Not to take anything away from Wylld’s blog, but as a retired accountant, I did some investigating, as is the nature of an accountant. There is always more to the story when it comes to financials, especially with billion dollar corporations such as GM. YOU CANNOT TAKE PART OF THE REPORT WITHOUT LOOKING AT THE ENTIRE PICTURE!
Part of the reason for your numbers is due to several factors:
Although they had a net loss of $3.25 billion in the first quarter of 2008, $1.45 billion of that was their 49% stake in GMAC. Also, the two-month long American Axle strike also cost GM about $800 million. Further support of bankrupt supplier Delphi’s restructuring took $731 million as well.
Although on the surface, the numbers don‘t look good, GM’s actual auto sells were not as bad as expected, and the stock actually rose after the earnings of $42.7 billion were announced.
Wylld is right that GM did better in regions like Europe, Asia and Latin America. They did underperform in North America, losing $812 million on revenue from sales of $24.5 billion. 100,000 units of production was lost was due to the American Axle strike that I mentioned previously. GM is the only automaker affected by the strike.

AUTOBLOG.COM HAS MORE IF YOU WANT TO READ IT, BUT HERE ARE SOME MAJOR DETAILS:
1. GM is leveraging in growing markets such as the foreign markets which will offset the challenging economic conditions in the U.S.
2. They made $1 billion on GM Latin America, Africa and Middle East, offsetting a loss of GM-North America.
3. They had unfavorable special items (accounting mumbo-jumbo) of $2.9 billion. This was partially due to equity investment in GMAC.
4. They took non-cash charge of $731 million to increase their liability for estimated net costs associated with GM’s support of Delphi’s bankruptcy as mentioned earlier. $394 million was recorded for non-cash tax-related valuation allowances related to deferred tax assets in Europe and another $324 million in charges related to restructuring actions in NA and Europe.
5. GM’s revenue was down only slightly at $700 million, due in part to lower NA automotive and financial services as well as insurance revenues.
6. Also, although it is true that GM sold 2.25 million vehicles in the first quarter of 2008, it was down by only less than one percent from that a year ago.
7. It is true that 64% of its sales were outside of the US, but that was only an increase of 8% from 2007.
8. NA revenue was less, but only by $3.6 billion, due to things previously mentioned as well as a softer U.S. market and their PLANNED action to maintain leaner inventories.
9. GM’s newer fuel-efficient vehicles are doing well in the marketplace (Cadillac CTS, GMC Acadia, Buick Enclave and all-new Chevy Malibu).
10. GMAC on a standalone basis had a net loss of $589 billion for the first 2008 quarter. This was mainly due to the connection to the housing market.
11. GMC says that looking forward; they will “take all actions necessary to assure long-term success, product excellence, leadership in advanced propulsion technology, growth in emerging markets and accelerating the restructuring of [their] business in the U.S. to achieve sustainable profitability.” That is from one of their “head honchos”. All financial statements have to have a management statement.

You have to be fair and see all the pieces that make up Wylld’s numbers. Nothing against what he has said, but the picture is really not as grim as he’s made it out to be. Believe me, as an ex-corporate tax accountant at Enron in Houston, I know first hand what you can make of financial statements. I also worked in higher education and college financials are no different! You can make or break what the public thinks based on interpretation alone. (Much of this is accountant and financial analyst jargon, so it might be pretty boring.)

I felt that I had to show that there are two sides to the numbers…so if you are a GM fan like me, don’t be overly concerned! I am sure Tony, Richard Childress and Rick Hendrick did their homework!