Jeffrey Immelt, General Electric’s (GE) CEO attacked other business leaders in a speech at West Point, saying that his generation “had succumbed to ‘meanness and greed’ that had harmed the US economy and increased the gap between the rich and the poor.”
Immelt neglected to mention, however, that he took home $14,100,000 in compensation last year. Guess he was talking about all those other greedy execs.
“We are at the end of a difficult generation of business leadership … tough-mindedness, a good trait, was replaced by meanness and greed, both terrible traits,” Immelt said, “Rewards became perverted. The richest people made the most mistakes with the least accountability.”
Immelt’s didn’t stop there. According to the Financial Times, he also linked bad leadership to growing inequality.
“The bottom 25 per cent of the American population is poorer than they were 25 years ago. That is just wrong,” he said. “Ethically, leaders do share a common responsibility to narrow the gap between the weak and the strong.”
Two problems with Immelt’s attack. First, he’s one of the highest paid U.S. executives. And second, although GE took $80 billion in TARP funds, Immelt somehow used his connections to the Obama administration to get GE exempted from executive pay cuts that hit similar firms.
Here’s how Business Week spells out Immelt’s 2008 income:
TOTAL COMPENSATION in 2008
Total Annual Cash Compensation $3,300,000
Total Short Term Compensation $3,300,000
Other Long Term Compensation $7,233,137
Total Calculated Compensation $14,096,603
Contributing to Immelt’s pot calling the kettle black syndrome, the non-greedy CEO somehow got GE and himself exempted from pay restricitions imposed on other companies by Obama’s pay czar.
The Lonely Conservative reports:
This week Kenneth R. Feinberg, popularly known as the White House Pay CZAR, announced his plan to cut the pay for the top 25 earners at seven companies that received federal government help. On average cut total these executives had their compensation cut by about 50 percent. The companies are Citigroup, Bank of America, American International Group, General Motors, Chrysler and the financing arms of the two automakers.
One company was mysteriously missing from the list, General Electric. GE has been regularly protected from the TARP rules. By taking advantage of its ownership of two tiny banks in Utah, GE was able to issue $80 Billion dollars worth of federally backed loans about one out of every four dollars available in the federal loan guarantee program.
And true to being a friend of the President, General Electric didn’t have to go through any of the burdens other participants had to go through like the financial stress test. And now it seems they wont have to worry about any those pesky salary/compensation limits so Jeffrey Immelt and the senior management don’t have to worry about the 14-18 Million in annual compensation they get with help from Uncle Sam.
As reported by the Washington Post back in June, GE was the number one recipient of the TARP guaranteed loan program…
So you just keep giving those speeches, Jeff. We know can depend on your for the truth. Or at least a perverted distortion of the truth.
Source: Financial Times, Business Week, Lonely Conservative
This post was last modified on January 26, 2021
View Comments (15)
As anyone heard that GE paid ZERO taxes last year?! WTH?!
if the fat cat president can piss on your heads while telling you it's raining, than why can't a ceo of a major supporter do the same?hell, look at all those fat cat liberal hollywood types that made a fortune, recycling the same crap to the masses. michael moore anyone. frankly, i get tired of the president and liberals incessantly telling me that they are for unions and the little guy, while they are robbing the vault.
i think i will join the democratic/liberal party. it's so much more fun on the other side of the fence--not having to worry about the economy or the world or the people. just go from one elaborate scam to the next, pillaging and robbing villages. and the people just keep smiling and asking for more! urban blight-- oh no, it wasn't because we keep electing liberals into office, it's the fault of those pesky republicans.
In China, it is UNHEARD of for a CEO / company leader to make more than 10 times the lowest paid employee. So that means virtually EVERY CEO shouldn't make more than....what? about $80 an hour, depending on where they live.
I am all for the dude making the money if he deserved it. he doesnt deserve it as GE has been tanking fast and badly and a lot of investors many who are old are counting on that money to survive. overall I feel like if you are going to act high and mighty then practice it and either dont taken in so much cash or do and give 50% to charity... done.
Kimmy, I can't say that ANYONE deserves to make $14m + per annually...really...once they get to that point, everyone else is doing all the work anyway. I'm not against people making money either but really....that just seems somewhat obscene. Wonder how he feels about all the democrats screaming to tax the rich?!?
Wrong. Like Marx, you assume value is created through brute labor only, ignoring the intellectual contributions that are valuable in a modern society. Bill Gates is rich and deserves it because his idea was so revolutionary. JK Rawling as well.
Immelt should get whatever the board decides to pay him which in turn are elected by the share-holders. The BS of this is that the company relied on financing for years (just like the big 2.5 automakers) and would be tits-up if not for intervention. But from a shareholder standpoint, I guess immelt should be rewarded for being able to save the company and their equity through political hob-knobbing.
I don't mind rich people, but I do mind rich liberal people telling me to pay my fair share when they do not pay theirs.
