GM records its highest profit ever: $7.6 billion

[Shadrach]

By TOM KRISHER | Associated Press – 46 mins ago

DETROIT (AP) — General Motors earned its largest profit ever in 2011, two years after it nearly collapsed into financial ruin.

Strong sales in the U.S. and China helped the 103-year-old carmaker turn a profit of $7.6 billion, beating its old record of $6.7 billion in 1997 during the pickup truck and SUV boom.

GM is a vastly different company than it was back then. It's smaller and has less debt, and its contract with the United Auto Workers is less costly. But it took a government bailout and a trip through bankruptcy protection in 2009 to cut its bloated costs. The company made record money last year, even though U.S. auto sales were near historic lows at 12.8 million cars and trucks.

But problems surfaced in its latest results. GM lost $700 million before taxes in Europe, and its South American operations lost $100 million. Sales growth slowed in the U.S. in the fourth quarter, even as more Americans bought cars and trucks.

GM's stock price fell 43 cents, or 1.7 percent, to $24.50 in pre-market trading.

The U.S. government still owns 26.5 percent of the company and is waiting for the share price to rise before selling in an effort to recoup the bailout money.

Last year, GM made the bulk of its income in North America, where its pretax profit totaled $7.2 billion. International Operations, which includes Asia, made $1.9 billion before taxes, but that was down.

During the year, GM's global sales rose 7.6 percent to 9.03 million vehicles to help it reclaim the title of world's largest automaker from Toyota Motor Corp.

"We will build on these results as we bring more new cars, crossovers and trucks to market," CEO Daniel Akerson said.

The company wants to keep expenses down by freezing its underfunded U.S. pension plan, and it hinted at factory and job cuts to restore profitability in Europe.

The 2011 profit of $4.58 per share was 62 percent higher than a year earlier. Full-year revenue rose 11 percent to $150 billion.

But GM's fourth-quarter profit fell 8 percent to $468 million, or 28 cents per share. Revenue rose 3 percent to $38 billion. Before one-time items that totaled 21 cents, GM earned 40 cents per share.

Analysts expected earnings of 42 cents on revenue of $37.9 billion.

GM also said Thursday that its 47,500 blue-collar workers in the U.S. will get $7,000 profit-sharing checks in March. The checks are based on North American performance and are a record for the company.

The company has placed Vice Chairman Steve Girsky in charge of the European management board and is adding executives in preparation for restructuring. Factory closures and layoffs are likely but could provoke a fight with powerful labor unions.

Girsky has said GM intends to fix the European unit, made up of the Opel and Vauxhall brands, and keep it in the company. GM came close to selling the unit in 2009.

http://news.yahoo.com/gm-records-highest-profit-ever-7-6-billion-12...

[3thy60tweillv]

Does this mean the investors who lost billions when the government illegally took over GM will get their money back? Or will BO and the union thugs divey it up for the 2012 election re-election bid?

[tom dodd]

...WE BOTH know that the original investors are out of luck... I'M surprised no one filed a lawsuit, since what BO did was against the law... while he has broken or stretched the "law" in many other instances, in this case the "breaking" was a black and white issue ~ no pun intended ~ and a victory for the shareholders should have been a slam dunk.

[3thy60tweillv]

That is a mystery. With this bunch of crooks running the show it might have been paid under the table. They could buy them off and still make
a ton of money off the takeover deal.

[RNhunter]

I agree Tom - this was just one of the many things Obama has broken the law on. But Eric Holder is never ever going to say a word. One can only hope that the tide turns and those protecting Obama and slamming the door on fairness instead see other Washington people that begin asking questions. And I also just do not understand how so many 300% Democrats think that lawlessness by Obama is just fine. Are those people evil as well? It is indeed a sad state. But I sure agree with your point.

[tom dodd]

...ALL it's gonna take is ONE person to start talking, to make a plea deal, then the whole house of cards will come tumbling down... just gotta find that "one" who is more fearful of 15 years in a prison cell with someone named Bubba than he is of Chicago Machine!

...I'M starting to think that those in Congress who aren't saying anything have been convinced that if the play along, they'll be fine after the Fundamental Change occurs... JUST look at what happened to Trump... he forces 0 to show a birth certificate, announces he going after the college transcripts, then nothing, silence, nada... there's NO WAY he wasn't pressured...

