[I think he is making a reference to Volcker's 6'7'' height while expressing disdain for Immelt and the President's other advisers. It can get confusing -ed]
From Bloomberg:
Obama Taps GE's Immelt to Head Economic Advisor Panel
President Barack Obama will name Jeffrey Immelt, General Electric Co.’s chief executive officer, to head his outside panel of economic advisers, replacing former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker.I've commented over the years on the wealth-destruction that has occured on Immelt's watch:
Immelt wrote in an op-ed today in the Washington Post that Obama asked him to helm the newly renamed President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. The group will reach out to labor and business leaders to serve “as a catalyst for action,” he wrote.
Immelt, 54, is an original member of the panel, which was formed as the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board in February 2009. GE’s CEO since 2001, he heads the world’s biggest maker of jet engines, medical-imaging equipment and power-plant turbines and gives the White House a corporate heavyweight to help burnish Obama’s pro-business credentials.
He has sounded many of the administration’s themes: boosting jobs through U.S. exports, ensuring companies can compete with powers like China and India, and jumpstarting a clean-energy economy. Immelt wrote today that he and Obama “are committed” to making the U.S. “the most competitive and innovating economy in the world.”
‘The Right Aspiration’
“It’s the right aspiration,” Immelt who will still serve as an outside adviser in his new role, said of the president’s goal of doubling American exports to more than $2 trillion in five years, during a Nov. 6 interview in Mumbai, where he joined Obama for a meeting with business leaders. “We’ve done it in the last five years, as a company."...MORE
*I loathe Jeff Immelt for what he has done to GE, formerly the crown jewel of American technology.
The S.O.B. was within days of having to bankrupt the company in September 2008 when no one would touch GE Credit commercial paper. And the rent-seeking corporatist...
See:
April, 2010
"Can General Electric Still Manage?" (GE)
April 2008
GE's Immelt reduced to whining after homicidal rant from Jack Welch (GE)
April 2008
Commentary on General Electric (GE)
May 2008
GE Stock Lower Than Sept. 10, 2001 Close; Immelt Buys Some (GE)
June 2009
GE: Government Enterprises
Sept. 2009
Pt. I:: GE and the Enron Playbook (ENE; GE)
Sept. 2009
Pt II, GE and the Enron Playbook: "GE, BP Join Industry Demands for Carbon Regulations"
Sept. 2009
Pt. III, GE and the Enron Playbook: "Wind-Turbine Makers Press for Green Mandates"
Oct 2009I haven't owned GE since '99. I was fortunate to not own this stock for the last decade; as of the open on Friday the stock was down over 50% during Immelt's nine-year tenure. Friday's 3.22% up-move got the loss down to 48%.
Immelt’s Plans May Comfort Investors as Profit Falls (GE)
Oct. 2009
General Electric; Jeff Immelt: FAIL (GE)
Nov. 2009
General Electric Pursues Pot of Government Stimulus Gold (GE)
March 2010
General Electric has been an investor disaster under Jeff Immelt (GE)
In the late '90's a very wealthy and very smart investor said to me:
"GE's phony-baloney earnings smoothing is going to have to end, it's approaching the level of a joke, in addition to violating the '33 act"....We have a lot of positive posts on GE, usually along the lines of:
Oct. '09: Can R&D Save General Electric?" and "GE's Risky Energy Research" (GE)
Possibly.
Combined with lobbying and firing Immelt....
