Very early Thursday morning, General Motors filed paperwork that pinned down a price range for its initial public offering (IPO). Three of the four owners of GM (the U.S., Canadian and Ontario governments, and a union health care trust) are set to sell 365 million shares of the automaker.

This number of shares is roughly a quarter of GM's outstanding stock. The triumvirate expects to sell the shares at a per-share price between $26 and $29. Should the shares sell in this range, the IPO would pull in roughly $10 billion for the trio. Again, if the shares do sell in this range -- then the U.S. government would reduce its stake in GM from 61% to slightly more than 40%. This scenario would net the U.S. Treasury nearly $7 billion.

Tuesday morning started off on a bearish note, which intensified after the latest news release from the S&P/Case-Shiller home price index. The index reported that home prices dropped 0.2% during August, which brought an end to four straight months of gains.

The Case-Shiller home price index was termed "disappointing" by those compiling the data. In 15 of the 20 metropolitan areas tracked by the index, home prices dropped compared to July. In addition, the data showed that annualized price growth slowed to 1.7% from July's 3.2%. The only cities that showed an increase in home prices were Chicago, Detroit, Las Vegas, New York and Washington D.C.

This is not good news. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) did an assessment of growth for the U.S. economy and forecasts lower growth this year and next, according to a report in Reuters.

For the year 2010 the IMF reduced U.S. growth estimate from 3.3% down to 2.6%. For 2011 they also lowered growth from 2.9% to 2.3%.

According to the Congressional Oversight Panel's newest report (due for release today), the government may haved jumped the gun a bit when bailing out American International Group (AIG).

The panel cannot be sure that the U.S. taxpayers will every be fully repaid the $182 billion given to the troubled insurer. In fact, the panel believes that the government should have explored other options before bailing out AIG.

The Atlantic monthly has published updated Pew Research Center survey data on public trust in government, and the contemporary trend mirrors much of the pattern for the modern era since 1960. According to the research, Americans' trust in the their government tends to rise when the economy is doing well and fall during recessions.

A couple of caveats: Trust took a big hit amid the tumultuous late-1960s/early-1970s period, when the divisive Vietnam War occurred and the nation dealt with the Watergate political scandal of the Nixon administration. From a high above 75% in the early/mid 1960s, trust in government fell below 50% during this time period.

The stock market has been fretting about the European Union's response to the economic calamity in Greece. That certainly is worthy of note as I have been doing the same lately, see: Greek Debt Exposes European DisUnion. However, Greece is not the economic titan that China is.

China is a much larger concern to me because it can rock our world big-time!

As Google Inc (GOOG) has experienced, along with other companies and the entire citizenry of China, they like their secrets, their silence, and their control. What they do not like is transparency, unfettered freedom, and distribution of information, and I doubt, your shareholder rights.

"Who is watching the store?"

During the 2003 -- 06 boom years, three agencies, The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the Office of Thrift Supervision, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency gave out millions of dollars in bonuses to regulators of these agencies.

The bonuses were supposedly given out for "superior" performance. Records show that at least $19 million in bonuses was awarded.

Earlier Wednesday morning, Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported that U.S. job cuts dropped in February to the lowest level in 3.5 years. This slowing continues the trend of shrinking job cuts since last January. Later, ADP reported what was expected: the private sector cut 20,000 jobs during February. This loss was the lowest since 22,000 jobs were added in January 2008.

My guess is that we will not hear anything about the snow in this report akin to Tuesday's warning from the government. In fact, I'm guessing that we will hear that this report came in as expected and that "the recovery" is still on track.

Elkhart, Indiana; a favorite stomping ground of President Obama - where the government's economic stimulus plan was to be on full display, helping the town rise like a phoenix from the ashes. According to this New York Times article, Elkhart has gained jobs in the past nine months, but the federal support for housing is failing. More than one in 10 mortgages in Elkhart is "seriously behind" on payments and the median sale price of homes is back to where it was 10 years ago. One of the main goals of the federal support program was to keep prices from falling and mortgage delinquencies from rising, and how is that working out? Elkhart residents note that the only reason their real estate market works at all is because of the emergency federal funding. In fact, in the past 18 months, the FHA upped loans in Elkhart by 40% while defaults increased 174% --- not a good ratio.

