This is part of CAR magazines interview with outgoing Bob Lutz, the guy responsible for GM's turn around. He gives the low down on how it was a Republican that came up with the idea of GM being "government owned", not the Obama admin.
Full interview here
http://www.carmagazine.co.uk/News/Search-Results/Industry-News/CAR-interviews-the-retiring-Bob-Lutz/ So you're ok with the US government's ownership of GM?
'Yes and no. Nobody likes being a government-owned company. The American right-wing talkshow hosts portray it as the nationalisation of General Motors. In fact the Obama administration wanted to give us money in the form of debt, and it was the lone Republican on the taskforce – a former Marine officer called Harry Wilson, a free-market Republican – who said: "If you give money to [bankrupt] GM in debt, they'll drown in interest payments. They'll never be able to pay the principal back. It'll be an enormous financial burden..."
'He suggested giving us the aid in equity. That way we get the money but it doesn't cost us anything. The administration said: "But we don't want to own General Motors", and Harry Wilson said: "You will, but only until GM does an IPO and swaps government equity for private equity." So now the poor Obama administration gets blamed for a left-wing socialist takeover of GM, when it was in fact proposed by a free-market Republican.'
