In “If I Were a Rich Man,” the most famous song in “Fiddler on the Roof,” Tevye, the milkman, utters those memorable words, “When you’re rich, they think you really know.”

That’s surely the case with Kirk Kerkorian, a high school dropout who boasts an estimated net worth of $7.3 billion and owns 9.9% of General Motors. With that great wealth, it figures the reclusive 82-year-old really does know what he’s doing when he buys a stock.

That view, plus repeated comments from GM’s top brass that the world’s largest automaker has embarked on a significant turnaround program and that the idea of filing for bankruptcy protection is out of the question, has enabled GM’s beaten-up shares to rally in recent sessions from the high teens to nearly the mid $20s, a gain of more than 25%.The shares closed yesterday at $24.06.

Some critics, though, look at Mr. Kerkorian’s GM stock purchase and judge him to be little more than a blundering billionaire who is out of touch with the world of Detroit. Some also suggest he is trying to repeat his glory days of the 1980s, when he took a major stock position in another floundering automaker, Chrysler, and then tried to take it over. He failed, but in the process made a bundle when Chrysler later merged with Daimler-Benz AG.

“Nonsensical and quixotic” is how hedge fund manager Jim Melcher, skipper of Balestra Capital Management, views Mr. Kerkorian’s GM stake.

Mr. Melcher, who is short GM’s stock, said he thinks the shares are headed for single-digit territory. “When you consider GM’s obligations to its current workers and retirees,” such as pensions and health care,”there’s hardly any equity value,” he says.

What about GM’s turnaround plan? “Yes, it’s taking some reasonable action,” the manager observes, “but it’s a case of too little too late.” His GM outlook: bankruptcy or a major restructuring (with greatly curtailed operations).

At present, GM is paying a hefty $2 a share annual dividend. That’s foolish, says Mr. Melcher, who says he believes the dividend, given that GM is losing money, will surely be cut, probably sooner than later. Last year, GM lost a staggering $8.6 billion, or $15.13 a share.

Meanwhile, the struggling automaker also gets poor grades from academia, notably Peter Morici, an economics professor at the University of Maryland.

Denials to the contrary, he’s convinced GM is bankruptcy bound, a fate, incidentally, he also sees befalling Ford.

Pointing to GM’s $4.8 billion of red ink in the fourth quarter of 2005, Mr. Morici notes that losses are getting bigger. He says GM seems likely to bleed cash until it’s broke, while all shareholder assets are squandered on lavish executive compensation and outsize worker benefits.

The record loss clearly indicates the turnaround plan of GM’s CEO, Rick Waggoner, is failing, Mr. Morrici says. “GM’s boat is taking water faster than Mr. Waggoner and his managers can bail,” he says.

He contends it simply costs more to make GM cars and trucks than the company’s vehicles can fetch in the market. These problems, he says, far exceed those imposed by legacy costs, absence of government-provided health care and other excuses offered by GM managers and officials of the United Auto Workers. He figures either Mr. Waggoner will change GM and the UAW will accept the change, or they’ll both perish.

Hope, he believes, is quickly vanishing; present management and union leadership are incapable of achieving systemic change. “Either GM’s directors map out plans to take the company through Chapter XI, or one million good jobs will slowly evaporate as a consequence of GM mismanagement and UAW ideological obstinance,” he says.

Randall Vicks, a Los Angeles day trader, is short GM in some managed accounts. “Owning GM,” he says, “is like speeding along a highway in a car with a faulty brake and an oil leak.” Still, he admits he’s a somewhat nervous short, given Mr. Kerkorian’s involvement. “I’m sure he’s surrounded by some brainy advisers,” he observes, “and I don’t think you make a billion dollars by doing stupid things.”

Mr. Kerkorian, who is one of four children of Armenian-born parents and is founder of the opulent MGM Grand hotel in Las Vegas, could not be reached for comment.