washingtonpost.com:
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.
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cant general electric compete
why do they need to steal money from the taxpayers?
Who is behind this company? Who are its top benefactors? Were any of them ever in so called public service? Ask yourself these questions, find the answers, you'll understand a lot more if you do.
Multinational , just one tenacle of the monster.
The 0 is turning on his favorite environmental advisor. Say it ain't so.
looks like Wolf Blitzer shaved his beard.
here come the NBC hit job...stay tuned
I was thinking the same thing........
rich misty I'm a Fan of rich misty permalink
The entire economic problems in the country are directly caused by Republican deregulation and the crazed belief in some invisible hand.
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It certainly was mostly republicans responsible for deregulation but let's put all the cards on the table.
Clinton & Summers also had a hand in the repeal of Glass / Steagall which is the major reason we had the economic meltdown.
Yes, and Clinton was doing Republican Lite at the time. With Dick Morris as his Svengali. Clinton lost confidence in his Liberal views after he lost Congress.
Yep.
That bill was drafted by Republicans not democrats. It was passed by a veto proofed majority by a Republican controlled Congress.
I did extensive research on it and Summers pushed it and Clinton was for it at the time.
He had no intention of attempting a veto.
He also recently said he doesn't feel that is what led to the financial meltdown.
He is wrong.
I agree, I have done the same research myself. Then see my post below.
And I will add, it is quite possible that the economy would not have collapsed even with that legislation.... Had some type of banking and securities exchange monitoring been done.
There was no economic enforcement at all under the Bush adminstration... None. It was a free for all, of Republican Free Market, invisible hand gonna take care of everything.
You are missing my point. If you want to lay blame let's be completely honest about it.
repealing glass stegall was not a clinton idea------ it was pushed by the banking industry
Did I post it was Clinton's idea?
No, you posted that it was Clintons fault.
Really? "Trying" to fix the loophole? After Jeffrey Immelt has been in the tank, sucking up to, promoting Obama, all this time with NBC partisanship? Really?
From the sound of it, your water broke.
When is Obama going to get tough?
When the tough get going...
Holy Billy Ocean Batman!
Too funny
the moment the dog pees on the carpet...
Did anyone who is commenting actually read the article instead of just Huff Post's headline? GE has an enormous arm that has been offering financing since the great depression when it was the only way consumers could afford their products. That arm has grown into a huge business that DID NOT tinker in any of the risky loans that caused our current problems, but when credit lines dried up everywhere, GE was also not able to borrow money at rates that allowed business to prosper. The agencies who are following the TARP money say that GE is healthy. GE is loaning money, which is more than can be said for the big banks who took the TARP. GE is opening a large new business in Michigan which will create 1,100 new jobs in a state which has been one of the hit. The whole idea of the stimulus program was to get money moving and create jobs. The article is four pages long and there is some complaining going on, but it is clear that GE is using the money to offer loans and to create jobs. It sounds like they're doing of better job of using the money for it's intended purpose than the big banks. Nearly half of GE's business is lending money now. We're just used to thinking of them as the light bulb company. They're much more than that.
They do provide credit, for a profit, and they do not make risky loans. In that sense they do provide a service, and they have been more responsible in doing so than Wall St.
That is the problem. People don't read the articles, just the headlines. Not only do they fail to learn anything, including important facts, but, so much misinformation gets around as the so called facts.
However, with so many fingers in so many pies, they definitely fit the definition, "too big to fail" which tells me they need to be strongly regulated, among other things.
I read the entire thing. I read your wall-o-text. The conspiracy folks did not, would not, or just cherry pick out of context stuff..
Citigroup, for example, brags of aggressively expanding its subprime CitiFinancial business to more emerging markets countries. General Electric's GE Money unit doesn't brag, it just expands, offering high-rate lending in every continent. The American Insurance Group, which bought a subprime lender along with American General, seeks to spread the subprime model throughout its global franchise. HSBC, even while announcing earnings warning about its U.S. business, has exported the questionable Household International business model to Eastern Europe, Latin America and elsewhere.
GE Money, the financial unit of GE was definitely involved in subprime lending and redlining, along with other banks it was expanding this c r a p to other nations.
GE's ability to live in the best of both worlds -- capitalizing on the federal safety net while avoiding more rigorous regulation -- existed well before last year's crisis, because of its unusual corporate structure.
