That’s the question posed in a recent Forbes article that’s worth reading.
Here are some of the underlying facts … read the article for the editorial stuff …
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Stock Market
The federal government owns 500,000,000 shares of GM, or about 26% of the company.
The stock is trading at about $20/share, so the government is holding about $10 billion worth of stock
The government’s GM stock is worth about 39% less than it was when the company went public at $33 /share
Since GM’s IPO almost two years ago, the broader S&P 500 has gone up about 30%.
During that period, Ford shares have gone down about 15%, Toyota up about 15%, Honda up about 5%, Nissan up about 35%, Hyundai up about 60% and Volkswagen up about 85%.
Source
It would take about $53.00/share for the gov’t to break even on the bailout.
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Car Market
As a company, General Motors peaked in 1965, when it commanded 50.7% of the U.S. market, and made a stunning-for-the-time $2.1 billion dollars in after-tax profits.
In the 1960s, GM averaged a 48.3% share of the U.S. car and truck market.
For the first 7 months of 2012, their market share was 18.0%, down from 20.0% for the same period in 2011.
GM is flailing in the D-car segment (Malibu, Camry) which accountd for about 20% of the U.S. car market.
Recent (and forthcoming) versions of the Malibu score dead last in Car & Driver reviews.
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Uh-oh
The Homa Files 