Filed under: GM, Autoline on Autoblog
How GM Can Repay All the Taxpayer Money
General Motors can be pretty ham-handed when it tries to manipulate public opinion. The latest gaffe involves the company’s newest advertising campaign, bragging to the public that it paid off its billion in government loans. Listening to those ads you might be misled into believing that GM had paid off everything. But it never mentioned the other billion that taxpayers poured into the company.
That touched off a firestorm in Washington DC, on all the talk shows, and of course, all over the internet. Far from getting its critics to jump on the bandwagon, GM managed to infuriate the very people it needs to win over. A lot of the public now believes that GM tried to dupe them.
The irony is that GM is actually making significant progress to turn itself around. If the company was only more forthcoming and honest about what it’s doing, it could bring a lot more people to its side.
To do so, it needs to make sure the government gets back the rest of that billion. And it can. Uncle Sam now holds about 60% of the new GM in stock warrants. If that stock sells for a great price, the government could get every penny back, and possibly turn a profit. Now GM needs to dust off its history books to learn how to do it.
John McElroy is host of the TV program “Autoline Detroit” and daily web video “Autoline Daily”. Every week he brings his unique insights as an auto industry insider to Autoblog readers.
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Autoline on Autoblog with John McElroy originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 03 May 2010 14:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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