The Smoke Break

You want some brie with that whine?

Who’s Laughing Now?

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It was a big deal in the entertainment world when NBC decided to can Tonight Show host Conan O’Brien.  Personally, I found Conan’s final week hilarious and reminiscent of its good old days with Johnny Carson and “Coco” was very gracious as he said his goodbye.

And why shouldn’t he be?  Under the terms of the separation contract, NBC is paying O’Brien $45 million to not work for the next eight months, and he got them to give another $12 million to his staff of 200.

Not bad for a 7-month stint, eh?

But the one question no one is asking is:  exactly how can NBC possibly afford to pay out all this money?  Well, dear readers, the joke’s on you.  Via the government’s bank bailouts last spring.

I know, I know.  NBC isn’t a bank.

But in the Obamanation, that’s just a little legal technicality when your parent company is GE.

General Electric, the world’s largest industrial company, has quietly become the biggest beneficiary of one of the government’s key rescue programs for banks.

At the same time, GE has avoided many of the restrictions facing other financial giants getting help from the government.

The company did not initially qualify for the program, under which the government sought to unfreeze credit markets by guaranteeing debt sold by banking firms. But regulators soon loosened the eligibility requirements, in part because of behind-the-scenes appeals from GE.

As a result, GE has joined major banks collectively saving billions of dollars by raising money for their operations at lower interest rates. Public records show that GE Capital, the company’s massive financing arm, has issued nearly a quarter of the $340 billion in debt backed by the program, which is known as the Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program, or TLGP. The government’s actions have been “powerful and helpful” to the company, GE chief executive Jeffrey Immelt acknowledged in December [2008].

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Banking companies are regulated by the Federal Reserve and not allowed to engage in commerce, but federal law has allowed a small number of commercial companies to engage in banking under the lighter hand of the Office of Thrift Supervision. GE falls in the latter group because of its ownership of a Utah savings and loan.

Unlike other major lenders participating in the debt guarantee program, including Bank of America, Citigroup and J.P. Morgan Chase, GE has never been subject to the Fed’s stress tests or its rules for limiting risk. Also unlike firms that have received bailout money in the Troubled Assets Relief Program, or TARP, GE is not subject to restrictions such as limits on executive compensation.

What was that again about “too big to fail”?

Who Brings Good Things To Light?

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It’s not GE.

GE is the parent company of NBC and MSNBC.  You know, the commentary…errrr…news network that continues to broadcast like it’s 2008 and they’re a founding member of ACORN?  The network that aired an interview with Hollywood’s newest self-proclaimed political analyst, Janeane Garofalo, who told the handful of viewers on April 16th that the people who attended the Tea Parties were racists and “nothing but a bunch of teabagging rednecks.”

Ever wonder what could possibly cause them to forsake reporting and journalism?

Bill O’Reilly connected the dots quite nicely on “The Factor” today.  It’s no secret that the financial arm of GE has received a bailout so would want to curry favor with the Feds, but that’s just smoke & mirrors.  And small change.  The real carrot that has created little more than an Obama pimp network is the money GE stands to make from cap & trade.

The Washington Examiner explained the game plan last month:

GE — a member of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, which advocates cap and trade — leads the push for greenhouse gas restrictions.

In the fourth quarter of 2008 as the company’s stock fell 30 percent, GE spent $4.26 million on lobbying — that’s $46,304 each day, including weekends, Thanksgiving and Christmas. In 2008, the company spent a grand total of $18.66 million on lobbying.

Reviewing their lobbying filings, you might think you were looking at Al Gore’s agenda. GE’s specific lobbying issues included the “Climate Stewardship Act,” “Electric Utility Cap and Trade Act,” “Global Warming Reduction Act,” “Federal Government Greenhouse Gas Registry Act,” “Low Carbon Economy Act,” and “Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act.”

This isn’t altruism or public relations. GE has started a joint venture called Greenhouse Gas Services, which invests in — and hopes to manage the trade in — greenhouse gas credits. But these investments and this trading floor are of basically no use and nearly no value without government restrictions on greenhouse gases.

Hence the lobbying, buttressed by generous campaign contributions: Employees and executives gave $1.35 million to politicians in the past election while GE’s political action committee shelled out $1.55 million. About 64 percent of this $2.9 million went to Democrats, with Obama easily the top recipient of GE money.

Obama’s budget includes the payoff, promising to start a multibillion-dollar greenhouse gas industry by 2012. In a letter this week, GE’s (CEO) Immelt told shareholders that current events present an “opportunity of a lifetime,” because “capitalism will be ‘reset.’ ”

Immelt wrote: “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.”

In short, GE plans to get rich by being one of the government’s closest partners — which it has always been, thanks to its unmatched lobbying efforts.

GE is also partnering up in Florida with Cisco and FPL Group Inc.’s Florida Power and Light Co., planning to create a “smart grid” system.  Which will, of course, be sticking its hand out for a piece of the stimulus pie.  Because, according to Jeffrey Immelt, “There’s a lot of money out there.  We’ve got the chance to get more action in 2009.”

Of course, when GE fails as its products aren’t being bought by all the people who have no jobs and their media numbers plummet as people become more and more disenchanted with the continuing missteps by those in Washington, the government will move in as it did with Wall Street and the banks, and Pater Obama will finally begin to feel like an equal with his buddy, Hugo Chavez.

Enlightening, isn’t it?