GM Emerges From Bankruptcy after Landmark Government Bailout
Posted by Lindsey Connell


On the morning of Friday July 2, 2009 General Motors (GM) emerged from bankruptcy just 40 days after filing as a failed automaker. This act is one of the largest government bailouts in bankruptcy history and the new GM will have many reductions such as in the number of workers, brands, and plants. Currently, the U.S. Treasury owns 60.8% of the new company’s stock and Canada owns 11.7%. GM CEO Fritz Henderson has claimed that the company will repay the U.S. investment but has made no such claim about paying back taxpayers who have put $50 billion into the company. A major change that has taken place in GM since being bailed out is that the key executive committee has been narrowed down to just eight people so that decisions can be made more quickly.
Prior to GM filing for bankruptcy, President Barrack Obama and auto executives discussed many steps to bettering GM in the case that it did file and was bailed out by the government. The government claimed that it would guarantee the warranties for all new cars until the company was back on its feet. Also, they planned on speeding up government fleet purchases and President Obama claimed that the IRS was creating a new tax benefit for car buyers to create an incentive for car purchases.
The filing of bankruptcy has put out thousands of people and managers from work. This case is extremely complicated and very much in the public eye because the case is so large and also because GM is a company that has employed so many people and been a huge part of the automotive industry. Although it seems that GM has hit rock bottom, it can be expected that the new changes being made to the company can do nothing but help.



http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2009/07/10/AR2009071001473.html
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123845591244871499.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/26/business/26auto.html