But, this I had to share for anyone that missed it. And because it boggles the mind so much that I needed to memorialize the back-handedness of this company and our government that owns it.

As I was watching 60 Minutes yesterday night, a commercial for GM came on, starring Ed Whiteacre, the CEO of General Motors. Mr. Whiteacre proudly claimed that GM has “repaid [their] government loan, in full, with interest, five years ahead of schedule.” Hmmm, I wondered, scratching my head. How did GM do this? They couldn’t possibly have recovered and sold that many cars in such a short period of time? My husband and I gave each other that look that says, I’m afraid to find out the answer to that question. What kind of sketchy accounting scheme did they use to accomplish that?

Well, I said that in jest, but it turns out to be absolutely true. Ed Morrissey of Hot Air picked up on the story and pointed out that GM repaid its government loan with other TARP funds that were available to it. Yes, I know it’s outrageous and confusing all in one. Here’s the story. And in case you missed it, the bogus commercial.

Who are these holdouts? Well, by the time a bankruptcy judge ordered the disclosure of their identities this week, the list had shrunk to just five investment firms.

The revealing of the group’s identities still leaves many of us troubled by the fact that last week, we witnessed the executive branch use their bully pulpit to castigate a group of investors that refused to submit to the administration’s plans for them.

These investors represented none other than pension funds of all kinds of workers, teachers unions’ funds, mutual funds and endowments among others. In other words, the investors represented millions of Americans who have worked hard, played by the rules and invested their money for retirement.

To put it simply, the investors ‘held out’ because the proposed deal was not good enough for them. They held secured bonds in Chrysler which is a fancy way of saying they lent money to Chrysler under the agreement that if Chrysler entered bankruptcy, those lenders would be the first in line to be repaid from any funds available.

During the negotiations, the government offered them 29 cents for each dollar they were owed. In total, the government asked the 46 lenders, who were owed $6.9 billion in secured debt, to accept $2 billion and wipe out the remaining $4.9 billion owed to them.

In the same deal, the government offered the United Auto Workers (UAW), an unsecured lender, 50 cents on the dollar and a 55% stake in Chrysler.

Unhappy with the proposal, some investors rejected the government’s offer. Understandably, they rejected a proposal that would have sent them to the back of the line behind the UAW, despite their contractual agreement to the contrary. Also, as the keepers of other people’s money, investors have an obligation to act in the best interest of the parties they represent – in other words, to get the best deal for their clients. In legal terms, the investors have a fiduciary duty to act with the highest standard of care to minimize losses to their clients.

So there you have it. During this time of financial uncertainty when we have all watched our investments dwindling, this group of investors, knowing that they could certainly do no worse in bankruptcy, stood up for their clients and said no to the government. And for that, the President himself vilified them. Not surprisingly, he was able to do so without much of a backlash given the anti-Wall Street mood that has become so popular recently. And despite the rhetoric and emphasis on these supposedly greedy investors, in reality, the people who stood to lose the most are people like you and me.