GM filed for bankruptcy today. From now on, TTAC will chronicle GM’s fortunes under the series name bestowed upon post-C11 Chrysler: Zombie Watch. For there’s no doubt in my mind that GM will not recover from its federal stewardship to emerge, as Dan Neil puts it, “smaller, leaner, smarter and hungrier.” Sure, I’ll spot Dan smaller (obviously). Leaner? An efficient government-funded company is an oxymoron to rival military intelligence. Speaking of which, smarter? GM is as far from smart as Steven Hawking is from professional wresting. In fact, listening to GM CEO Fritz Henderson bleat to the press today, it struck me that the automaker is pulling a Mark Mothersbaugh: it’s de-evolving. Less obscurely, the company is actually getting stupider.

TTAC’s Google ranking on the whole GM bankruptcy deal has delivered unto us a few shout-outs from the MSM. Now that the C11 deed is done, public radio’s “The Takeaway” ’phoned this afternoon—to ask what they should ask GM marketing maven and dealer destroyer Mark LaNeve. Other than that, Al Jazeera. The Arab TV service called to arrange to interview about the collapse of the artist formerly known as the world’s largest automaker. I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, I’m worried that the network might use my comments about GM’s epic fail, the federal government’s abandonment of free market principles and GM’s bleak future to fuel the fires of anti-Americanism. I am, believe it or not, a patriot. On the other hand, it is what it is. America’s greatest strength is our citizens’ freedom of speech. Of course, I would say that, wouldn’t I? What say you? Should I accept or decline this invitation to discuss the dark side of America’s corporate culture and centralized governance?

Dan Neil’s April 2005 review of the Pontiac G6 ended by calling for fresh blood at the top of GM. His comments triggered the GM advertising boycott that inspired TTAC’s General Motors Death Watch. As you might expect, the Pulitzer-prize winning carmudgeon has a few things to say about GM’s bankruptcy. But I bet you wouldn’t have guessed that GM’s most famous (and talented) nemesis would mark the occasion by suggesting that failing to fully support Al Gore’s bid for the U.S. presidency was the company’s ultimate undoing. No really. Writing in the LA Times, Neil claims that “by backing Gore, who had the support of organized labor, GM would have gained enormous goodwill with the United Auto Workers, goodwill it desperately needed as it attempted to downsize in the new century. Gore also argued for universal healthcare, a program that, had it become reality, might have relieved GM and the other domestic carmakers of that burden . . .

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One of our contacts at the sharp end reports that General Motors has suspended payments to its dealers for warranty costs until the federal bankruptcy court can approve said payouts. This despite the President’s assurance that Uncle Sam is backing-up customer claims, and a $361 million dollar payment to GM for same. Even though it’s clear that this is a bureaucratic snafu, it’s not the kind of bureaucratic SNAFU that GM can afford. I mean, you, as owner of 60 percent of the Government Motors.

[Reprinted from Pravda.ru] It must be said, that like the breaking of a great dam, the American decent into Marxism is happening with breath taking speed, against the back drop of a passive, hapless sheeple, excuse me dear reader, I meant people.

Thanks to our main man, Justin, for providing these documents. History buffs may want to save a copy of this, General Motors’ C11 filing. Beyond that, here’s a list of GM’s assets. Needless to say, after 83 years on the New York Stock Exchange, GM has now been de-listed. “The parlous state of GM has left us with no choice but to remove it from the Dow,” said Robert Thomson, managing editor of the Wall Street Journal and editor-in-chief for all of Dow Jones. “A bankruptcy filing immediately disqualifies a stock regardless of a company’s history or its role as a cultural icon.” Parlous. How quaint. Anyway, Cisco Systems Inc. has replaced the automaker on the Dow 30 Industrial Average, which also punted Citigroup (which will be replaced by former division Travelers).

Maximum props to TTAC editor Jeff Puthuff for putting this document together. [Click here for pdf] I thank Jeff and all the other TTAC editors and writers for their contributions to our coverage of the U.S. and international automobile industry during the last four years plus. And thanks to all the TTAC commentators who added their two cents to these and other posts, keeping us honest, testing the strength of our intellect. No matter how this auto industry shake-out shakes out, rest assured that TTAC will continue to follow the story with the same no-holds-barred dedication to telling the truth about cars, and those who make them.

General Motors has filed for federal Chapter 11 protection. Official papers filed in Lower Manhattan court at 7:57 AM list $82.3 billion in assets vs. $172.8 billion in debts. The bankrupt automaker’s largest creditors are the Wilmington Trust Company ($22.8 billion in debts) and the United Auto Workers ($20.6 billion in employee obligations). Judge Robert E. Gerber has been assigned the case. The President of the United States will address General Motors’ insolvency in an official announcement later today. Meanwhile, a Rasmussen poll [via the Detroit Free Press] reveals that only 21 percent of likely voters support government aid to GM. Some 67 percent oppose the Obama administration’s plan to bless the troubled automaker with $50 billion (in total) in exchange for a 70 percent ownership stake in the reconstituted company. “Given a choice between providing government funding for GM or letting it go out of business, most of the respondents (56%) said it would be better to let GM go out of business.”