[3thy60tweillv]

We need to harp on the treason trials next year and maybe one of them will start running scared and blow the whistle on the whole lot. Only takes one to rout out the entire corrupted house of cards. They are getting so brazen that that nit wit from the Houston district of Texas, Mums Mumbly, what's her name who called us demons last week is openly using the Socialist word to decribe her dream government. I never thought I would live so long as to hear a Congress idiot say what she did on national tv and no one jumped up to shackle her and carry her off to the hoosegow.

[3thy60tweillv]

Correction: It was Maxine Waters from California that was trashing us on national TV. There is a twin to her in the Houston area of Texas. Like I said, when I don't like someone I have a hard time committing their name to memory. Moms Mabley was a funny black comedienne who use to do the tv talk shows years ago. No disrespect meant to her name with the Mums Mumbly reference. To the people of California, shame on you sending such a despicable wretch to our congress.

[tom dodd]

...WHATEVER happened to the investigation into ethics violations committed by Waters? LAST I heard, nearly a year ago, she was found guilty of funneling TARP money to her husband's bank, or something like that...

...I'M under the impression that Maxine Waters district is a lot like James Clyburn's district in SC, which is pretzel shaped, and encompasses nearly all of the low income, minority areas east of the capital and running all the way to the ocean...

[RNhunter]

I agree on the pressure thing Tom. I think it is obvious. A few examples:

If one does research, one can find that the BP oil spill had much to do with the environmentalists - who got BilL Clinton in 1995 to sign a bill giving big tax breaks if oil wells were far out in the water. But what none of these people thought about was far out in the water means non repairable. So then, If a few of us know this, why the BP silence? I say BP was told that either they take the 100% fall or they could just sell their oil somewhere else.

Now take even Fox News. The Glen Beck show I believe was the second most popular show on cable when it was CANCELLED. Now, why would someone cancel the second most popular show? Other than even Fox News was forced, I have no answer. I think the Obama FCC threatens people who pick on Obama too hard.

And thirdly, anyone else but me notice that some days even the top links on the Drudge Report and other places unfavorable to Obama just do not work? I no longer believe this is a coincidence, especially since we know that Big Sis who has no time to think about 47,000 people dead in Mexico and on our border now has the job of breaking the first amendment and monitoring Drudge, and facebook and twitter and some others. Amazing. Also notice the similarity between Big Sis and Big Brother from the 1984 novel by George Orwell who spied on citizns.

[Jodi180]

Just posting this today in tids...the entire aritcle is pretty enlightening.

The Soros Effect and the Death of Free Speech

Number one – Beck is gone, replaced by a show, “The Five,” that includes Democratic Party operative Bob Beckel. Number two – Fox News now has two paid left-wing feminists on the air, Sally Kohn and Jehmu Greene, both graduates of Jane Fonda’s Women’s Media Center. And number three: it’s being reported that Fox News is developing a new program to be hosted by Greene called “The Green Room.”

Greene ran the ACORN front group Project Vote. ACORN whistleblower Anita Moncrief calls her the Fox News “infiltrator.”

What’s more, News Corporation chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch is now quoting Soros approvingly in regard to his economic thinking. Murdoch’s favorable tweet about Soros followed a flattering story about the hedge fund billionaire in the Wall Street Journal, another property of News Corporation.

The handwriting is on the wall. The “course correction” at the channel is being conducted at the direction or with the approval of Rupert Murdoch himself. But as Politico recently reported in a fairly comprehensive story by Keach Hagey, conservatives are definitely not happy with it. A Western Center for Journalism poll found that some 70 percent of conservatives thought the channel had moved to the left.

http://sorosfiles.com/soros/2012/02/the-soros-effect-and-the-death-...

[3thy60tweillv]

Funny that you should bring this up at this time. I was reading the St. Petersburg, FL Times this morning and there is a full page add stating that people in the St.Pete viewing area are eligible to purchase ($47) a "Clear Cast" "free TV" antenna that gives them access to, you guessed it, all the network tv, (read Soreass controlled driveby media). Of course they don't get access to Fox Cable Network or any other cable shows but it is all free. Crap you and I don't watch if we were getting paid to watch. I see Soreass' hand in this all the way. He is coralling all the "if it's free, it's for me" away from the truth. That whole switch to digital that took the "free TV" away from us and the FCC sold the bands for billions of dollars was leading us up to this point. Now the po' folks won't have anyway to get anything but Soreass scripted information. I will put the incarceration of G S on Newt's list of highest priority come November.

[Jodi180]

I watched Fox News faithfully, but after Beck's show was cancelled, I've since become an occassional viewer. The above article completely spells out how Soros is now driving Fox.

So with Soros having infiltrated all major news outlets, we need to make sure others stay informed without watching TV.