The Rising Influence of Rising Affluence

[DewDiligence]

GE Capital post-mortem:

http://www.wsj.com/articles/why-general-electric-is-unwinding-its-finance-arm-1444784781

Though much of GE Capital’s business consisted of ordinary lending to midsize U.S. businesses, it also mirrored the global ventures of its parent. …Fed supervisors wondered about the logic in the firm’s decision to finance a pipeline from an aquifer in Jordan or take a large stake in an oil-drilling ship. They complained they had never seen anything like that before, said this person, who recalled one of the Fed officials asking, “Why did you buy a drill ship? You don’t own any other drill ships.”

… As it happened, the drill ship was a bet that didn’t work out. The legal vehicle that owned a “dynamically positioned drilling vessel” called Peregrine I filed for bankruptcy in 2011.