The mainstream media tends to fumble the metaphorical football on the symbolic goal line. With fewer than twenty-four hours left before General Motors files for Chapter 11, the MSM is set to go back, Jack, and do it again. Instead of excoriating GM’s management for not taking in more money than they spent, they’re parsing the American automaker’s bankruptcy as a “sign of the times.” Leading this electronic charge of the heat without light brigade: P. J. O’Rourke. Writing for the Wall Street Journal, O’Rourke paints GM’s dissolution as confirmation that America’s love affair with the automobile is, finally, dead. Rubbish.

Previously, on Who Wants to Own an Automaker, I estimated the Motown meltdown has sucked more than $100 billion from the taxpayers’ purse. I forgot to mention the tax breaks that the Treasury Department will bestow upon “new” Chrysler and “new” GM. The Desert Sun reports that GM will benefit from Uncle Sam’s new rules for bailout recipients—’cause we don’t want a government-owned/controlled/supported enterprise to pay taxes to the government, now do we? “The notices have the full effect of a law, even though they aren’t reviewed or approved by Congress. They also apply to banks and other financial firms receiving money from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP.” Remember “these are not ordinary times. The Treasury Department has, in effect, suspended long-standing tax rules for companies that receive bailout money, providing benefits not available to firms that don’t receive government help.” The Sun says GM could avoid some $12 billion in taxes. Wait; did you spot the loophole?

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Was there ever any doubt, really? If there was, it’s gone now, as Bloomberg reports that the German government has decided to put its taxpayers’ money behind a Magna-owned Opel. German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck told reporters in Berlin that Germany will provide a $2.1 billion “bridge loan” (direct translation) to keep Opel alive. “A solution has been found to keep Opel in operation,” Steinbrueck said. “You can be sure that we didn’t take the decision lightly. All the federal and state representatives are aware that there are some risks.” And there I was thinking understatement was an English thing.

Around? Talk about precision engineering . . . Official press release:

Detroit, Mich: (NYSE: GM) – General Motors President and CEO Fritz Henderson will host a press conference on Monday, June 1. The conference will be around mid-day at the GM Building, 767 Fifth Avenue, in New York. We expect to provide a final time, satellite feed, conference call number, and other details in a subsequent Media Advisory early Monday morning.

Bloomberg reports that the US Treasury has decided to bless post-C11 Fiat-controlled Chrysler with a $6.6 billion dowry. And just for S&G, the feds will write a check to pre-C11 GM for an “extra” $360.6 million, earmarked for its presidentially guaranteed warranty program. (That’s thanks to the Troubled Asset Relief Program, for some reason.) “The assistance brings to $19.76 billion the total that Detroit-based GM has received so far,” Bloomies tallies. Oh, and “new” Chrysler is also set to scarf an additional $350 million under a loss-sharing deal with GMAC LLC. Rounding it up a bit . . .

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The New York Times:

For taxpayers to be made whole, the new mini-G.M. would have to produce earnings sufficient to support an enterprise value of at least $95 billion, the sum of a $69 billion market cap and its $26 billion of debt and preferred stock under the restructuring plan. Using market valuation multiples of five times that means New G.M. must generate operating cash flow somewhere in the order of $19 billion annually.

That would require both increasing annual sales to some $150 billion, almost 50 percent more than the entire company, shorn of its various financial and international businesses, is expected to generate this year, and matching the whopping 14 percent operating cash flow margin that Toyota achieved in its best year ever. It requires a vast leap of faith to believe that can happen.

Malcolm “Call Me Malcolm” Bricklin and I had our little chin wag this morning. As expected, the serial entrepreneur dominated the initial conversation. Less predictably, Bricklin began by bludgeoning me with Google-sourced biographical data. “I know about the Subaru [flying vagina] thing,” Bricklin pronounced. “You’ve got balls. I assume you’re not just saying all this stuff to be controversial.” After admitting his own insanity, Bricklin started recounting the entire history of the Yugo. His no-word-allowed-in-edgewise tale included the Cadillac Allante’s inhibiting effect on X1/9 production and Henry Kissinger’s contribution to the car that launched a thousand jokes. At some point, I interrupted Bricklin to ask about his latest venture: hydrogen. Turns out I got it wrong. Bricklin isn’t proposing a societal switch to hydrogen fuel. He’s got one of those 100mpg carburetor things. Only his creates “hydrogen-on-demand.”