The Jobs Czar: General Electric's Jeffrey Immelt
October 9, 2011 12:15 PM
Can General Electric Chairman Jeffrey Immelt, whose company has been racking up big profits overseas, help create jobs in America? Lesley Stahl interviews the man President Obama chose to lead the crucial quest for more American jobs.
The jobs czar: GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt
Web Extras
Scroll Left Scroll Right
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
... - 6
- Next »
See all 67 CommentsThe Govt has decided to put this guy in charge of US jobs?
Are you kidding me?
I feel Robert Reich is the man for the job.
It makes sense to be based in Norway to cover the region in which we work in.I find some of the comments above quite bizarre , Americans should be proud of having such a global company supplying complicated equipment to companies like , Chevron , Exxon Shell and BP.
Some of the above people may not realise that BP employs more people in The US than the UK , it is the way of the world.GE in our sector is actively recruiting at the moment , just log onto their website and if you are qualified I am sure you have the possibility to work for them.Remember global companies will employ people if they have an education.
What struck me was how the Nucor guy makes a simple, easily counterfeit-able product - a piece of steel. Contrast that to Caterpillar, who makes an incredibly complex product from millions of parts, and who, with the benefit of 50 years of production experience, has an 'end result product' is NOT easily counterfeit-able in a global economy. Chinese steel can be found everywhere, the Chinese equivalent to Caterpillar cannot be found everywhere.
GE may hate Caterpillar as a competitor, but they are both in the same boat, globally. They both benefit in a global world because they build complex products that cannot be easily counterfeited by other emerging countries within the global economy. GE has basically spun off the divisions that make less complex products, and has 'doubled down' and invested in the areas of its business portfolio that build complex products that will do well, globally, because they are hard to counterfeit.
The problem we face in this country is we have essentially turned the policy of "whats good for the US economy" over to a small handful of multinationals that build complex products that are hard to counterfeit in a global marketplace. meanwhile, nobody is addressing the job losses among the creators of less complex products, companies like the Nucor Steel's of this country. And to think that before border-less trade came along, the steel industry and its offshoots, automotive and appliances, was actually what built the middle class of this country. Prior to these f'ed up global trade deals, we didn't need an industrial base centered around complex products to build a middle class.
So Immelt is just like his competitor, the Caterpillar CEO in that other story, embracing global trade because it is harder for emerging countries to build knock-off copies of their respective products. And to hell with the rest of the economy.
Coming from a guy with years of business experience, an understanding of free market principles, and a penchant for business, we're screwed. Jeff's going to do what's in the best interest of his company no matter what. Karl Marx was wrong about Communism and right about Capitalism. It's not going to stop until the 1% have everything and the 99% have nothing. Think collective bargaining was hard in the first go around, try organizing the under-educated workers of 30 different countries all at once. Globalization works out great for the GE's of the world and their CEOs. But the majority of us...the 99%, get totally screwed. Remember the riots in Seattle at the WTO meetings? Too bad most of us took the corporate paid politicians' word for it that it would be good. Ya $25 disposable microwaves from China were nice...when we all had $25. Now we think we're lucky if Jeff offers us a job for $10 an hour.
Jeff aint gonna do Jack. He can't and he won't...less he loose his job. That sociopath that describes the behavior of all U.S. corporations can't tolerate frivolous ideals like benevolence or patriotism. This isn't going to end until 1.5 billion Chinese, 1 billion Indians and 309 million Americans all have the same standard of living. That while several thousand CEO's and Politicians continue to convince us they're going to make a difference for which they have no incentive.
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
... - 6
- Next »
See all 67 Comments