GM Reports Weaker-Than-Expected 4Q11 -- Absolutely Nothing To Do With The Bakken

Link here to Yahoo News.

"We obviously have work to do still and a long way to get to the objectives we ultimately want to get to," GM Chief Financial Officer Dan Ammann told reporters.

"We clearly have work to do in Europe. We have work to do in the South America business. Frankly, we have work to do all around the company in terms of cost opportunity," he added.

But, he could have added, we know the President's new incentives for the Volt will turn the company around.

Net income attributable to common shareholders was $500 million, or 28 cents a share, compared with $500 million, or 31 cents a share, in the year-ago quarter.

I could be wrong, but I believe overall this was a better quarter for the auto industry than a year earlier, but I could be wrong. 

It was also announced yesterday that GM is eliminating the traditional pension plan for its salaried employees and replacing it with a 401(k). Ouch. The best of both worlds would have been a traditional pension plan along with a 401(k). There is also a headline that GM has frozen the pay of its salaried employees.

In all fairness, GM did post a record ANNUAL profit for 2011.