General Motors

CEO Ed Whitacre can be seen on commercials on both sides of the border proudly declaring that he GM has paid back government loans with interest 5 years ahead of schedule.

A reality check is in order.  GM paid back $8 billion worth of loans.  This is true enough.  However this is nothing more than a whopper of a lie by omission.  GM was bailed out with a combination of loans and equity.  The equity portion was $50 billion.  GM no longer has any public shareholders....it is entirely owned by the taxpayers and unions.

The commercial gives the impression that the taxpayers have been paid back and that GM is on the rebound.  Time will tell whether GM will recover or not.  The truth is that GM is not worth anywhere close to $50 billion and the taxpayers are sitting on a huge loss on their equity investment.

Spending money to advertise a lie of omission just shows, once again, that GM is clueless.  This was not a good deal for taxpayers and some truth in advertising would be a welcome change.