Obama is going to try to shut these loopholes, and I say go for it!
I do too. GE has a very sordid history and has never in it's life been philanthropic. As I posted below, this is the company that built the first electric chair for SingSing prison.
I third that statement! Loopholes pout in the first stim by the Bush admins all need to be closed off sealed, and locked down tight! Time to break up the trusts!
GE is master at working the loop holes. Many years ago I worked for a GE subsidiary in their commercial aircraft leasing arm. They had a huge fleet of aircraft, many of which had reached an age where the depreciation (huge tax benefits for GE) was about to expire. I sat in on a meeting with our attorneys while a snarky investment banker from Babcock and Brown showed us charts and graphs of the "plan." They were creating an off-balance sheet company (ala Enron) that would "buy" all the aircraft from GE. This new company (still GE) would be able to start taking depreciation all over again, thereby cheating the FEDs and U.S. taxpayers.
I'll never forget the comment from the GE rep at the end of the meeting, bragging at how easy it was to cheat the government . . . , "Ah, yes, that's what's so great about the good old U.S.A." I was appalled. I thought, "Yeah, GE, bringing good things to life."
I'm curious. Since GE is a multinational corporation, have these weapons brokers accepted any funding from other countries?
We are not only the world's cops, we now are slowly assuming the position of world financier.
We have been the worlds financier since the end of WWII... After the war, we had the only viable currency in the world. NY became the worlds banking and finance center by default.
Now that is a great question!
jdw1981 I'm a Fan of jdw1981 permalink
Q: So why are those loopholes there in the first place?
A: Because Congress and the Obama administration want them there.
And if that's not the case, and it's just a big "oops", then Obama is catastrophically inept and unprepared to lead this country.
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These loopholes are from October. Guess who was President dimmwitt.
Guess who the majority in Congress was.
Guess who has the final say.
Guess who didn't have a 60 vote majority and guess who fillibustered a record number of times to prevent Dem's from passing legislation?
taxandspend : Can you count Senators ?
-ralph
For the LAST TIME! Read the article! The loophole was created AFTER the TARP passed. Congress had NOTHING to do with it, it was Bush/Paulson all the way.
guess who had the veto pen.
I wonder how Olberman, Maddow , Matthews and other NBC & MSNBC sweethearts are going to handle this story. . . will they turn on their bosses?
Yes, that is their job.
They frequently lambaste GE in their reporting, if it is warranted.
MSNBC is not Faux News
That's obvious.
They have before.
Loop holes left over by the previous administration. Obama is one smart attorney.
Let me ask you a question. If you put your car in the shop for a brake job and when you pick it up you notice there are no lugs holding on the front tire, do you drive away anyway and then blame it on the repair shop when the wheel falls off? Or do you try and fix it before driving off.
Does anyone remember the Supreme Court ruling a few years back on medicinal marijuana and state's rights, etc.?
The Court ruled that the federal govt. DOES in fact have the right to overrule states who sign medicinal marijuana laws. Their reasoning?
The Court claimed that since pot produed legally in California will eventually end up across border in other states where it is not legal, therefore it falls under the heading of interstate commerce.
CAN ANYONE explain to me why the banks and corporations are allowed to set up shop in Delaware and Utah, where the laws allow them to steal from the rest of us and pay no taxes?
Of course, GE, Bank of America, etc. aren't involved AT ALL in interstate commerce. Very few of these companies are physically headquarted in DE or UT. It's just as much of a scam as that building in the Cayman Islands that Obama likes to talk about...
Why are DE and UT allowed to "export" their terrible banking laws across border to the rest of country? They have done far more harm than pot ever could....
These facts are never brought up during elections. I wonder why....
Anybody who believes that the President and congress are in charge is simply pandering to their own cowardice. At this point in the game it is clear that mega corporations and special interest are running the show. The Position of president is similar to a castrated animal whose main job is to provide theater with the sole intention of dividing the public to divert focus on the real story and truth. We have not had a real president since Kennedy and the next time we do we will get the same result.
False in every respect.
How so TCN, you don't think there are congressman/women in the pockets
of big business?
Sounds like Noam Chomsky by way of Ralph Nader.
Two great americans.
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First Posted: 06-29-09 12:18 AM | Updated: 06-29-09 12:21 AM