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Maybe President Obama should have called it the Chinese Jobs Act. That way he could have given his good friend Jeffrey Immelt, chairman and chief executive of General Electric, a shout-out, or asked him to take a bow. Immelt, who was sitting in the gallery of the House of Representatives as Obama's guest during Obama's American Jobs Act speech to a joint session of Congress last week, had the face of a man looking well pleased with himself. And why not? He is a man who has created more jobs than anyone else in Washington, including Obama. The jobs just...

Sarah Palin has joined the manic bashing of General Electric, calling the conglomerate "the poster child of corporate welfare and crony capitalism." One day after Elizabeth Warren said that GE "pays nothing in taxes" as part of her announcement that she would run for the U.S. Senate to represent her home state of Massachusetts, Palin -- the former half-term governor of Alaska, cable stalwart and perennial fence-sitting would-be presidential candidate -- said that the company "pays virtually no corporate income taxes." Palin said nothing about reforming the tax code to address the tax credits claimed by General Electric. Palin quickly...

Crony Capitalism on Steroids from GE to Solyndra .by Sarah Palin on Wednesday, September 14, 2011 at 10:25pm.In my recent speech in Iowa, some eyebrows were raised when I took on our government’s enormous economic problems caused by crony capitalism. As if on cue, just days later President Obama selected someone who exemplifies a major crony capitalism problem to sit next to the First Lady when he delivered his “jobs plan” speech before Congress. He selected General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt as his honored guest. Having grown up with great respect for GE thanks to stories my grandfather shared with...

*snip* General Electric [GE 15.41 0.40 (+2.66%) ^ 0.40 (+2.66%) ] officially notified Berkshire Hathaway [BRK.A 103460.00 -340.00 (-0.33%) ] on Tuesday it intends next month to repurchase the $3 billion of preferred stock it sold him in October 2008.GE has flagged the move for a while. Under terms of the deal it struck with Buffett when all hell was breaking loose, the company led by Jeff Immelt was obliged to wait three years to call the bonds. It also needed to give at least 30 days notice—hence this week's letter from Fairfield, Connecticut, to Omaha. Buffett's money doesn't come...

“Get out of the way.” With this statement, John Galt articulated the simple and necessary policy solution to the disastrous centrally-planned economy in Atlas Shrugged. It’s also sage advice that President Obama should consider before he unveils his latest jobs plan before the Joint Session of Congress tonight. This advice is strikingly prescient as our nation’s economy moves ever-closer to mirroring the calamitous state of affairs that befell society in Rand’s novel. During his two and half years in office, Obama has crushed the labor market with a pro-statist agenda, which includes ObamaCare, the stimulus package, coziness to Big Labor,...

The White House's invited guests who will hear President Obama speak to Congress tonight about creating jobs for the common man include a CEO under fire for moving jobs to China and a mayor who recently built a six-foot wall around his mansion. Jeffrey Immelt, chairman of GE and head of the president's jobs council, tops the list of invited guests who will listen to Mr. Obama's speech from the first lady's box in the House chamber. Mr. Immelt has been criticized for GE's plan to move the headquarters of its x-ray business to Beijing; Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich, Ohio...

The White House just put out the list for President Obama's jobs-focused address this evening. Those who will be in the gallery with first lady Michelle Obama include: — Jeffrey Immelt, CEO of General Electric. He's chairman of the President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. So look for Obama to again stress the importance of technology, research and development. — Steve Case, who co-founded America Online and is, the White House says, "one of America's most accomplished entrepreneurs and philanthropists." He fills the "American can-do/entrepreneurial spirit" slot. — Darline Miller, CEO of Permac Industries, a Minnesota company that makes "precision...

The White House invited several guests to attend President Barack Obama's speech to the nation on jobs: JEFFREY IMMELT -- Chairman and CEO of GE; chairman of President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. STEVE CASE -- Chairman and CEO of Revolution LLC and co-founder of America Online; KENNETH CHENAULT -- Chairman and CEO of American Express;. RICHARD TRUMKA -- President of AFL-CIO; member of President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. GOV. MARTIN O'MALLEY -- Maryland governor. MAYOR MARK MALLORY -- Two-term mayor of Cincinnati. MAYOR ANTONIO VILLARAIGOSA -- Two-term mayor of Los Angeles. GRACEY IBARRA ---- Certified nursing assistant and...

Kucinich to Immelt: ResignBy Dan Freed 08/26/11 - 01:22 PM EDT NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- General Electric chief Jeffrey Immelt should resign from his position as head of the President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness because many of his company's goals conflict with the council's goal of boosting U.S. employment and economic output, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) argued Wednesday in a little-noticed press release. "If he does not resign, the White House should remove him," Kucinich said in the statement. Kucinich's statements came in response to a story in the Washington Post describing General Electric's transfer of sophisticated aviation technologies...

