No new auto has ever been delivered more quickly to a customer than new automaker GM has been dropped off at our house. From bankruptcy court to Wall Street is geographically a short stretch in lower Manhattan, and with a jump start, a shove, and billions of dollars from the Obama administration, the new GM has gone from zero to sickly in record time.

After only 40 days wandering in the desert of bankruptcy court, GM "completed a major step in its turnaround," selling its good assets to something that lawyers call Vehicle Acquisition Co., soon to be renamed General Motors Co. The "bad" assets — not all of them are so bad, considering that legitimate, genuine claims for earned money, like pensions and unpaid bills, are among them — still rest on the scrap heap, compacted into something that lawyers call Motors Liquidation Co.

The only person guaranteed to squeeze sizable money from GM is disgraced ex-CEO Rick Wagoner, whose exit package is being negotiated with more respect being shown to him than to GM's creditors and employees.

Now the taxpayers own a new GM that's just a shell of the old one, so good luck competing on the world market. Inside the shell is a shriveled company that will sell you a Chevy or Caddy and little else, and it will do it without thousands of its old dealers.

"Leaner, more focused" — that's how the Wall Street Journal describes the new entity. The hype is extraordinary this morning, with wire services gushing that "a leaner and meaner automaker [is] ready to win back American consumers and pay back taxpayers." Yeah, and undercoating is worth paying extra for.

Time to return to the important business on the Street: the bonus recovery. "AIG Seeks Clearance For More Bonuses," reports the WashPost: