says he will be stepping out -- stepping down at the end of this month and will be succeeded by dan akerson>> he was the obama administration's pick to lead the lead car maker. >> fritz has done a remarkable job leading the company to run unprecedented time of challenge and change. momentum has been building our company over the past several months. but we have all agreed that some changes needed to be made going forward. >> and the transformation continues. ed whitacre will hand over power at the end of the month to this man, and dadan qakakerson. he will be the company's fourth chief in 18 months. is he the right man for the job? >> i think he wrote said it -- he is set up to come in and take it over and be successful. >> the detroit firm has cut costs and axed jobs and is making money again. >> the obama administration still owns two-thirds of gm, learning it the nickname "government motors." the only trustee have is to return here to the stock market. >> it is one of the largest stock offerings ever made by an american corporation and it may not be a coincidence. >> people are going to

board member dan akerson, a wall street veteran are no auto industry experience. akerson has been preparing g.m. for a stock sale called an i.p.o., which will help pay back taxpayers for their investment in the company. even so, today's management shuffle took many by surprise. >> it's just a little disconcerting at this particular moment because we would have expected whitacre to stay through the end of the i.p.o. process. >> reporter: on the road ahead, g.m. needs to convince investors that its weakest days are in the rearview mirror. the auto maker lost $88 billion in the five years before it filed for bankruptcy last summer. even with its $1.3 billion quarter, g.m. still trails rival ford, which earned $2.6 billion during the same time. in its restructuring, g.m. cut four of its eight core brands and shed 13,000 jobs, but they eliminated all its debt. >> some painful cuts were made but necessary ones. >> reporter: now the view from the showroom floor is upbeat. >> this is much better. we had a rough year in the industry last year, but 2010 is responding. we're

the company announced ceo ed whitaker will be stepping down on september 1st to be replaced by dan akerson. gm is expected to announce the terms of the initial public offering soon. it downgrade its outlook on the economy and also said it would not shrink its balance sheet, but is the market misinterpreting what the fed did and said. joining me now is michelle degirard, rbs senior economist and jim paulson, chief investment strategist. welcome to you both. michelle, i'll start with you if i could, the fed made a decision to reinvest its holdings back into treasurys. can you explain what the fed actually did and why he did it. >> what's happening now is they're allowing the mortgage and agency portfolio to shrink as he matured, as these securities matured and in effect, what that's doing is taking reserves out of the banking system and it isn't tighteninging, but in a way that's sort of what happened with the fed just not doing anything. if they re-invest those proceeds they're going to basically keep that money in the banking system. so it's a very neutral posture for the fed, and i think

dan akerson has no automotive experience but his ties to wall street will come in handy as the company prepares its public stock offering. taxpayers currently own more than 60% of gm. >>> overseas now, new flood warnings have been issued in pakistan this morning where more than 1600 people have already died, and millions are homeless. disease is spreading as an already desperate situation grows more desperate by the hour. our senior foreign correspondent jim sciutto is there. good morning, jim. >> reporter: good morning, juju. we were caught ourselves in the middle of a flash flood in morning and these continuing rains are posing real problems for the relief effort, including american aid flights for some. worst-hit areas. for pakistan's worst ever natural disaster, american helicopters, food and marines stand at the ready. they're being held back by rain that won't stop pouring. relief helicopters, the first of 19 the u.s. is sending here, grounded for a second straight day. 400 tons of food sitting in a warehouse. >> there are a lot of people who need help, right? as the time goes on