He's a turd-plain and simple. he is a typical democrat hypocrite. He thinks it is okay for him to fly around on the ge G-550, and ride around in Limos with huge entourages, while the rest of the country is poverty stricken...a perfect asshole to have on the Obiden team!
FOLLOW THE MONEY...
Nice web site about contributions to Obama (and others). You can do a drop down on McCain and see how much money GE gave him.
As it is with ACORN, so it is with all the big financial corps and GE. It's kick back time!
http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/contrib.php?id=N00009638&cycle2=2008&goButt2.x=0&goButt2.y=0&goButt2=Submit
To: Megan Parker -
It's best that you place duct tape on your lips to save GE as a whole!
Wow...Mr. I-melt declined his 2008 bonus...big deal...so what???
What matters is that GE was fined $50M by the SEC for accounting fraud. Mr. I-melt and his direct reports by making false statements to the world!
Megan you should be really be concerned as of why Immelt, Sherin and the rest of the Harvard Team are not behind bars...just like Madoff and others! Why did GE pay a fine of $50M and nothing is been done to the employees that create this fraud? Is GE above the law? After all - all employees need to follow rules and why not the top management?
RE: GE Capital - Did any one see Mr. Neal 2008 Compensation: $16,301,726! Now the real question is how can Mr. Neal earn $16,301,726 when 11,000 + employees received lay off notice! Sometime is very wrong with this picture....don't you think Megan?
Megan at the end of the day...the more a GE Executive lies the more compensation they receive!
Check out the link below on GE 2008 compensation...
http://www.tracked.com/person/jeffrey_immelt/
Quick! Nobody Google "GE Obama"! No one did? That is better... Truth could hurt after all.
Obama, in addition to being a nutty socialist when it comes to policy for the unwashed masses of the good ol USA, is a down and dirty corporatist! Mister teleprompter and lies - or was that Chance I was supposed to blindly believe in- is a sell out to LARGE mega corporations.
Read "Obamanomics: How Barack Obama Is Bankrupting You and Enriching His Wall Street Friends, Corporate Lobbyists, and Union Bosses" by Timothy P. Carney.
Turns out GE is getting a sweet deal from old Honest IL Political cum Savior of Washington Barry...
I am all for big business and huge corporations. I am also for small and medium business and seeing an open market system reward those who do well and gut like a fish those who screw up their business dealings. If the big guys can keep the top spot- fine. If they get knocked off by those nipping at their heels- such is life in the money making jungle. But that would imply a fair fight for GE and that may not sit well. What can Jeff do? He is all about being fair and not being greedy and corrupt and dishonest right?
Gee, those boys at GE sure got into bed with Obama via their lobbyists and now want to push out the small and medium players so they can st on top without having to repeatedly keep earning that position... Jeffrey Immelt did not mention that nor did Megan. Doh!
I don't hate GE because they are big- when the use their size and whore to corrupt political systems for unfair market advantages to stop any up and comer competitors from challenging them (a la Obamanomics and what that portends) I think at is against the spirit of just capitalism. But then again since when does Barry Obama know jack s*it about what is 'just' and he sure does not know anything about true capitalism.
Read "Obama’s hidden bailout of General Electric" and see how 'clean and honest' GE would never get money from Obama... Why mess with TARP when you can get payments that are bigger and more shady to line your coffers with! All with the appearance that it was fair and tidy with none of that pesky 'corporate greed' sweet Jeff was so willing to go on a diatribe about.
Now that Comcast has the NBC media to its name maybe I will see less left wing propaganda in the TV/movies that come out under the NBC Universal banner? Al least I will see fewer GE ads as filler...
This is an important observation. We need to start reclassifing what it means to be rich, middle class and lower class.
I propose:
Rich = Control and get favors from the gubermint. Raising taxes doesn't affect these people because they can steer it to themselves.
Middle class = anyone who owns their own business and earns money through value creation. These are the people the rich (above) are trying to step on. Without intervention these people would oust the rich from their perches via schumpeter's creative destruction.
Poor = work for someone else. Creativity and improvements to productivity or consumer surplus are not part of the job. This includes 500K salaried used house salesmen, wallstreet workers, fry cooks, etc. This group is the target of propaganda by the rich and who's votes are swayed or bought.
Megan from GE-- The facts in this post are incorrect. Jeff Immelt turned down his bonus in February (More information at: http://www.gereports.com/jeff-immelt-on-2008-compensation/ or http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/1699e62a-fd44-11dd-a103-000077b07658.html) and GE did not participate in the TARP program.
Oh, so he only made $14,096,603 million last year? We stand corrected, but the point remains the same.
Don't get us wrong Megan, we love capitalism and people making money. We just don't care much for hypocrites lecturing others.
GE Money did receive gov't money. GE Money is the financial arm of GE. You buy something big, put it on a monthly payment plan, there is a chance that it will be through GE Money. I believe they got classifies as a bank as well, they did so they could get gov't money. Over $300billion.