GM's First Female Chief Has an Incentive Problem

Two big pieces of news on General Motors Co. : The government has sold its remaining stake, locking in a loss of roughly $10 billion, and the company has named Mary Barra to the position of chief executive officer. She will be the first woman to head a global automaker.

Of these two pieces of information, the latter is much more interesting. It's hard to find much new to say about the government's investment in GM: We lost money that we wouldn't have if we'd just stepped in to provide debtor-in-possession financing to see GM through a reorganization, rather than becoming part owners so the administration could micromanage the process. That's almost $35 for every man, woman and child in America, and we don't even get a coupon to apply toward a new GM automobile. Still, there's not much we can do about that now.