GE Healthcare Ltd. is reducing its workforce at its Milwaukee and Waukesha facilities by nearly 1.5% or almost 100 positions, the medical technologies division of the General Electric Co. said Tuesday. In response to questions, a GE spokesman said notifications were sent out on Friday and that GE is reducing staff in response to the economic uncertainty in the U.S. and Europe. GE, which employs about 6,500 in Southeastern Wisconsin, provided few other details. GE's medical technology operations in southeastern Wisconsin, most of them in Waukesha and Wauwatosa, manufacture diagnostic imaging and X-ray equipment; computed tomography; magnetic resonance; ultrasound; molecular...

Scientists have long sought easier ways to make the costly material known as enriched uranium — the fuel of nuclear reactors and bombs, now produced only in giant industrial plants. One idea, a half-century old, has been to do it with nothing more substantial than lasers and their rays of concentrated light. This futuristic approach has always proved too expensive and difficult for anything but laboratory experimentation. Until now. In a little-known effort, General Electric has successfully tested laser enrichment for two years and is seeking federal permission to build a $1 billion plant that would make reactor fuel by...

General Electric announced this week it will relocate its X-ray business to Beijing in order to capitalize on the burgeoning Chinese health care market.Bravo for them. Kudos. I’m sure it’s a smart business move for the company – just like not paying taxes in the U.S., rent seeking for “Green” subsidies and mandates, and reducing American jobs are also bottom-line wise. But let’s please stop listening to GE CEO Jeffery Immelt (if he ever was really taken seriously), who is the head of President Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, whenever he tries to lecture other American corporations on...

Jobs Czar Moves US Jobs to China By Mark Wachtler, Independent Examiner July 27, 2011. Beijing. In an attempt to capture a larger share of the booming Chinese market, General Electric announced that it was moving its X-Ray technology headquarters from Wisconsin to China. While GE is one of the largest military suppliers in the world, it is also the parent of the NBC broadcasting group of companies. Ironically enough, GE’s CEO is Jeff Immelt, the same man President Obama anointed as America’s Jobs Czar.

Rumor has it that Bloomberg published an article that was posted on FR but pulled due to copyright concerns. Without actually giving Bloomberg the hits, one could speculate on whether the rumor is true, and on the implications of GE, who received bailouts and avoided taxes, and whose CEO Jeffery Immelt is also the chair of the President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness moving operations to a hostile communist power.

General Electric, considered to be a bellwether for the industrial sector, reported second-quarter earnings Friday that topped analyst estimates. The Fairfield, Conn.-based industrial conglomerate logged earnings of $3.7 billion, or 34 cents per share, up 17% from a year earlier. Analysts polled by Thompson Reuters had been expecting GE (GE, Fortune 500) to report earnings per share of 32 cents. "With our fifth consecutive quarter of double-digit earnings growth, we continue to execute in a volatile environment," GE CEO Jeff Immelt said in a statement. Immelt attributed the growth to strong results from GE Capital, as well as the company's...

The parent company of Fox News — News Corp. — paid the U.S. government $4.8 billion in taxes over the last four tax years (2007-2010). GE, which owned most of MSNBC until late last year, paid zero taxes in 2010.In fact, GE received a $3.2 billion welfare check from Uncle Sam.From Pulitzer Prize winner David Cay Johnston: (Reuters) — Readers, I apologize. The premise of my debut column for Reuters, on News Corp’s taxes, was wrong, 100 percent dead wrong.Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp did not get a $4.8 billion tax refund for the past four years, as I reported. Instead,...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- The head of General Electric told a jobs summit at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Monday that businesses needed to take the lead on job creation. At a conference where many of the comments were focused on government barriers to hiring, GE (GE, Fortune 500) Chairman and CEO Jeffrey Immelt acknowledged there needed to be some policy changes by Congress and the Obama administration. But he said that the responsibility for hiring lay with businesses. "The people who are part of the business sector, the people in this room, have got to stop complaining about government...

WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama will nominate businessman John Bryson to lead the Commerce Department, a White House official said Tuesday. Bryson's appointment brings another private sector player into an administration that has been making a concerted effort to improve its relationship with the business community.

NBC is developing a weekly newsmagazine to be hosted by "Nightly News" anchor Brian Williams, according to sources with direct knowledge of the situation.

Ayn Rand did not sell almost 7 million copies of Atlas Shrugged by creating ambiguous characters. Rand’s world is neatly divided between the heroic “producers” (like steel magnate Henry Rearden) and the dastardly “looters” (like lobbyist Wesley Mouch). Further simplifying things, the good guys are all stunningly gorgeous captains of industry (Grant Bowler as Rearden pictured) while the conniving politicians are all … a bit frumpier (Michael Lerner as Mouch pictured). Unfortunately, the real world is a bit more complicated. The line between productive capitalist and looting collectivist is a lot less stark. And often the sleaziest public servants are...