The price for the GM IPO is set very high due to the demand for the stock. The money made from the IPO for issuing a bailout is a fair return for the taxpayers we are told. From other bailouts, such as in the banking industry, the government has made money for taxpayers as well.

However, will the taxpayers see a check in the mail? Probably not. With the government making so much money trading stocks, why is our debt continually rising?

If the government is making money buying and selling shares of companies; issuing and selling warrants (similar to options), then why are the people who make a living doing the very same actions as the Treasury does demonized for making money on Wall Street? In addition, more restrictions are placed on the activities of the citizens as well as increasing their taxes and fees; thus making it harder for people to make money. (Reason #1 why I’m not buying a GM.)

Wall Street, greedy businesses and executives are blamed for massive layoffs and unemployment; yet the new GM under government control, had big layoffs as well as closing dealerships.   These layoffs and closings have been seen as a positive though.

Isn’t Obama and company’s scenario regarding GM – get lean, efficient, etc. – ironic considering the massive spending, inefficiency of government  and its overall growth occurring in Washington today?

What about the people that lost everything when the government mandated bankruptcy occurred. Those shareholders’ stocks went to $0, yet are not getting nothing today. GM was out of bankruptcy in a month! (Reason #2 why I’m not buying a GM.)

With the new IPO of GM, the government will have less ownership, but still own over 1/3 of the company. Although less government ownership, the UAW (United Auto Workers union) was given over 17% of the company as part of the bailout in 2009; therefore, shareholders out – government and unions in. (Reason #3 why I’m not buying a GM.)

The big reason I do like GM and don’t want to totally bash the company is because from a business standpoint, GM is more lean and making changes, increasing exposure and looking exciting.

Furthermore, the real reason I like GM is the TV show Hawaii Five-O.

While watching the new TV hit show Hawaii Five-0, GM sponsorship through adverting is all over the TV.

I like watching McGarrett and Danno cruising in their Camaro or doing high speed chase scenes and will continue to watch the show, just not buying the cars any time soon. Maybe someday,but more more has to convince me otherwise.

I was reading an article today from the Money Game talking about Barack Obama and his comments on the VAT tax (value added tax). What is interesting about the comment is Obama said “my first priority is to figure out how can we reduce wasteful spending…”

My thought right here was, “who needs to reduce wasteful spending?”

The American people or the Federal Government?

From the looks of the following graph, the Federal Government’s spending is out of control.

In addition, I received an e-mail from a relative the other day (which is the source of the graph) stating:

“…babbled again today about Obama inheriting a huge deficit from Bush.

Budgets do not come from the White House. They come from Congress, and the party that controlled Congress since January 2007 is the Democratic Party. They controlled the budget process for FY 2008 and FY 2009, as well as FY 2010 and FY 2011.

In that first year, they had to contend with George Bush, which caused them to compromise on spending, when Bush somewhat belatedly got tough on spending increases.

For FY 2009, though, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid bypassed George Bush entirely, passing continuing resolutions to keep government running until Barack Obama could take office. At that time, they passed a massive omnibus spending bill to complete the FY 2009 budgets.

And where was Barack Obama during this time? He was a member of that very Congress that passed all of these massive spending bills, and he signed the omnibus bill as President to complete FY 2009…

In a nutshell, what Obama is saying is, “I inherited a deficit that I voted for and then I voted to expand that deficit four-fold since January 20th.”

So much for the dog & pony show and lip service.

By the way, did CEObama pay 90% income taxes on his $5.5 million (or part of it) as did CEO’s who received bonuses – which were allowed by Congress in the bailout bill?