You aren’t invited to GM’s IPO party

Okay, let’s review a few events before I tell you about something that will make you want to take a hostage.

A. The federal government (read: politicians) pledged $700 BILLION of taxpayer money (read: yours and mine) to bail out Wall Street in 2008. According to many experts, this had to happen because Wall Street had so abused the securitization marketplace that we were teetering on the precipice of a full-blown economic depression.

Here’s how Wall Street fared after the bail-out: The bonus pool for Wall Street was $100 BILLION in 2007, the year before the bail-out. One year after, in 2009, the Wall Street bonus pool returned to $100 BILLION.

If you’re scoring at home, that’s Wall Street: HUNDREDS-of-BILLIONS / Taxpayers and small business: The Bill.

B. After decades of reckless contract concessions to unions and incredibly stupid management practices, General Motors goes hat-in-hand to the federal government for a bail-out in 2008. Those same politicians mentioned above committed approximately $50 BILLION to bail out GM and UAW.

Part of the rationale was to save “hundreds of thousands of jobs (read: union jobs). Meanwhile, small businesses across America had to lay off millions of their employees just to keep the doors open.

Scoring again: GM and unions: TENS-of-BILLIONS / Taxpayers and small business: Zilch.

So, here we are almost two years hence and GM has emerged from bankruptcy with the help of our tax dollars. In fact, GM is doing so well now, that they are making a profit and, full disclosure, have begun repayment on the bail-out.

GM is also about to go public with an initial public offering in the next few days. Because it has now become a more efficient and financially stable operation – thanks to you and me – the stock is expected to very quickly increase in value from the initial offering price. This means anyone who purchases the stock at the IPO price stands to make a tidy profit very quickly.

Now for the part that will make you want to take a hostage: You and I – regular retail investors who bailed out Wall Street and GM – aren’t invited to this party. As it stands at this writing, only wealthy investors and investment firms (read: Wall Street) will have access to IPO shares. Regular folks won’t be able to purchase the new GM shares through their accounts with Fidelity, E-Trade and the like.

Final score: Wall Street & GM: Bailed out and richer / Regular folks: The back-of-the-hand.

Here’s my proposal: The first day of the GM IPO, no institutions or highly-connected, rich investors can buy GM shares; only regular “retail” investors can buy GM shares. We would have all of the first day to buy as much as we want. The second day is open to everyone.

The U.S. Treasury Department could fix this if they wanted to – but if the average taxpayer is foreclosed from purchasing GM stock on the first day at the IPO price, we will witness another blatant example of collusion between Wall Street and Washington at the expense of regular folks on Main Street.

Real Ways for Small Business

Your Small Business Advisor!