GM Makes a Profit

So, GM made a profit in the first quarter of this year, which is very good news indeed. It would be even better news if I entirely believed it.

Remember the "GM pays off its debt ahead of schedule" bit a month or so ago? That was good news too, until we found out that it was not actually all of its debt; that most of its debt had merely been restructured into taxpayer "ownership" of the company. We also found out that the small portion of debt that they "paid off" was paid using money borrowed from a government (taxpayer) funded credit line. In other words, they borrowed money from the taxpayer to pay off the taxpayer.

That's not borrowing money from Peter to pay Paul, that's borrowing from Paul to pay Paul. So about this first quarter profit...