Finance arm pushes down General Electric 3Q profit

General Electric's third-quarter results showed just how fragile the U.S. economy remains, as its troubled financial unit dragged down earnings 44 percent, despite gains in divisions that make wind turbines, household appliances and broadcast television shows.

The report from one of the nation's largest companies illustrates the damage from a severe recession that has only recently begun to lift, leaving consumers and businesses devastated by high rates of defaults in everything from credit cards to mortgages.

GE Capital provided the flooring loans for many motorcycle and power sports dealerships. I say that in the past tense because they have been annihilating and closing such business at a rapid rate over the past 6 months. My Yamaha dealer in Pocatello had been in business for 47 years. GE sent in the trucks, collected all the inventory (except for about $130,000 in parts) and essentially wiped out the dealership. Ditto in Blackfoot. The consequence of those actions is that I have to travel a minimum of 60 miles to get to the nearest Yamaha dealer for parts/service. Fortunately, I have a truck/trailer to transport the bikes as necessary.

1.) GE is not going to fail. I'm not going to get into the details, but the results are better than expected (it has to do with the level of loss reserves in the capital arm). I've already said on here that I've bought somewhere around $100,000 in LEAP options / derivatives on GE for a couple years out, meaning that the long and short of it is, that is not an academic opinion; I've backed it up with my own cash.

2.) There is no possible way you could boycott GE's products. You mean you never watch The Weather Channel, Bravo, NBC, CNBC, MSNBC, USA, Oxygen, or a Universal Pictures movie?

You never fly on a commercial airplane (they make the jet engines)?

You don't buy Christmas lights? They sell the #1 brand of holiday lights in the country under the name Santa's Best Craft.

You don't use electricity or natural gas of any kind? They provide the surge suppression, switches, capacitors, transfer switches, transformers, ventilation fans, and voltage regulators to the utility industry.

You have no consumer credit accounts? Department stores? Furniture stores? Private label credit card? They (along with HSBC) are one of the largest private label finance providers in the world. So, when you buy something $0 down or 0% financing for 90 days, GE got paid for it.

You never go to the doctor? Or the emergency room? They design everything from the x-ray machines to surgical accessories.

Buy a Ford truck? Ford uses GE to manage wastewater at one of their truck plants in Kentucky.

The point is, you can't boycott GE unless you use no energy and grow your own food on a farm. It's simply not possible. It reminds me of people that use to call Philip Morris evil for killing so many people, but then put Oreo cookies in their shopping cart. The profit from NABISCO ended up in the same board room and getting paid out as a cash dividend to the same shareholders as the tobacco earnings.
I seriously *LOVE* capitalism.

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.) There is no possible way you could boycott GE’s products. You mean you never watch The Weather Channel, Bravo, NBC, CNBC, MSNBC, USA, Oxygen, or a Universal Pictures movie?
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You are an idiot. Can’t boycott GE? I’ve done it for years. I watch Fox. No GE products ever. Weather Chanel? WTF needs it? I have NOAA and Weather Underground online. NBC? MSNBC? are you kidding me? LMOA

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