Thursday, June 11, 2009

Article - WSJ.com-GM stock to be worthless.

Business psychology is absolutely amazing to me.  GM stock was trading at over $1.00 a share just  prior to the "imminent" bankruptcy filing.  It is still trading at over $.25 per share.  There is absolute no reason for this.  Any attorney will tell you that except in the most exceptional cases, common stock in a company that goes through a Chapter 11 bankruptcy is worth nothing.  There is a legal concept called the absolute priority rule--which must be adhered to in a bankruptcy plan--which requires that higher priority claims be treated "better" than lower priority claims.  As such, if the unsecured creditors receive less than the full value of their claim, the common shareholders must receive NOTHING.  GM was never going to be a 100% plan.  Despite the application of this fairly basic legal concept, it has taken the WSJ to break this story.   This proves a number of things, one being the stock market is entirely unrelated to rational business and legal concepts--suddenly ENRON's desire to trade in the weather doesn't seem that crazy.  However, rational markets should not allow this.  Finally, along with Britney Spears' proclamation that "I am not that innocent,"  the truism of GM stock worthlessness is revealed.

Article - WSJ.com

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