Posted on 01/25/2018 4:21:51 AM PST by RoosterRedux
Sometimes we look back a decade or so and reconsider our word choice. For instance, I used to call General Electric — with its heavy lobbying, its intimate ties to the White House, all its bets on green energy, on embryonic stem cells, on Obamacare, on industrial policy — the “for-profit arm of the Obama administration.”
Those words were ill-chosen. Specifically, in describing GE, it was a mistake to use the word “profit.”
No company has spent as much on U.S. lobbying since 2000 as General Electric. And no component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average has performed worse since 2000 than General Electric.
The company’s stock is tanking. Its profit margins range from sclerotic to negative. Its recent big bets on Europe and green energy are proving to be duds. GE has already sold off its appliance business and is trying to find a buyer for its light bulb business.
That’s not enough, according to some major investors, one of whom has called for a full breakup of GE.
It’s a sad state for a company that has represented industrial strength for more than a century. It’s also a telling epigraph for Obamanomics.
GE CEO Jeff Immelt kicked off the start of former President Barack Obama's administration with a letter prophesying a golden era of American industrial planning, ushered in by the bailouts and a new president who promised a “remaking” of America.
In a letter praising the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Treasury, “and global governments,” plus “stimulus programs being implemented around the world [that] will provide trillions in new investments,” Immelt foresaw that the “global economy, and capitalism, will be 'reset' in several important ways.”
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...
I think he means "epitaph."
Supposedly, GE (spit) is looking to dump their locomotive-building component, too. Look for foreign takeover of that division.
I saw from the inside how Jack Welch’s policies set GE on the road to failure. Anytime you cover up mismanagement with high markups, you’re heading towards a wall when sales evaporate.
Supposedly, GE (spit) is looking to dump their locomotive-building component, too. Look for foreign takeover of that division.\
And, for multiple years during the Obama Administration, GE paid zero federal income taxes.
GE was also the poster child for forced ranking of its employees started under Jack Welch. Plenty of articles on the poison fruit of that tree.
Indeed.
Talk about poetic justice!
Still, I’m wondering if now is the time to delve into GE. The bad news is mostly out, including the business about GE Capital and the dividend.
So they can’t pick the hammer up.
The company i work for did that years ago to. Was not received well.
In freer times, I’d go to the hardware store for a lightbulb, see the wattage I wanted and pluck it off the shelf. Maybe a buck for a pack of 4. In and out in less than 5 min.
Now, not only do I have to pay more, even adjusted for inflation, I have to spend about 15 minutes in the “lightbulb aisle”, looking like an idiot, as I try to find the correct bulb. I can’t just grab one that fits, because if I get the wrong “color”, I have the ugly, florescent type light I can’t stand in my house. God forbid I don’t have the old one with me to be sure I get it right.
I blame this degradation in my personal life on GE - who, in their attempts to boost their LED bulb business and increase market share, colluded w/politicians to make filament bulbs illegal. Every time I go for a light bulb, I am reminded of how the government is in my face. Before, I was just buying a bulb.
As such, I have made it a personal policy, for years now, to avoid their products at all costs.
Presuming other like minded folks are out there, this would be a contributor to their demise.
Were this lightbulb story the only such event in my life, I’d probably ignore it, but the number of products where government is “in my face” is continually expanding. I revolt where and how I can.
From a current GE employee, management has been the biggest failure. Employees openly scorn former/current management & blame GE Board for letting spending go unchecked. Staff ask why these people are not in jail! Morale is non existent. JRI spent too much $$ & too much time kissing Obama’s a$$
Nice going GE following your pied piper Choomer’s lead has led to unprofitable results from his unworthy visions.
Past management of GE did this.
I despise Obama and the Obamanation, but this is an old problem for GE. Change of managment over 20 years ago was a disaster.
It was once a fine company, long long ago.
Immelt bet the GE farm on the global warming / clean energy scam - America didn’t buy it.
“I saw from the inside how Jack Welch’s policies set GE on the road to failure.”
Bump!
Obama did a lot of damage to more companies than GE.
BP was one of his largest contributors. When the well blew up in the Gulf, barry screwed over BP.
Health insurance companies also.
Central Planning is all about collusion to eliminate competition and create a monopoly.
Like freon change (several times for nothing), like plastic gas can regulation, like ballistic grass catcher bags, like all the other Fedzilla nonsense. ComDem Insanity.
How about just making quality products at reasonable prices that consumers want to purchase. Not trying to partner with a highly flawed government claptrap of a future vision of utopia.
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