Don't Be Fooled by ObamaMotors IPO

ObamamMotors has filed paperwork to issue stock in an IPO. This is purely a political move by the Democrats to be able to claim that taking over the car industry was a good thing.

General Motors Co. filed Wednesday for a long-awaited public offering that will take its place among the biggest IPOs in history, and set the stage for the U.S. government to exit the car business.

The company did not specify the amount of shares or a price range, but did say the offering will include common and preferred stock. GM also said there will be 500 million shares outstanding following the offering.

The stock will be listed on the New York and Toronto stock exchanges and will be traded under the symbol "GM," the same one used before its bankruptcy.

GM said it won't be paying a dividend on the common shares. The company is reportedly looking to raise up to $16 billion, with the U.S. Treasury selling some of its holdings.

For taxpayers to fully get their money back, the public offering likely has to bring in about $70 billion.

The Treasury said following the filing that it has agreed to be named as a selling shareholder of the common stock.

The department also said it will retain the right, at all times, to decide whether and a what level to participate in the offering.

The Obama administration spent about $60 billion, in addition to the billions paid by the prior administration, to bail out GM and rival Chrysler last year as both were careening toward their demise. Ford Motor Co. avoided the lifeline.

The Treasury currently holds a 61% stake in GM as well as $2.1 billion of Series A preferred stock after having invested about $50 billion to keep it afloat. The Detroit giant repaid almost $7 billion in loans this year.

The proposed offering will not include the Treasury's preferred shares.

Notice the Treasury is reserving the right to decide at what level it
might participate in the offering. That means they might still buy the new stock and hold on to ownership shares. There is a good chance that nothing is changing except the illusion of private ownership, but prepare for nonstop pre-election spinning by the MSM that the nationalization of the car companies was a great idea. The unions certainly benefited and likely will again.

The IPO will need to generate about $70 billion of private investment in order for you the taxpayer to be repaid in this deal. Don't hold your breath anything like that will be realized. Early indications are that the only interested investors at this point are high risk hedge funds and the like. The average investor on the street is walking away from this deal like a roadkill skunk on a hot summer day.

I wouldn't own the stock if they gave it to me; I'd dump it immediately. I have seen nothing to convince me that GM has learned how to make a high-quality vehicle at a reasonable price. That means that they will continue to have problems selling their product going forward and thus will have enormous problems making a profit.

Government Motors Is On Fire

No, really. Government Motors had to issue a recall today for 1.5 million vehicles because their heated windshield washer system could cause a fire. I wonder if they will draw as much heat as Toyota did? Surely the Democrats in congress will call for the head of Obama's appointee to head to GM to come sit in the hot seat for a grilling by a suitable panel of outrageously outraged and indignant lawmakers. Whose ass will Barry O look to kick over this, since he runs the company now?

General Motors is recalling 1.5 million Buick, Cadillac, Hummer, Saturn and GMC sport-utility vehicles, pickups and cars from 2006 to 2009 because a heated washer fluid system module could pose a fire risk, the company said moments ago.

GM Now Only 61% Government Owned

The headlines around Government Motors repaying the taxpayer money they were given from the federal government are very misleading. Most of them say something like "GM Repays Loan in Full". The devil of course is in the details and in the rest of the story as they say.

GM got a total of $52 billion from the U.S. government and $9.5 billion from the Canadian and Ontario governments as it went through bankruptcy protection last year. At first the entire amount of U.S. aid was considered a loan as the government tried to keep GM from going under and pulling the fragile economy into a depression.

But during bankruptcy, the U.S. government reduced the loan portion to $6.7 billion and converted the rest to company stock, while the Canadian government held $1.4 billion in loans. Those loans were repaid Tuesday, five years ahead of schedule.

The automaker hopes to begin repaying the remaining $45.3 billion to the U.S. government and $8.1 billion to Canada via a public stock offering, perhaps later this year. The U.S. government now owns 61 percent of the company and Canada owns roughly 12 percent.

The truth is GM still stands for Government Motors and just like all of the other numbers that swirl around this administration, they simply change the conditions to achieve the desired outcome. And they want to go after Goldman Sachs? Sheesh this White House has accountants only Bernie Madoff could love.

Now you know why nobody was getting excited about the story of GM paying back the money.

GM is not currently traded on the stock exchange so it will be interesting to see what their IPO price will be if they make it that far.

Government Motors Recalls 1.3 Million Vehicles

It'll be interesting to see how quickly the preening Congressthings call Government Motors owner Barack Obama to come testify, along with all his union buddies.

General Motors has recalled 1.3 million Chevrolet and Pontiac models in North America for power steering failures that are tied to 14 crashes and one injury in the United States, the company said Tuesday.

The recall affects 2005-2010 Chevrolet Cobalt and 2007-2010 Pontiac G5 models sold in the United States, 2005-2006 Pontiac Pursuit vehicles sold in Canada, and 2005-2006 Pontiac G4 models sold in Mexico.

Detroit-based GM told the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration about the recall Monday after concluding its own investigation first launched in January 2009.

The NHTSA opened a separate investigation on 905,000 U.S. Cobalt models in January 2010 after receiving more than 1,100 complaints on power steering failures, 14 crashes and an injury.

GM Makes Good Use of Your Tax Dollars

GM announced that they are going to be selling a new police vehicle in America soon. It's good to see our bailout dollars going to some good use, right?

