GM's $79.4 billion in profits over nine days

The urge to share these disturbing little notes in this report about GM's third quarter financial results has proven to be irresistible.

General Motors Co. said Monday it lost $1.2 billion from the time it left bankruptcy protection through Sept. 30, far better than it has reported in previous quarters and a sign that the auto giant is starting to turn around its business.
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The company cautioned that the earnings numbers mean little because they don't comply with U.S. accounting standards and cover only the part of the quarter after GM left Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on July 10.

Even more unusual is the $79.4 billion profit the troubled automaker reported for the first nine days of the third quarter, when it remained under bankruptcy court protection but was able to scrap colossal amounts of debt and other obligations.

"Direct comparisons are not necessarily applicable," said Chief Financial Officer Ray Young. "You can make some judgments in terms of trends."

There is more coverage on this topic elsewhere today for those that might be interested in learning more - I'm a bit preoccupied by watching the gold price at the moment.