ColdFusion - How BIG is General Electric? (They've Made Nuclear Weapons!) | ColdFusion

Starting point is 00:00:00 You are watching Cold Fusion TV. Hi, welcome to another Cold Fusion video. General Electric, one of the largest and well-known multinational conglomerates. From medicine and aviation to energy and kitchen appliances, it's safe to say that they do a fair bit. But how did the company begin and just how big is it? And what about the deepest story? Are there any other lesser-known secrets that we should know about General Electric?

Starting point is 00:00:33 Let's begin. And honestly, you don't know what? Honestly, you don't know what you've been missing until you get this wonderful GE combination. We didn't. We didn't have this separate freezer section with a separate door and a freezing system all its own. General Electric, or GE, was founded by Thomas Edison in 1889 when he merged many businesses into just one corporation. He did this with the help of J.P. Morgan and Anthony Drexel.

Starting point is 00:01:01 As we all know, Edison did a lot of great things, but by at least a few measures, Edison wasn't a nice guy. He cheated Nikola Tesla in the 1880s and sought to destroy Tesla's progress by many desperate means including the electrocution of local pets. But that's all coming up on this channel a bit later and is a story for another day. So subscribe if you want to see that. Anyway, despite Edison's misbehavior in 1886, GE was one of the first 12 companies listed on the newly formed Dow Jones Industrial Average. After 120 years, they're the only one of the 12 original companies still listed on the industry.

Starting point is 00:01:37 In the early 1900s, the company was one of the first to enter the new business of voice radio broadcasting, out of which came Radio Corporation America, or RCA, a massive company of the 20th century. There's nothing we want to watch on TV tonight, but we're still going to watch something great with our RCA video disc player and video discs. Just flip a switch. We're watching a great movie, and you're watching us. Also around this time, GE was the company that would introduce the first electric toasters

Starting point is 00:02:14 and hot plates, a mini revolution for home cooking. In the 30s, the company responded to the Great Depression by introducing GE consumer finance so customers could pay for their new appliances over time. It was the 1930s and 40s that saw GE usher in innovations like the fluorescent lamp and the first autopilot for commercial applications. Interestingly enough, in the 1950s, GE was the first business in the world to own a computer, and they were the largest user of computers outside of the US government. After this, GE started manufacturing their own mainframe computers and even their own operating

Starting point is 00:02:52 system. Alongside companies like IBM and Honeywell, GE was actually one of the major eight computer companies of the 1960s. This era came to an end in the 1970s when they sold their computer division to Honeywell. the 20th century, GE expanded into many fields, one of which was energy, and in 2002, the company acquired wind power assets from Enron when they went bankrupt. As it turns out, Enron Wind was the only surviving US manufacturer of large wind turbines at the time. By the end of the 20th century and the start of the 21st century, GE was a true global

Starting point is 00:03:30 giant and a household name. Today, General Electric is now ranked number 24 in the Fortune 500, terms of revenue. Let's take a look at some aspects of its actual size. General Electric has 305,000 employees with the revenue of 146 billion and over $650 billion worth of assets. That's more than the GDP of Sweden or Norway or two times the GDP of Singapore. The company is also listed as number nine on the Forbes world's most valuable brand list. Okay, so that's all very nice, but how do they make all? of their money. Well I'll tell you but before we get to that I'm going to ask you something what do you think is GE's biggest money maker? That's a no-brainer. It's

Starting point is 00:04:19 energy right? Well no. Let's take a look at this three-year chart of GE's revenue. As you can see their largest segment is actually finance at 31%. This is anything from personal loans and credit cards to energy-related financial services. An interesting fact, within the capital markets in terms of market share, they're about half that of JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America or Citigroup, and that is significant because those three banks are actually the result of a merger of 28 banks since 1990, so they're no small feat to measure up to. The next biggest segment for General Electric is power and water at 18%.

Starting point is 00:05:03 This includes gas, wind and steam turbines, nuclear reactors, solar power and generators. up at 14% is aviation. So these are things like aviation services and systems and commercial and military engines. The next segment at 12% is healthcare. So this is MRIs, CT scanners, x-rays and surgical and molecular imaging machines. GE takes out about 39% of the medical equipment industry in terms of market share. So what about oil and gas? Surprisingly, the oil and gas sector only makes up 10% of GE's English. So aside from all of this, GE also makes some other things such as refrigerators, freezes, electric and gas ranges, cook tops, dishwashers, dryers, microwaves, and you get the idea.