CEO turnover is starting to stabilize, suggesting that recession-impacted companies have been through the worst of the corner-office shuffling. The number of top dogs leaving their posts by November 2009 fell almost 18% compared to the same 11 months last year, according to a report supplied to BloggingStocks by outplacement consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Only 94 CEOs left their posts last month, a slight up-tick from October's 89, but 10% lower than the 104 recorded in November 2008.

Through the end of November, 1,122 CEOs have moved on, a decline of 17.6% year-over-year. Last year, 1,361 departures were seen by this point. If the trend continues, CEO turnover could reach its lowest level since 2004, when only 663 occurred.

The health care industry experienced the most changes, with 22 CEOs leaving their posts, bringing the total to 181 for the sector this year, topping all industries. The government and non-profit sector comes next with 148 this year, 18 in November. The financial services industry lost 116 CEOs, with only 10 happening last month.

American International Group (AIG) trimmed its tab to the American people by $25 billion on Tuesday. The insurance company, plagued by fallout from the financial crisis for more than a year, moved two subsidiaries -- American International Assurance and American Life Insurance -- into special units that are used to separate a business from its parent company. A spinoff or sale is the next logical step.

For now, AIG is holding on to the companies and giving the U.S. government preferred equity in the two life insurers. When AIG decides to send the companies public or divest via a private transaction, the feds (and taxpayers) will be able to cash in. Before becoming too optimistic, keep in mind that a timetable hasn't been set.

Last Friday the market reacted favorably (or less negatively) to the latest report from the Labor Department's unemployment figures of 9.7 percent in August, as employers cut 216,000 jobs last month. The percentage is up but the raw numbers are trending down allowing for a sigh of relief on Wall Street with the major indices all up over 1%.

Many would argue that when it comes to the truth, the government is prone to favor aesthetic figures instead of the straight data. I tend to agree with this view as the numbers appear sculpted to be the least offensive.

Early this morning, Rio Tinto (NYSE: RTP) found itself facing new allegations in the arrest of some of its employees in China. RTP is accused of overcharging Chinese steel mills by $100 million during the past six years, and the latest accusations cover the sale of iron ore.

To catch you up on the situation between RTP and the Chinese government, back in early July, RTP was accused of bribing officials and four of its employees were detained by authorities in Shanghai on suspicion of stealing state secrets. The allegations contended that the four employees bribed executives from 16 of China's major steel mills in order to obtain industry information.

We live in amazing times. Consumers are earning more; at least the ones with jobs. They are also saving more than they have in the last 15 years. The savings rate, which was hovering near zero in early 2008, surged to 6.9 percent, the highest level since December 1993. I think that is fantastic!

Ben Franklin said, "A penny saved is a penny earned". If that is true, then people are improving their economic condition day by day. Strange as it might seem, the government is troubled by this.

The government and many economists are worried that without greater spending by consumers any economic recovery will be stalled that much further. During our recent manic economy, over the past decade, consumer spending was responsible for about 70% of the GDP.

I say to all my readers, let others spend -- YOU KEEP SAVING -- and reducing debt. You will be glad you did. The consumer led economy was a false economy. The world is mourning the sudden death of Michael Jackson who passed away yesterday from yet to be determined causes leading to cardiac arrest, reportedly $400 million in debt. You think he was under any stress?!

The Energy Department is set to lend money to Ford (NYSE: F), Tesla, and Nissan (NASDAQ: NSANY), according to the Associated Press. The report cites anonymous sources, with the official announcement set for today in Dearborn, Michigan.

Reportedly, Ford has asked to receive $5 billion in loans by 2011, although the sources were not certain on how much money the automaker would receive. Nissan's requested amount was undisclosed and Tesla has reportedly asked for $450 million. The loan program the automakers are trying to tap into was approved by Congress last year in order to help car companies and suppliers develop green vehicles and components (such as the advanced battery) and help automakers meet the new fuel-efficiency standards of 35 miles per gallon by 2020.