Back in July, Shagya Blog commented on a New York Times piece about General Motors, about which I’d been meaning to comment since right around the time I first read it. The post notes that, G.M. acknowledged in its most recent annual report that from 1993 to 2007 it spent $103 billion “to fund legacy pensions and retiree health care — an average of about $7 billion a year — a dramatic competitive and cash-flow disadvantage.” During those 15 years, G.M. paid only $13 billion or so in shareholder dividends. The company has been sending far more money to its retirees than to its owners. I thought, that was a quite fascinating financial tidbit. General Motors gave $13B to its “owners” and it gave 850% of that to its former … Read entire article »