Paper Profits

SOMETIMES IT'S A LOT EASIER TO SELL STOCK THAN motorcars. On the eve of its annual meeting last week in Fort Wayne, Ind., General Motors completed the largest new offering by a U.S. company, a worldwide sale of 55 million shares that will bring in more than $2.1 billion -- the equivalent of selling more than 131,000 cars and trucks. It was the fourth time this year that G.M. has gone into the public financial markets for a total of $5.3 billion, still well below the $7.09 billion the automotive giant lost in the North American market last year.

Skeptics also point out that there is a limit to such trips to the marketplace and that most of the money being raised is earmarked for G.M.'s financial obligations rather than new products and capital innovations. But investors are apparently hoping that a new management team assembled after last month's boardroom coup can turn fortunes around. If that happens, the betting is that G.M. can once again make money as fast as it has lost it since 1990.