Great chart from Paul Krugman's takedown of GE CEO Jeff Immelt's appearance on 60 Minutes last Sunday. Here's more from FDL on Immelt who told 60 Minutes:
"I want you to root for me. Look, every one in Germany roots for Siemens, everyone in Japan roots for Toshiba, everyone in China roots for China South Rail, I want you to say, win GE. I think this notion that it’s the population of the US against big companies is just wrong."
Well Jeff, let’s take an unvarnished look at the differences between those companies in Japan and Germany as regards the ratio of pay for a ceo to that of the average worker compared to ceo’s like yourself in American corporations, shall we?
In Japan the ratio of pay for a ceo compared to that of the average worker is…11 to 1.
In Germany that ratio expands to a dizzying.....12 to 1.
And in the United States…..it’s 475 to 1.
In addition Jeff, your company has one of the worst records of any American corporation for exporting American jobs overseas. Since you assumed control of GE, you have cut one-fifth of your company’s U.S. work force while increasing the number of your companies overseas employees dramatically. Your company, the largest corporation in America, paid no taxes in 2010 despite making $145.2 billion in profits and receiving nearly over $5 billion in federal subsidies in that same period.
Before the crisis, 80% of GE's profits were from their finance division. They were leveraged at 275 to 1. Paulson freaked out when he learned how insolvent they were and remain. The stock traded down to $6 and they were close to failing. But then the FDIC stepped in and let them borrow almost $100 billion at 2%.
Another stealth bailout of corporate America.
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You can watch Immelt's segment on 60 Minutes HERE