Well as you may have heard, Deutsche Bank has set a price target for GM stock of... drum roll please... 0! Barclay's paints a much more optimistic picture, saying that a share of GM stock could be worth $1. If you think that is depressing, the next part is worse.

GM is going to the government asking for 25 Billion dollars in loans in order to not go bankrupt. With Obama having publicly said that he will support some level of bailout for the automakers, they will probably get something at some point. Well, frankly I don't feel that there is enough money in the United States Treasury to save GM from 50 years of horrible business decisions, but Congress probably does. And what token concessions will GM offer congress? Promises to not lay off workers and cut some executives pay. That's nice and all, but how does it relate to GM actually building a decent automobile? As long as GM's products are inferior to imports, they will never get out of this mess.

As a doctoral student in business strategy, here is my two cents of what I would do if I was congress:

What congress SHOULD require GM to do is:

1. Get their finances in order.
2. Move to high-tech Japanese style manufacturing, but at plants in the United States.

What congress SHOULD allow GM to do is:

1. Renegotiate all existing contracts with the UAW.
2. Operate in a right-to-work environment so that the UAW cannot get in the way of innovation.

If the people of this country feel like bailing out the automakers ever 20 years, we can continue to operate the failed bailout programs of the past. If we want to have a robust automotive manufacturing industry in the United States, we need a program that is somewhat like mine.

Ryan