Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Jeff "I Wish I had a Do-over on Eco-imagination" Immelt "Appalled at Obamanomics", Will Vote for Romney (GE)

Immelt flips more than a fish in a bass boat.
[don't do the Foxworthy schtick, you can't pull it off -ed]

Last May it was ""GE's Immelt wishes he had soft-pedaled green talk" (GE)" after years of being the poster child for crony rentseeking.
Here's the story from Gasparino at the New York Post:
Back when he agreed to advise the Obama administration on economics, General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt told friends that he thought it would be good for GE and good for the country. A life-long Republican, Immelt said he believed he could at the very least moderate the president’s distinctly anti-business instincts.
That was three years ago; these days Immelt is telling friends something quite different.

Sure, GE has managed to feast on federal subsidies, particularly the “green-energy” giveaways that are Obamanomics’ hallmark.

But Immelt doesn’t think he’s had anywhere near as much luck moderating the president’s fat-cat-bashing, left-leaning economic agenda of taxing businesses and entrepreneurs to pay for government bloat.
Friends describe Immelt as privately dismayed that, even after three years on the job, President Obama hasn’t moved to the center, but instead further left. The GE CEO, I’m told, is appalled by everything from the president’s class-warfare rhetoric to his continued belief that big government is the key to economic salvation.

Or, as one friend recently put it to me, “Jeff thought he could make a difference, and now realizes he couldn’t.”

Immelt’s conversion from public Obama supporter to a private detractor is important: It shows how even businessmen who feast off his subsidies worry about his overall economic agenda and its long-term impact on the economy...MORE
Why does this guy still have a job?
Performance?
Pick any time period since Immelt got the top spot at GE and compare it to the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
Here's the 5-year:
Chart forGeneral Electric Company (GE)