Well, not exactly. See, these cars are being made in Australia. You know, the land of koalas, crocodiles and kangaroos.

The police Caprice is to be based on a car sold by General Motors' Australian arm known as the Holden Statesman, and will be built along side that vehicle in the Down Under city of Elizabeth.

What I did find surprising is that they used to make a Pontiac version of a police vehicle at the same plant to import to this country. Of course, Pontiac is no more.

As a taxpayer you are getting hit twice. It is your local taxes which go into the coffers of city, county, and state that are used to buy these vehicles, which are being funded in part by the money GM received from the bailout they got with your tax dollars. All the while they are not adding one single job to the American payrolls.

Sucks to be you, Michigan.

Personally, my vote goes to this police vehicle made by Carbon Motors. In America.

GM Leaving Detroit?

Looks like GM is thinking of moving out of Detroit.

General Motors has received $15.4 billion in federal loans, and the government deadline to restructure or seek Chapter 11 protection is just over two weeks away. But the company must reach concessionary agreements with unions, persuade thousands of bondholders to exchange $27 billion in debt for 10 percent of GM's stock, cut thousands of dealers, close plants and lay off more salaried workers.

Under Chapter 11 reorganization, a company can stay in operation under court protection while sheds debts and unprofitable assets to emerge in a stronger financial position.

Also Monday, Henderson left open the possibility that GM would move its corporate headquarters out of Detroit. The company, he said, is looking at everything within its business.

"It's not like we have that queued up at the top of our list," he said, adding that GM has a large number of people in Detroit and is proud to be here.

He would not comment about reports about Fiat Group SpA's interest in getting 80 percent of GM's European Opel operations, saying that any structure must address the needs of both partners.

Henderson said GM has an urgent need for funding from the German government, so any partner for its European operations would have to be suitable to the government.

All jokes about Detroit aside, don't be too surprised if GM ends up moving it's headquarters overseas, especially one that does not have labor unions. It would be a very good way of getting away from the UAW and Obama's socialists at the same time.

Buy American ... Or You're Fired

I joked yesterday that before long we'd be required to shop at the Obama Motor Company or face reprisals from the union goons. Well, what do you know, one Michigan mayor is already forcing political appointees to drive American vehicles or seek employment elsewhere.

You’ve got to admire James Fouts and his eagerness to start a courtroom brawl.

The mayor of Warren, Mich., has issued an executive order requiring that all political appointees drive an American-made car. For those who now drive a Honda or a Lexus? Get shopping.

According to Fouts, they have to guarantee that their next car purchase will be a vehicle made by General Motors, DaimlerChrysler or Ford.

To those who don’t want to make the switch?

“They can find another place to work,” Fouts said.

Nice attitude. Considering the shape Michigan is in, hundreds of thousands of former residents are looking for work.

In other states.

Seem harsh? Consider this: GM and DaimlerChrysler are the town’s number one and two employers, respectively.

Tax revenues generated by the two carmakers account for 15% of the city’s $98 million annual fiscal budget, and one-third of the Detroit suburb’s 138,000 residents rely on the auto industry for their livelihood.

That’s a lot of folks.

When someone dared to point out that Honda and Toyota make many cars in the U.S. with U.S. workers, Fouts shrugged.

Let's not confuse him with the facts.

I wonder if the town will be picking up the tab for repairs to the shoddily-made vehicles employees are forced to buy?

GM Executive Who Called Global Warming a 'Total Crock of Sh*t' Refuses to Back Down

Apparently the worst thing you can do these days is puncture the balloon of the global warming cultists. You get laughed at, ridiculed, harassed, threatened, called a denier and generally mocked.

In the meantime, those who spew their bilge and propaganda can't prove for one second it even exists.

So when a guy like Bob Lutz comes along, it heartening to see him stand his ground and tell the environuts where to go.

General Motors Corp Vice Chairman Bob Lutz has defended remarks he made dismissing global warming as a "total crock of shit," saying his views had no bearing on GM's commitment to build environmentally friendly vehicles.

Lutz, GM's outspoken product development chief, has been under fire from Internet bloggers since last month when he was quoted as making the remark to reporters in Texas.

In a posting on his GM blog on Thursday, Lutz said those "spewing virtual vitriol" at him for minimizing the threat of climate change were "missing the big picture."

"What they should be doing in earnest is forming opinions, not about me but about GM and what this company is doing that is ... hugely beneficial to the causes they so enthusiastically claim to support," he said in a posting titled, "Talk About a Crock."

GM, the largest U.S. automaker by sales and market share, has been trying to change its image after taking years of heat for relying too much on sales of large sport-utility vehicles like the Hummer and not moving faster on fuel-saving hybrid technology.

"My thoughts on what has or hasn't been the cause of climate change have nothing to do with the decisions I make to advance the cause of General Motors," he wrote.

This isn't the first time Lutz has gotten people's panties in a bunch, either.

A 40-year auto industry veteran who joined GM earlier in the decade with a mandate to shake up its vehicle line-up, Lutz is no stranger to controversy.

As part of a campaign against higher fuel economy standards, Lutz wrote in a 2006 blog posting that forcing automakers to sell smaller cars would be "like trying to address the obesity problem in this country by forcing clothing manufacturers to sell smaller, tighter sizes."