DISQUS

Ben Dover · 7 months ago

I feel so sorry for poor Mr. Welch. Reading about his horrific situation, the man is only one step above tornado-ravaged trailer park.

Hope he can at least get Caviar Helper with his food stamps.

George Orwell · 7 months ago

This is the guy they originally nicknamed "Neutron Jack" for his tactic of coming into a company and cutting indiscriminately.

That must be the nice way he's talking about.

B · 7 months ago

I too am a bit shocked at "the nice way". In NY in the '80's as he was reinventing GM, Mr. Welsh was called 'Neutron Jack' because just like a neutron bomb, all the people are gone but the buildings are left standing. How soon he and the rest of the world forgets the past.

Jophus · 7 months ago

The president doesn't even having a retirement package that great does he? Free apartment, free gulf stream, etc... That is insane. What does he use his own money for? No rent, no staff, no transport, no communication fees.... What the hell does he need money for?

evan_la · 7 months ago

At a certain point it's no longer about money. It's about power - and money enables power.

tlsintx · 7 months ago

Jack Welch...pffft.
He can just suck it.

GWMustGo · 7 months ago

The funny thing is, I thought JW was a Democrat.

I guess $$$ trumps party.

PrahaPartizan · 7 months ago

Neutron Jack made his bones at GE by going into businesses and immediately slashing one-third of the staff, regardless of the business's needs or prospects. He could always make his numbers, for a short period at least. Of course, since his "performance" was always so stellar compared to his peers, he always managed to get himself promoted before his short-sighted ways caught up with him. Sucking the lifeblood out of a business might take five, seven, ten, maybe even twenty years to finally bear fruit. Jack was always gone within one to two years, so what did he care. Once he landed the top job, he turned GE into a bank and managed the "numbers" accordingly. Immelt the poor, stupid bastard who was left with the job of trying to vector out of the financial blackhole Welch had left GE in. I'd almost feel sorry for Immelt but for the fact that he knew GE was almost over the Schwarzschild radius when he accepted the job.

evan_la · 7 months ago

Totally concur. I remember when this man was wielding the axe and it wasn't "in a nice way", but that was probably just the liberal bias of the New York Times /snark.

"over the Schwarzschild radius" *chuckles*

PrahaPartizan · 7 months ago

Thank you. My spouse and I always got a smile out of the use of the word "solons" by the local newspaper in Columbus, Ohio where we lived about twenty years ago. The paper's writers just couldn't help themselves in applying it to the state legislators who, of course, met in Columbus. We kinda just picked it up. Sometimes it really does apply.

PrahaPartizan · 7 months ago

Also, let's not forget that Jack Welch was the guy who had his NBC on air talent report definitively that Bush had won back in 2000, thereby tainting the coverage of the Bush-Gore election. Welch did everything possible to ensure the selection of Bush. 'Nuff said.

RepubAnon · 7 months ago

Back in the day - as PrahaPartizan notes - the GE employees called him "Neutron JacK" Welch, because, like the neutron bomb, only the buildings were left after he came by - the employees were gone.

Anthony Look · 7 months ago

Poor white Republicans are an astonishingly simple minded bunch. Their basis for continued support of the GOP agenda is purely racist and fear of being marginalized. All in the name of Jesus.

Jophus · 7 months ago

Je$u$

bob_h · 7 months ago

Jack Welch did more to damage American industry than anyone with his de-emphasis of basic research in favor of short-term profits to boost the stock price. I remember visiting the very fine GE research center in the late 70's and being told they were going out of business. His GE became a very sad place to work with the constant layoffs and ruthless and callous personnel evaluation policies.

Ex GE Stockholder · 7 months ago

You are all right about Neutron Jack, however, his hand picked successor, Mr Immelt is no poor dumb slob. He has caused the stock of the company to plummet on his watch and his answer is to hitch his wagon to Obama and Oh, get the National "Big Brother" healthcare database and has set himself up to hugely profit on the Cap and Trade scam. Big business is only the Satan when they don't toe the progressive line. Otherswise, we would hear your negative comments about, George Soros, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Oprah etc, the first three making their billions on Wall Street. Either condemn them all or praise them all, stop with the double standard.

PrahaPartizan · 7 months ago

Sorry, no double standard was applied. Only you are applying the double standard, since clearly the only metric you have chosen to use is stock price. Sorry, that's not enough. Those other leaders you denigrate were also seriously concerned with other stakeholders in the corporate structure. Welch was not. For him, only the shareholders mattered and those executives playing the inside game mattered most of all. No liberal or progressive is attacking private enterprise, only those pigs like Welch who have gamed the system for their own personal benefit.

Incidentally, I see you don't like Immelt and I can assure you that I have had no dog in this fight insofar as he is concerned. However, he did not cause the stock of GE to plummet. Welch did. Welch left an imminently bankrupt shell stripped of its most productive assets because they could not be monetized quickly enough for him to plunder as he turned GE into a bank. If you have any beef with GE management about its current precarious situation, I would suggest you address your ire at Mr. Welch. Immelt has been trying to power away from the gravity well in which Welch left GE but the engines left to him were just inadequate for the job in the time available.

Welch used to insist his businesses "automate, emigrate or evaporate." It's time for Welch to do the last and leave the scene. The age of dinosaurs like him has passed.

lost_nacf_gop · 7 months ago

IIRC, Jack Welch "mentored" Bob Nardelli, the brain-surgeon who nearly ran Home Depot into the ground, and the guy whose been at the helm of Chrysler's magical run to insolvent oblivion, too.

CarolAll · 7 months ago

The Jack Welsh business philosophy heralded the era of corporate greed. Welsh created a class of CEO stuffed shirts with huge stock options, golden parachutes, outrageous bonuses. His business philosophy brought about "downsizing" and "rightsizing" and rewarded CEOs for failure. It brought about the ruin of the middle class worker. As soon the very successful little company I worked for had us sit through their power point presentation of the Welsh business plan, we knew we were doomed. The company began acquiring other companies, reduced staff, then closed our office. Today, the company finds itself on the brink of bankrupcy and failure.

Kerns58 · 7 months ago

Welch is what is wrong with United States. Selfish and greedy. These are his core values.

Talk is cheap for Mr. Welch. He can complain about Obama and brag of his accomplishments. But deep down he did nothing for us Americans and served only himself.

I have been clear. :)

His so-called success was done on the backs of hard-working people who will never experience come close to what Welch experiences. What a pathetic and sad man.

Welch is an example of how not to do free enterprise. Do opposite of what he did. Then one will see American capitalism at its best.

Chris · 7 months ago

Corporate america is robbing employees blind. Said another way...the parasites are killing the host. They ARE narcissistic sociopathes. They cannot and will not be stopped...think about it if they could be stopped it should have happened by now as their criminally insane deeds are well known.