As GM Pays Off Loans, Will Executive Salaries Be The First Order Of Business?

Honestly I don't know or care what the executives get paid once the loans are paid back. As long as they are paid back in full with interest.

They never will be. By the terms of the agreement only a portion of the "loans" are to be paid by. The rest is to beissued as stock to the US tax payer. You have in effect are going to be a share holder.

When the stock is sold wouldn't that, in effect, pay back the loan?

OK. The cash loans have been repaid. But the US govt is still the majority GM stockholder ---- so the Board can revisit that issue, but will undoubtedly be denied. The US govt holds appprox. 61% of GM ownership in stock.

The reality is that GM has far more cash on hand (maybe $30-35B) and could possibly repurchase a sizable portion of the stock the govt holds ---- depending on how confident their estimates are about GM's "new" initial stock values when it re-enters the stock market. It may make sense for GM to buyback as most stock the US govt holds if their IPO will be fairly high ($50-75/share) so they can reap the direct & immediate affects from the market. On the flip-side, playing it safe and letting the govt hold on to the stock --- just in case their IPO is valued lower than expected. And in that case, I wonder if GM has the option to get 1st selection on the stock held by the US govt following an IPO?

so does this mean they are off the hook now?

I guess it depend on what we call a hook? They will be on "parole" I guess.

If I remember correctly GM got @ 16 Billion from the U.S. Government alone.

Yup... but they converted some of the loan into an ownership stake. Even after GM pays off this loan, the US government and the UAW own a large portion of GM

The U.S. Government conversion of 43 billion out of 50 billion in bailout funds turned into equity. U.S. Treasury will own 60% of GM. Canada traded 8 Billion into a 12% stake.

The 60% will be paid off when GM goes public once again.

1st order of business should be amputating the UAW...

right lets attack the working man and lower his wages to china standards and forget about the CEO's who rake in millions. Once we are done with the UAW and other labor Unions we can lower all American wages to China levels.

high school education should not be able to yield you $30 an hour. with $40 an hour worth of benefits.

I f that was the case then we would have no plumbers actors singers carpet installers, framers roofers etc etc.... Joe.

Also Joe I hope you have more intelligence to assume no one who works for the Big 3 do not have or is not currently in persuit of an education just like the rest of America.

First, to be a registered plumber, you need to go to school and take up the trade. Second, out of all of those positions you listed, only a very small handful of actors and singers actually make that $30 an hour wage + $40 an hour of benefits. So no, I stand by my statement.

also, for your second point. No, I entirely believe there are lots of engineers with lots of education working in GM, heck I even believe their are lawyers with law degrees and accountants with accounting degrees working for GM. All of these people are more educated then the person on the line raking in the dough who are paid to not think with what little education they have. Oh, I forgot, I bet there are also some people with arts degrees or general science degrees that found out how useless their degrees are, and resorted to working on the line.

Joe I was making a generalization with my comment about plumbers actors etc and yes those people are paid for their natural talent and sacrifice and "Do" make much more than $30 an hour plumbers can fix a problem in your home in about an hour and charge upwards to $150 to $200 an hour with no need of a degree. As far as actors or athletes again natural ability followed by a high rate of pay and sacrifice.
For you to assume no one on the line working for an automaker has no education or a useless degree is well uneducated many people have viable degrees to work in other jobs but also have the natural ability to stand 8 -10 hours all day, wait for someone to relieve them for a bathroom break since they just can't get up and go like other jobs, breath in polluted air from all of the toxic chemicals being used in the plant, run the risk of being killed daily from cars going over head to fork truck traffic zigzagging the isle ways. Not everybody can manage that along with being mechanical inclined or fast enough to do a job on the line. I personally invite you to try it.

UAW it is just envy.

Increase executive salary and GM will fall back to its old ways. The profits now are all on paper.