GM chief: "We got a second chance"

On Thursday the Dow closed at 12,904. That's near its highest close in nearly four years. General Motors was up 9 percent on that news that GM has posted the highest profits in its history.

You may remember that GM was bankrupt and bailed out only three years ago, causing some to joke that the initials stood for "Government Motors." The car maker has covered a lot of road since then and CBS News correspondent Dean Reynolds caught up with the man in the driver's seat .

We met Dan Akerson, who has been CEO and chairman of General Motors since September of 2010, along a Detroit assembly line producing GM's Volt electric car, a symbol of GM's rebound.

"We got a second chance here," Akerson said. "A million jobs were saved, the industrial infrastructure and the manufacturing base of America in large measure is still intact. In fact it's prospering. All three of the big automakers are now profitable for the first time since maybe the '60s or '70s."

The 63-year-old Akerson is a Naval Academy graduate who's run several telecommunications companies, but never an automaker.

"When you took over, did you look at the place and go, 'Gee whiz, how screwed up is this?'" Reynolds asked Akerson.

MoneyWatch: GM records its highest profit ever: $7.6 billion
Video: GM posts record profits
GM cuts pensions: Rationale behind move

"Well, there were some long nights," recalled Akerson.

U.S. taxpayers have recovered nearly half of their $50 billion investment in GM when the U.S. Treasury took a majority stake in the company back in 2009. The government still owns 500 million shares. And if it wants to sell and just break even, GM's stock will have to double in value from where it is today.

"They're a shareholder just like a couple hundred thousand other shareholders we have," said Akerson. "We're working on their behalf and we hope that they'll get all their money back. It'll be determined by them, depending on when they want to sell."

GM has 12,0000 fewer employees than it did the year before restructuring and has cut back on pay and pension benefits.But work shifts have been added at three U.S. facilities and two plants here have been re-opened.

"Did President Obama save General Motors?" Reynolds asked

"Without the money, without the funding, it would have been very problematic," said Akerson. "At the risk of alienating a whole lot of potential customers, I would say the Obama administration did a good job."

Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney and other critics have argued the bailout was unnecessary, and that the regular bankruptcy process would have made GM and Chrysler stronger companies.

"Would that have happened?" Reynolds asked.

"Not in my opinion," asked Akerson. "It would have been in bankruptcy for years and I think you could have written off this company, this industry and this country."

On Thursday, GM announced 47,500 blue collar workers in the U.S. will each get a profit-sharing checks next month -- checks of approximately $7,000 a piece.

[Sam55129]

Yeah, I dunno. I have been reading up on it here: http://tothecenter.com/2012/02/obama-praises-auto-industry-attacks-republican-competition/

It just seems that Obama is starting to attack more than anything, and that truly is a shame.

[sandiegopete]

The right wing is livid that GM is still in business. They wanted to U.S. economy to be much worse than it is now. They have worked hard to try and prevent any recovery whatsoever from the financial crisis.

The United States can come back without the right wing. Their destructive views and bad mouthing of our country serve only our enemies. When GM ran an ad during the Super Bowl praising the resilience of the American worker the right wingers called it lies. That pretty well sums up what the right wingers think about American workers.

[whiskeyblue]

The economy would have come back without government bailouts. Bailouts didn't save GM, filing for bankruptcy did.

[sandiegopete]

Let's think for a minute. Regarding bankruptcy, would you accept the opinion a person who goes by the screen name of whiskeyblue, who has no known financial experence, or Dan Akerson, former CFO of MCI, Nextel and XO Communications?

[mullenplyr]

A 3 year old could tell this is a political story....come on...

[credibility2]

The big losers of this bailout are the taxpayers, who are still owed billions, the agents who lost their businesses and investments, and the suppliers of parts; none of them had anything to do with the poor management at GM's top. The only winners of this bailout were the auto unions and their overpaid leaders.

[whiskeyblue]

The bailout didn't save GM, it's the bankruptcy that saved GM. If it weren't for the bankruptcy, GM would still be paying out wages, salaries, benefits, and pensions they can't afford, and we'd still be bailing out GM. They should have done that sooner and there might not have been a need for a bailout.

No thanks to the unions either. Remember, they said that people are not going to buy GM cars if GM goes into bankruptcy. Obviously, they were wrong. I know why they resisted CHANGE. Bankruptcy is the only way to break union contracts. The same contracts that were taking down GM.

[whiskeyblue]

Unions are just as greedy as the banks and some CEOs. They want more and more and don't give anything back unless they don't have a choice in the matter.

[longtree-2009]

this ceo is just another elitist. only this time riding on the back of taxpayer monies that saved GM. FORD took no bailout monies and is doing well. obama should not have given the bailout money without strict payback clauses. GM still owes the taxpayers but betting GM staff and employees are getting raises, bonuses, including this CEO and past CEO ed whitacre former CEO of SBC now AT&T. elitists all but the bailout saved these non performing companies so hardly a success story. FORD is a success story.

[Desp303]

Ford took no bailout money because it just so happened to have secured 12 billion dollars of credit before the crash. It was blind luck as to the timing of securing the credit line. They didn't foresee anything or out maneuver the crash. You realize that businesses operate on credit and take loans right? The credit market froze on the crash and the gov had to step in to provide loans they would have normally gotten through banks and investors. That is what governments are supposed to do. They fix situations where the normal market action doesn't or can't function.

[Freepress1111]

I'm not sure why anyone would be surprised that Mitt Romney is against the auto industry bailout and wants the foreclosure process to just continue until it 'bottoms out'. What else should you expect from a guy who's never done anything for anyone except himself? A person doesn't get so wealthy that they themselves don't even know how much money they have by spending their time and resources helping others their whole life. Mitt's idea of public service is the public serving him. As usual, Republicans are concerned about money and ideology while Democrats are concerned about people. This guy doesn't belong anywhere near the White House.

[venusvegasvada]

GM chief: "We got a second chance"

Look at this guy, happy and grinning. Just another Fat Cat who is gaming the system and lining his pockets.

Congratulations. Enjoy your millions.

[JamesHovland]

Please stop upsetting the Republicans. They're so irritating. Why can't the media just stick to bad news. The old doom and gloom always made the Republicans so happy. I'm glad to hear that GM is doing well, but come on! You're driving Republicans nuts.

[sandiegopete]

It is understandable that Romney would promote bankruptcy. After all, private equity companies make lots of money through bankruptcies. The standard procedure is for the private equity company, such as Bain Capital, to take over a financially sound company, drain the liquid assets into the pockets of the private equity company and then declare bankruptcy for the acquired company claiming it cannot pay all that it owes to the creditors and the creditors wind up losing money on the deal while the private equity company walks away with most of the money. It's the way private equity operates. Quite similar to how organized crime used to make money from legitimate businesses. Notice how the rise of private equity has reduced the incidence of organized crime in legitimate business? Coincidence?