The
stock market has had a chance to digest GM’s efforts to cut costs by slashing executive pay and shareholder dividends
earlier this week, and it’s reaching for the Pepto-Bismol.
GM share prices fell more than 5 percent today
as Deutsche Bank downgraded the stock from “hold” to “sell.” The downgrade seems based on the
limited scope of the cash savings resulting from GM’s latest moves, as well as the hostile response of the United Auto
Workers union, which does not see anything in GM’s announcements that would justify new concessions from the union.
Reuters reports
one analyst as saying there is a “sizable uncertainty” about when, or even if, GM’s core North American
operations will return to profitability. Meanwhile, the current issue of Fortune magazine, headlined “The Tragedy of General
Motors” (well worth reading) suggests that bankruptcy may well be inevitable.