When General Motors Corp. reported its 2007 earnings earlier this month, it ought to have been easy to determine that this was good news: the corporation took in $178 billion from its automotive operations, and its pre-tax income from those operations rose by almost $900 million. GM’s 2007 revenues were notably strong in the “emerging” markets, indicating its global presence remains vital.

Those were the bullet points from GM, and they’re laudable, but the truth is more complicated. In fact, GM “lost” $39 billion in the fourth quarter of last year – a result of a one-time accounting charge. GM has to guarantee payment of deferred taxes, deferrals that GM has been building up as credits since it began its corporale restructuring more than three years ago.

Watching GM’s operations from the sidelines, I think it has been fair to conclude that the restructuring has been going well. GM has identified new core technologies (powertrain, chassis), and is investing heavily in them; it has secured a cost-saving labor contract with the UAW; and it has identified its future offerings.

GM also is facing up to the complex problems of closing operations and phasing out employees — not good news, but indicators of commitment to proceeding with the restructuring, in spite of the difficulty.

Now, all the potential tax savings of this restructuring are apparently not so certain, so the company concludes it had better get the problem out of the way — meaning, before the economic outlook gets any worse. Is the future outlook “worse” than a $39-million loss — the largest ever for GM?

It makes me wonder what GM knows, or feels, about the restructuring program that’s now entering its fourth year.

More sobering, it introduces the notion that for a company like GM, there is no end to the restructuring. And that idea is hard to shake.