Executive Perks - Immelt Hypocrisy Style (GE)

Remember all that 'green' talk in the mid-oughts? We have a couple hundred posts on GE and Immelt and very, very few of them are positive takes on either. As noted when the company got the regulatory okey-dokey to purchase oil services giant Baker-Hughes:

Long-time followers of GE may remember "Ecoimagination".
It was all B.S., just rent-seeking gussied up in verde:
"GE's Immelt wishes he had soft-pedaled green talk" (GE)

From the twisted accountants at Going Concern:

Yesterday, The Wall Street Journal reported that the General Electric’s new CEO, John Flannery, is busy making changes. They include axing one of his predecessor’s bizarre travel practices:

For much of Jeff Immelt’s 16-year run atop one of the world’s largest conglomerates, an empty business jet followed his GE-owned plane on some trips to destinations around the world, according to people familiar with the matter. The two jets sometimes parked far apart so they wouldn’t attract attention, and flight crews were told to not openly discuss the empty plane, the people said.

The second plane was a spare in case Mr. Immelt’s jet had mechanical problems. A GE spokeswoman said that “two planes were used on limited occasions for business-critical or security purposes.” Mr. Immelt didn’t respond to requests for comment.
When Mr. Flannery took over on Aug. 1, one of his first belt-tightening moves was to ground GE’s entire fleet of six business jets, and that’s just the beginning.

And from the "No, tell us what you really think" file a 2015 post re-referencing a 2007 event:
General Electric Threatens to Leave Connecticut (GE)

Ungrateful bitches.
It was just eight short years ago that the company took the state's money in "GE gets grant to install GE solar panels on GE headquarters".*

The asterisk went on to a bunch of prior posts including:

These are the kind of people you have to stay away from. As I mentioned in 2014's "General Electric: ‘A Generation of Portfolio Managers Has Been Rewarded For Staying Underweight’" (GE)"

Monday, September 10, 2001 was the day that Mr. Immelt took over at GE. The stock closed that day at a split adjusted $32.86. Today it is changing hands at $26.88.

I haven't owned the stock since '99. I was fortunate to not own this stock for the last decade-point-five. 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".

Sometimes you get lucky....

Sometimes you get lucky.
And sometimes you recognize crapola when you see it.

The stock closed at $20.79 on Friday.