President Obama just named GE CEO Jeff Immelt to the "President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness." Competitiveness is italicized for a reason--it is ironic Immelt would be named to any advisory board with such a word in its title. This is like naming Willie Nelson to chair a national advisory board on tax compliance.
Immelt displays little knowledge and even less affinity of competing openly in the market economy; to the contrary, he specializes in lobbying the federal government to legislate competitors out of his way and monopolizing the market by having government mandate the energy mechanisms and technologies that only his company, GE, can provide to consumers.
Not really competitive now, is it?
In his invaluable book, The Big Ripoff, Tim Carney documents Immelt's record of attempting to corner the energy market through the coercive regulatory power of the federal government, all the while building GE's public image up to one of a progressive, environmentally-conscious company.
Starting in 2005, GE launched its "ecomagination" public relations campaign wherein Immelt insisted GE was committed to providing cleaner, greener energy. That's nice, but his method of doing so was anything but "competitive." As Carney illustrates,
"Ecomagination involves investing in certain fuels and technologies, and then working with government to make those fuels or technologies mandatory."And where did GE and Immelt decide to launch the bold new Ecomagination? New York, the economic and financial center of the free world? No. Silicon Valley, that global symbol of technical innovation? Nope. Ecomagination launched on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington DC somewhere between Congress and the White House, the very belly of the regulatory, wealth-destroying Leviathan that has for decades stood in the way of competitive wealth creation.
Immelt, on that occasion:
"Industry cannot solve the problems of the world alone, we need to work in concert with government." [Emphasis added.]Again, Immelt really does seem interested in "competitiveness" now, does he?
Then there is that little thing called Cap and Trade. GE is an enthusiastic supporter of and lobbyist for the bill which would levy one of the largest tax hikes in history and completely cartelize the energy market with GE and the federal government in effect fixing all prices and controlling the entire market.
Yea, not too much "competitiveness" in Cap and Trade.
Perchance Immelt has since turned from his desire to collude with government and make competition illegal. Let's see what he had to say as late as 2008 in a letter to shareholders?:
"The interaction between government and business will change forever. In a reset economy, the government will be a regulator; and also an industry policy champion, a financier, and a key partner." [Emphasis added.]Well that's not good but wait a tick. To be fair that was almost three years ago. What did he have to say just yesterday about competitiveness after being named to the president's new board?:
"The president and I are committed to a candid and full dialogue among business, labor and government to help ensure that the United States has the most competitive and innovative economy in the world." [Emphasis on monopolistic anti-competition verbiage added]
