--- Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
> GE would, of course,
> be classed as
> nonfinancial.
Arguably not, not by me, leastwise. GE makes a hell of a lot of its profits out of GE Capital, which is in all sorts of businesses completely unrelated to the hire purchase finance of fridges and such.
Come to think of it, Microsoft is another one which makes more money out of its treasury than out of most of its operating divisions. Not sure of the implications of this for the main debate though.
dd
===== “It is necessarily part of the business of a banker to maintain appearances and to profess a conventional respectability which is more than human. Life-long practices of this kind make them the most romantic and the least realistic of men” -- JM Keynes
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