July 10, 2009 General Motors looking forward to second chance Play video

(NECN: Peter Howe) - General Motors Corp. is calling itself new and improved, and without massive debt. This, after emerging today from bankruptcy protection. But, there are still questions over how to deal with the company's largest shareholder -- the federal government.

This was an extraordinarily short trip through bankruptcy reorganization for such a huge company -- just 40 days.

The new, much smaller GM is owned 61% by the U.S. government, about 12% by the Canadian government, 17% by the United Auto Workers Retiree Health Trust and the rest by bondholders.

Click here to hear more from the president and CEO of GM.

But, it is facing record low demand for cars, and is surviving only thanks to $50 billion in government loans.