You can still trade GM stock. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is an index often used to measure the overall health of the economy. It averages the stock prices for the 30 most powerful American companies. Being removed from the Dow doesn't mean your stock can't be traded, it just means your company's significance has diminished to the point where it is no longer a measure of our Economys health... Which is still really sucks as it indicates our industry is really hurting.

SELLC wrote:

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Boy you can tell I don't play the stock market....

Thanks for that clarification with regards to the DOW being an average.

If GM was to go Bankrupt, would that stiff all the stock holders? Or would it just reduce the value of the stock? I sure hope they pull out of this.

Yes, the shareholders would take a big hit.  It would reduce the value of the stock, but It would only go to zero if the company goes out of business completely like Enron.  Bankruptcy for GM would only mean a reorganization of the company under the direction of a judge.  The stock price could fall below a dollar per share - or whatever people will be willing to pay for it under such circumstances.  Bankruptcy would help GM in some ways in the short term because it would allow them to renegotiate their labor deals with the UAW.  There is a huge problem for the greater US economy if this were to happen though.  Consumers would be far less willing to by GM cars for fear the warranty would not be honored.  This would cause a more vicious downward spiral for their car sales, causing the need for further plant closings.  Many of the 2nd 3rd and 4th tier suppliers to GM that make many of the components on GM vehicles (suppliers that Ford, Chrysler, Toyota, Honda, and on and on also use) would go belly up because GM couldn't pay their bills to these suppliers.  This would cause a ripple effect through the entire automotive industry, as well as other industries ie: Steel, aluminum, rubber, plastic suppliers ect.  This would eventually cause an additional several million American manufacturing jobs to be lost and likely lead to another great depression.  Unlike Airlines which often File bankruptcy just so they can reneg on labor contracts, the bankruptcy of GM would ripple through everything because it is "systemic" or too big to fail.  No matter how angry we are at the billions of our tax dollars that get spent on bailing out GM and Chrysler ect, it is still actually cheaper in the real scheme of things for us to bail them out when these facts are considered. 

I was hoping they were just bluffing in effort to get as much backing as possible, however their bluff is getting pretty effing real feeling.

They ain't bluffing, they really are in trouble.  Some of this is their own fault for not anticipating and building the kind of fuel efficient vehicles people want to buy.  Most of their problem stems from the credit crunch that resulted from 30 years of deregulation and excess in the financial industry. 

LONG LIVE THE GENERAL!

AMEN

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