Should GE's Jeffrey Immelt Really Be Leading Our Job Creation Strategy?

[somone]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/scott-paul/should-ges-jeffrey-immelt_b_812132.html

Should GE's Jeffrey Immelt Really Be Leading Our Job Creation Strategy?
By Scott Paul

... Let's look at GE's jobs record. You would have difficulty finding a company that has outsourced more jobs and closed more American factories than GE. While they have slashed their American workforce to fewer than 150,000, GE has dramatically expanded its global presence, now employing over 300,000 workers worldwide. Yes, GE has brought a trickle of jobs back to the U.S. over the past two years, but it still outsources more than it insources. And those executives at GE are not clueless -- they realize the value of good publicity as it announces new hires at a time like this. But they do not devote nearly the same amount of publicity to their factory closings. Immelt's prescription for boosting manufacturing harkens back to the days of bloodletting as a medical procedure -- bad policy with consistently poor results:

• In a speech to the Detroit Economic Club in 2009, Immelt berated "Buy American" policies while acknowledging that GE lived under domestic preference regimes in China, France, and other nations. In Immelt's mind, it is fine for China and France to require to GE to make what it sells in their nations, but it's not OK for America to do the same.

• Immelt essentially rules out any enforcement of our trade laws in his Washington Post op-ed today through a spurious claim that distorts the issue. So China can cheat all it wants, and Immelt wants us to do nothing. Trade enforcement is not "erecting barriers," as Immelt alleges. Rather, trade enforcement is about removing distortions from the free market. Immelt reveals his true stripes with this ridiculous assertion. It's a dangerous statement, and it demands an immediate and forceful rebuke from the White House.

• Immelt supported two of the most disastrous economic policies of the post-World War II era: financial deregulation and China's entry into the World Trade Organization with few, if any, consequences for breaking the rules.

The result of policies Immelt has supported: one-third of our manufacturing workforce gone in a decade. 50,000 shuttered factories. At least $245 billion in real wage and salary losses for manufacturing workers. Record trade deficits with China. In short, our worst decade in manufacturing history -- by most measures even worse than the Great Depression...

[xchrom]

1. it doesn't matter -- all kinds of folk who were deeply involved in our economic meltdown are now

steering the ship of state.

the Single Narrative must not be disrupted.

[vi5]

2. I trust our president and will follow where he leads....

Hey look at the pretty view off of this cliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiffffff................

[somone]

4. Yes, just 'be faithful in what happens'

'we should just support that, you know'

[Davis_X_Machina]

3. Meh.

Erick Erickson hates the pick, too.

It's another talking shop.

[OHdem10]

5. Since I am cynical when it comes to Business People--we have

had some sorry experiences starting around 2001 with Enron
and all the collapsing Lucents, Delphi etc. It has been
one bad news bummer after another right up to and through
the Wall Street Gamblers gone wild.

That said, I support the selection of Immelt and believe
this is one of Obama's better decisions.

We will not get a perfect person. NONE exist. Put anyone
up and someone can cut him down to nothingness.

Immelt is the first and only public figure to admit the
crisis involves more than just the Banking System. I have
watched hour long interviews with Charlie Rose in which
Immelt explained that everyone had failed when the decision
was made to turn the US into a Service Economy.(Banking, Financing
Tourism and Retail) cannot sustain an economy as large as the
the US Economy. He pointed out that we must return our
MFG policy to one which requires at least 13 to 15 percent
of GDP be in Manufacturing. He further committed to creating
American Jobs when he believed he must outsource certain
jobs.

He admits he was wrong and is willing to try to do something
about it.

I am surely more comfortable with Immelt than some he could
have selected. In fact, as I have said, this is one of our
President's better decisions.

[Donnachaidh]

6. our admin has a terrible idea of what the voters are

They expect this --




When they should be getting this --

[somone]

8. "The masses have little time to think.

And how incredible is the willingness of modern man to believe." - Mussolini

[Kolesar]

7. GE Financial got a big loan during the TARP program because they f-cked up

That part of their business was treated as one of the banks that needed help. Had they not had help, they would have had to sell GE's divisions or go into bankruptcy protection.

So, the US government sponsored the recovery of GE's stock price.

[moondust]

9. So Chainsaw Al wasn't available?

Is it really "job creation" or more like "Wall Street profit creation?"

[Skittles]

10. he is an offshore whore

and you can bet Obama is very aware of that :thumbsdown: