Through this crooked "bankruptcy" Fedzilla already absorbed the GM pension as part of its assets (most liabilities are supposed to be wiped out and/or converted into equity to former debt holders) and thus dumped these "assets" on the taxpayers, who now "own" them.
So while company is still bankrupt and getting more bankrupt every quarter, our government is getting us into more losses because GM is treated as Too Big To Fail enterprise, similarly to former Government-Sponsored Enterprises and now mostly (80%) Government-Owned Enterprises Fannie and Freddie. Just one of the reasons why government in general should not own or sponsor what should be private enterprise.
This is what has been done with GM in more detail:
GM CEO says government loans have been repaid - FR, 2010 April 21, #33
And no, SarbOx does not apply here because GM did not mislead its "investors". Even if it were a public company, what they said was technically accurate, while in reality not being true. SarbOx law itself, of course, should be put out to pasture - it does not prevent Madoffs and other abuses, while it unnecessarily overregulates and bureaucratizes smaller public companies and caused the immediate outflow of huge amounts of money from U.S. public market and U.S. commerce and continues to do so to this day.
Agree on most, Sarb-Ox is a disaster from what I hear.
I disagree on the Pension. As I understand it GM owes the plan 15 billion next year to not get in hot water with ERISA.
But as I understand it, the Obamatons have not come out and said they will make the pension whole or absorb it like the railroads did eons ago.
Which is what Glenn is predicting. It is not if but when the American public gets the bad news they now have to make good on GM's 900,000 pensioners...