Starting point is 00:05:53 So we're going to change things a little bit here. As it turns out, it's not all roses for GE. There were certain times in their history that they were not seen as one of the golden geese of innovation. The problems lie within the details of GE's activities that aren't conveniently displayed or listed on their website. There was actually a time when the people of the world came together and rallied against General Electric. Let's hear the story.

Starting point is 00:06:27 The year is 1984 and in the US, GE produced more parts to more major nuclear weapons systems than any other corporation. They also promoted nuclear weapons to the government. Few people actually remember the existing tie between the president at the time and General Electric. You see, Ronald Reagan was actually a spokesman for General Electric before. he became president. For General Electric, here is Ronald Reagan.

Starting point is 00:06:52 Good evening. At General Electric, progress is our most important product. Kellea Luella founded a group called Corporate Accountability International for the sole reason of stopping GE from producing nuclear weapons. That same year, in 1984, Kelly's group organized an international grassroots campaign, including a 40 nation-wide film exposing the truth behind GE's corporate image. General Electric is in this business of building weapons for profit, not for patriotism, not for the country, not for the flag, but for profit.

Starting point is 00:07:24 The campaign also included a boycott of all General Electric products. The kickoff of the project got off to a strong start, but would it work? In 1989, three years into the boycott and five years into the overall campaign, GE spent four times more on brand advertising to defend its brand image than in the past four years, The fight was on. By 1990, 4 million people in the United States alone were boycotting GE, and the campaign activities had actually spread across to Canada and into Western Europe. Major retail stores replaced GE light bulbs with those made by other companies.

Starting point is 00:08:04 In April of 1993, after seven years of boycotting, the people had finally won. General Electric completed its move out of the nuclear weapons business, stating that it was a business decision. The boycott had cost GE over $50 million in lost medical equipment sales alone. When the campaign began in 1984, 50,000 nuclear warheads were on constant alert and the US was building five nuclear bombs per day. At the close of the campaign, no more nuclear bombs were in production by General Electric. But that's not all, the dark side for GE goes deeper still, and it gets worse especially for Americans. In 1986, GE purchased NBORNB.E. purchased NB. During just one year in 1989, General Electric had received close to $2 billion in military contracts related to systems that ended up being used in the Gulf War.

Starting point is 00:08:57 And of course, GE are no stranger to helping the US government with weapons. The bombs dropped in Nagasaki and Hiroshima were researched and developed with the help of GE. So, as it turned out, NBC's parent company designed, manufactured and supplied parts for every major weapon system during the Gulf War. during the Gulf War. This includes the Tomahawk cruise missiles and systems for the stealth bomber and B-52 bomber. So in reality, the financial incentives were driving the wrong way. When correspondents and paid consultants of NBC television praised the performance of US weapons, they were commending the equipment made by GE, the corporation that paid their salaries. In the heat of the Gulf War in 1991, retired generals and

Starting point is 00:09:43 Admirals became regulars on NBC's shows during wartime. The more they told people war was needed, the less resistance the public had towards war. This of course meant more money for GE in the form of contracts, a share of which ended up back in the pockets of those same generals. And this kind of thing continued. 13 years later, in 2004, the company still had a big stake in military spending, meaning that NBC's reporting of the Afghanistan war may have also been tainted. So why do all of this?

Starting point is 00:10:15 Well, with a single missile costing over $1 million to make and with tens of thousands of missiles being fired in a conflict, you can only imagine how profitable war can be. It really sucks that this happened, but this chapter does end on a positive note though. In 2013, General Electric sold NBC to Comcast, which of course still isn't ideal, but it's still a relief from that conflict of interest, and I'm glad that no longer exists. So what can we make of all this? Well, we've learnt that General Electric is a huge company and has its hands in many fields, but it is a bit of mixed bag.

Starting point is 00:10:54 GE has done some incredible things in their history and have innovated in many fields, but the dark parts of their past can't be ignored. But to end this, on the plus side, even though they're still one of the US government's biggest defense contractors, they no longer build weapons, and it's mainly just engine manufacturing that they do in that field. So I guess that rounds out the video. Thanks for watching guys, don't forget to give this a thumbs up if you liked it. Subscribe if you knew, definitely do that.

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ColdFusion - How BIG is General Electric? (They've Made Nuclear Weapons!) | ColdFusion

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