ONCE A GREAT COMPANY - AT 8:31 A.M. ET:  With all the hype about recovery, we've reached the bottom, we see the light at the end of the tunnel, etc., etc., there are certain stark realities out there.  General Motors is one of them.  We're not talking only of the main company.  We're talking about the dealers, the suppliers, the customers whose trade-in value is plummeting, and all the little businesses that depend on this once-great company.  No one is shrugging shoulders:

General Motors is preparing to file for bankruptcy protection as early as May 31, but a speedy restructuring of the carmaker faces headwinds from an increasingly sceptical US Congress.

Under the current plan, the US government would cancel most or all of its existing debt in the company and invest in a “new” GM that could emerge from bankruptcy in the autumn, said a person close to the matter.

GM would receive tens of billions of dollars in new government money, probably in stages, to prop up its business at a time when car sales are threatening to be lower than the 10m annual rate at which GM says it can break even.

And...

Shares of GM dropped by 25.5 per cent to close at $1.43.

COMMENT:  The effects here are not just economic, they're psychological.  Chrysler in trouble is one thing.  GM is on another level - practically the symbol of American industry.  And, increasingly, Americans are starting to doubt that the government should be running car companies, or has the ability to run them effectively.  The economic downturn continues, and now the policies are Obama's.  He can't continue to blame BUSH (!!).

May 23, 2009