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GM lied about how much cash it needed: Should we give them more?

General Motors (NYSE: GM) disclosed yesterday that it had borrowed another $4 billion from the Treasury Department, raising its total indebtedness to us to $19.4 billion.

The New York Times reports that "G.M. originally said that it would need an additional $2.6 billion from the government to operate through June 1, but added $1.4 billion to that amount."

Whoops! GM underestimated its cash needs by an astounding 53.8%!

What I don't understand is why the U.S. government is just doling out the cash without asking questions. Get those people out of there! The problem with this latest shortfall is that it's indicative of just how bad GM's predictions for the future are: If the company couldn't estimate with reasonable accuracy a few months ago how much cash it would need now, how can we possibly believe its rosy predictions for a turnaround?

Oh and GM is now expected to file for bankruptcy sometime around June 1, a filing that then-CEO Richard Wagoner said was "not an option" just a few months ago.

While Wagoner bickers with the company over his $20 million severance package, it's time for the SEC to start looking at some of the optimistic predictions the company has made over the past few years, and maybe investigate the myriad GM executives who've been dumping stock lately for insider trading.

But of course none of that will happen. Instead we just dump more money into the company.

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Last updated: November 26, 2009: 01:27 PM

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