Jon Stewart: Thanks a lot, GM!
Jon Stewart, star of American TV's 'The Daily Show', had a typically ironic view on the insolvency of General Motors: GM has assets of 82.3 billion US dollars, and debts in excess of 172.8 billion US dollars. Taken at the bottom line, that makes a deficit of at least 60 billion US dollars. US President Obama is facing serious risks; and he is now very much involved, since the state acquired 60% of GM. So the American taxpayer is expecting a speedy return to good health. Obama said in his speech that 60% of General Motors now belongs to the American people.
In his show, Jon Stewart expressed his gratitude as a US citizen for his share of 60 billion US dollars of 'debt'. 20 billions of taxpayers' money had already been pumped in and nobody could say where it had ended up. Several millions had been splashed out on advertising. Stewart sees only one solution: burn down GM, and pocket the insurance money. However, GM's insurers are AIG - and last year AIG made a loss of 99.3 billion US dollars. So that won't work either, was Jon Stewart's dry conclusion.
