Five Dumbest Things on Wall Street: May 15

GM's Brass Punches Out

So much for the captains of the auto industry going down with the ship.

General Motors(GM Quote) shares traded to their lowest levels since the Great Depression this week as investors feared bankruptcy in advance of a government imposed June 1 restructuring deadline. Leading the rush to the exits was a gang of six top GM executives who unloaded more than 200,000 shares totaling around $315,000, according to a regulatory filing Monday.

A GM spokeswoman said the bigwigs waved goodbye to their holdings after the company warned that shareholders could see significant dilution if the stock swap GM announced last week was successful. GM's plan would essentially wipe out the holdings of remaining shareholders by issuing up to 60 billion new shares in a bid to pay off creditors, including a $15.4 billion loan from the U.S. government. ...