FDIC insures GE Capital debt

Every day brings a new outrage – or several of them – but the FDIC’s decision to insure the debt of GE Capital ranks pretty high in the litany of despicable acts.

From Bloomberg’s report on the matter:

General Electric Co. said the U.S. government agreed to insure as much as $139 billion in debt for lending arm GE Capital Corp., the second time in a month it has turned to a federal program designed to help companies during a global credit crunch.

Gee, is there any borrower in America that wouldn’t like to have the full faith and credit of the United States government backing its obligations? What exactly has one of the wealthiest companies on earth done – or not done – to merit the explicit support of every man, woman, and child in America?

In perhaps the understatement of the week, GE’s flack assures us that its shareholders will benefit from the generosity of the American people:

“Inclusion in this program will allow us to source our debt competitively with other participating financial institutions,” [Russell] Wilkerson said. GE sent investors an e-mail about the program today and posted the letter on its Web site. “Our participation is a positive development for our investors.”

When a person begs me for money on the street or in the subway, he unfailingly says “thank you” or “bless you” or something to that effect to acknowledge whatever change I could spare.

All we get from GE is a statement of the obvious.