GM's loan payment sparks criticism, but boosts the company's image

Surprise, surprise. After all of the nattering by Congressional Republicans and the anti-bailout crowd, General Motors' image got a nice bump from the April 21 announcement that the company paid off its government loans. Recall that last month GM said they paid off $8.4 billion in loans to the U.S. Treasury and governments of Ontario and Canada. Then Chairman and CEO Ed Whitacre touted the early...