Spark EV is a pure electric. GM won't say how far the car will go on a charge, but says it will be a top performer among the small number of...

Thousands of German workers at Opel cars will lose their jobs in another round of cuts announced this week by the car maker’s owner General Motors. As many as 2,300 people have already been let go. … The company lost half a billion dollars in Europe alone in the third quarter, when it produced just 196,000 cars—down from 270,000 in the same quarter last year. …

President Obama has been touting his bailout of General Motors as a reason for people in Michigan and Ohio to vote for him. However, there is one small problem with his argument. Regardless of the past, GM’s only hope for long-term survival nowis if Mitt Romney wins on November 6. If Obama is reelected, GM is doomed to a second bankruptcy (or to another taxpayer bailout). This is because Obama is committed to doubling down on the two policies that drove GM bankrupt in the first place: a weak, unstable dollar, and unrealistic corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) requirements. In...

Not in America, but in Europe. The company's alliance with Peugeot is struggling — and that means intervention by the French government. A grim situation for global automakers selling cars in Europe is growing worse. Now the two biggest Detroit-based automakers are undertaking drastic cost-cutting measures to stem massive losses. General Motors Co. (GM) is joining forces with PSA/Peugeot-Citroen to split the cost of developing new models for GM's Opel and Vauxhall brands on the continent. Ford Motor Co. (F) is shutting its under-utilized Belgian assembly plant in Genk. Ford will juggle production among its plant in Valencia, Spain and...

The upstate economy took another significant blow today as General Motors announced it will close its fuel cell plant in Honeoye Falls, just south of Rochester. The decision means the 220 salaried employees who worked in the research and development facility won’t be employed in the area. The company said most of the employees will be offered the opportunity to transfer to the Global Powertrain Engineering Headquarters in Pontiac, Mich., the Democrat and Chronicle reports. “This decision has significant business advantages for the company,”said Kim Carpenter, GM spokeswoman. “For example, it will enable GM to capitalize on synergies with the...

From the “how’s that for irony” file comes a report that the judge that signed off on the GM bailout has been having second thoughts, because — surprise, surprise, surprise — he wasn’t informed about part of the deal. The Washington Free Beacon reports: As GM teetered on the edge of bankruptcy in June 2009, it cut a $367 million “lock-up agreement” with several major creditors in order to prevent its Canadian subsidiary from going under. The move spared the subsidiary from fulfilling the $1 billion debt it owed the creditors—major hedge funds—ensuring that GM would not have to face...

Obama has made tried to make political hay about Romney and Bain Capital and the assertion that Romney has moved jobs overseas. Whatever the merits of that line of attack, Obama is conveniently neglecting to acknowledge his complicity in doing that very thing. That very thing, being the exporting of American jobs. please visit: http://blastedfools.wordpress.com/2012/10/08/baseball-hot-dogs-apple-pie-chevrolet-and-chairman-mao/) to see the video. The subtrifuge of Obama and how the Democrats have misled on the Detroit Auto bailout, are relatively trivial in comparison to the clear truths that this narratives reveals. I have at various times commented in passing, that the reality of how...

Internet users in four swing states will begin to see a video that faults President Obama for allowing taxpayer dollars to finance communism based on reports that Shanghai GM backed a Chinese propaganda film. “The Chinese Government recently released a propaganda movie on the Founding of the Communist Party. And who was the movie’s primary sponsor? General Motors. Yes. Our taxpayer dollars that President Obama gave General Motors in the auto-bailout are helping promote communism,” the Let Freedom Ring (LFR) ad narrator says, citing the General Motors bailout. GM has denied any connection to the Chinese company that funded the...

Here we go again. Déjà vu all over again as General Motors spreads rumors that they are tired of being Government Motors and they are so cash rich that they offered to buy Treasury's taxpayer-funded stake in the company. In typical deceptive GM fashion, sources were not named and spokesman Jim Cain refused to confirm the rumors. This is not the first time GM played the rumor game, as I previously wrote about over a year ago. Supposedly, GM wants to buy back about $5 billion of shares from Treasury, but Treasury just won't sell. No kidding. As if GM...

CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -- The Treasury Department is resisting General Motors' push for the government to sell off its stake in the auto maker, The Wall Street Journal reports. Following a $50 billion bailout in 2009, the U.S. taxpayers now own almost 27% of the company. But the newspaper said GM executives are now chafing at that, saying it hurts the company's reputation and its ability to attract top talent due to pay restrictions. Earlier this year, GM GM -1.27% presented a plan to repurchase 200 million of the 500 million shares the U.S. holds with the balance being sold via...

This is an exerpt that illustrates my point: "At GM's Friday share price of $24.14, the U.S. would lose about $15 billion on the GM bailout if it sold its entire stake. While GM stock would need to reach $53 a share for the U.S. to break even, Treasury officials would consider selling at a price in the $30s, people familiar with the government's thinking have said." The real Elephant in the Room is that $15,000,000,000 would be locked in as a transfer of wealth from the taxpayers to the United Auto Workers. Of course, on the other hand, if...

TORONTO - The Canadian Auto Workers union said negotiating with the big three automakers - General Motors, Chrysler and Ford - before Monday's midnight strike deadline is like juggling "a lot of balls up in the air." If the CAW, which represents 21,500 members in the three companies, doesn't reach a settlement with the big three, it could mean a walkout could start at 12:01 a.m. Monday. "It's a little tough to tell at this point in time what the impact will be because it depends upon status of bargaining with each of the three companies," CAW secretary treasurer Peter Kennedy said...

On the eleventh anniversary of Osama Bin Laden’s attack on America, it’s worthwhile to examine just what he hoped to accomplish. He spelled out his goals in three documents: a 1996 fatwa titled, “Declaration of War Against The Americans Occupying The Land of the Two Holy Places”; a 2002 “Letter to America”; and a 2004 video. In these manifestos, he declared his willingness to die, of course. His goals included: “Terrorizing” Americans; Demoralizing US troops; Weakening and destruction of Israel; Unification of Muslims throughout the Middle East via “democratic” establishment of Shariah law in “governments of our countries which act...

(Reuters) - General Motors Co sold a record number of Chevrolet Volt sedans in August — but that probably isn't a good thing for the automaker's bottom line. Nearly two years after the introduction of the path-breaking plug-in hybrid, GM is still losing as much as $49,000 on each Volt it builds, according to estimates provided to Reuters by industry analysts and manufacturing experts. GM on Monday issued a statement disputing the estimates. Cheap Volt lease offers meant to drive more customers to Chevy showrooms this summer may have pushed that loss even higher.

* GM losing as much as $49,000 per Volt sold * Cheap leases likely only exacerbate the losses * GM still years away from break even on the car * New plug-in competitors soon from Ford, Honda Sept 10 (Reuters) - General Motors Co sold a record number of Chevrolet Volt sedans in August - but that probably isn't a good thing for the automaker's bottom line. Nearly two years after the introduction of the path-breaking plug-in hybrid, GM is still losing as much as $49,000 on each Volt it builds, according to estimates provided to Reuters by industry analysts...

From Paul Ryan’s convention speech yesterday: >>>President Barack Obama came to office during an economic crisis, as he has reminded us a time or two. Those were very tough days, and any fair measure of his record has to take that into account. My home state voted for President Obama. When he talked about change, many people liked the sound of it, especially in Janesville, where we were about to lose a major factory. A lot of guys I went to high school with worked at that GM plant. Right there at that plant, candidate Obama said: “I believe that...