Posted on 06/28/2009 10:26:13 PM PDT by Lorianne
General Electric, the world's largest industrial company, has quietly become the biggest beneficiary of one of the government's key rescue programs for banks.
At the same time, GE has avoided many of the restrictions facing other financial giants getting help from the government.
The company did not initially qualify for the program, under which the government sought to unfreeze credit markets by guaranteeing debt sold by banking firms. But regulators soon loosened the eligibility requirements, in part because of behind-the-scenes appeals from GE.
As a result, GE has joined major banks collectively saving billions of dollars by raising money for their operations at lower interest rates. Public records show that GE Capital, the company's massive financing arm, has issued nearly a quarter of the $340 billion in debt backed by the program, which is known as the Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program, or TLGP. The government's actions have been "powerful and helpful" to the company, GE chief executive Jeffrey Immelt acknowledged in December.
GE's finance arm is not classified as a bank. Rather, it worked its way into the rescue program by owning two relatively small Utah banking institutions, illustrating how the loopholes in the U.S. regulatory system are manifest in the government's historic intervention in the financial crisis.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
SARC/
Westinghouse and GE were originally competitors; until some Congress thugs thru Westinghouse under the bus many years ago. They literaly stabbed Westinghouse in the back especially the politicians who owed their very careers to Westinghouse. I don’t know the whole story; but a lot of the thug politicians were responsible.
And GE is also the ones pushing all these curly-cue light bulbs down our throats. And the parent company on NBC which gives us the very left-of-center MSNBC. See a link here?
Bill O'Reilly has been saying the same thing for months now!
Check out Nancy Pelosi's stock portfolio; she owns quite a bit of GE stock. The bill she just pushed through gives GE billions of dollars of "free" carbon credits (to use or sell) that their competitors will have to buy at auction from the government (or from them).
Unfortunately, the media doesn't seem to be taking an interest, so it looks like she's going to get away with the biggest embezzlement in US history.
It is also a coincidence that GE owns MSNBC, Obama’s cheerleader-in-chief.
Brian Williams is very interested. He has a segment almost every night about how hot it is (in late June, no less)! Not the real temperature, mind you, but the "Heat Index", which allows him to post higher numbers on the map.
Of course, NBC is an objective, down the middle news organization with no interest in helping GE's bottom line, aren't they?
Looks like they might have some competition
Wal-Mart Plans to Market Digital Health Records System
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/11/business/11record.html?_r=1&ref=business
... or not, GE services Wal-Mart credit cards
How a Loophole Benefits GE in Bank Rescue
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/28/AR2009062802955_2.html?hpid=topnews&sid=ST2009062803183
GE Capital is one of the world’s largest and most diverse financial operations, lending money for commercial real estate, aircraft leasing and credit cards for stores such as Wal-Mart.
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