What would you do with a thousand dollars?

Let's say you are the financial wizard in a family of four, and you have a thousand-dollar bill in the cookie jar. What will you do: pay down the Visa bill, go to Disney World, save it for a rainy day--no, wait! You'll invest it in General Motors stock, won't you?

No, I wouldn't, either. But that's the deal Obama's task force has worked out on our behalf: $70 billion in taxpayer loans will now be converted into 70 percent of GM's outstanding common shares. That's $230 for every man, woman, and child in the country, or $920 for our four-person households, including those--a near majority--who don't pay any income taxes at all.

Funnily enough, Ralph Nader (who drove the first nail into GM's coffin with his book savaging the Chevrolet Corvair) has an op-ed in the WSJ this morning, complaining that that the automotive task force is being too rigorous in closing dealerships, shutting down brands, and shedding jobs. The deal, he thinks, should be sent to Congress for vetting. Yes indeed, that would really make our investment safe. Blue skies! -- Dan Ford