But G.M. makes money (when it does) on new cars and on the financing of loans.
In late June, for example, Martha Coakley, the attorney general of Massachusetts, extracted $102 million from Morgan Stanley in a case involving Morgan's extensive financing of loans made by New Century, a notorious and now defunct lender that was based in California.
But his pet proposal was federal financing of small loans to entrepreneurs in developing countries.
Assessing the risk of something even as plain vanilla as financing of auto loans is problematic for investors.
"Our focus has been on the borrower," she said in an interview last week, "but as we've peeled back the onion we've gotten the picture of the role Wall Street played through the financing of these loans".
The extended asphyxiation does not only apply to the financing of new loans but also to existing lines of credit.
Heal Africa began as a hospital and treatment center for rape victims, but has now expanded its program to provide counseling, leadership training, financing of micro loans, housing and treatment for orphaned children with HIV, and legal assistance to women.
G.M.'s new deals extend zero percent financing to loans of up to five years on all its vehicles except Hummers.
Mr. Stanley reached that conclusion, he wrote, after an internal survey of domestic military bases revealed cases of " 'bait and switch' financing, falsification of loan applications or other documents, failure to pay off liens on trade-in vehicles, 'packing' loans with items whose price tag bears little or no relationship to their actual cost or value, and discriminatory lending".
Military clients have been victims of " 'bait-and-switch' financing, falsification of loan applications or other documents, failure to pay off liens on trade-in vehicles, 'packing' loans with items whose price tag bears little or no relationship to their actual cost or value, and discriminatory lending," among other schemes, Mr. Stanley said.
She has called for using billions of taxpayer dollars to finance the modification of loans threatened by default.
