Forbes Magazine dated October 27, 2008 Does General Electric deserve its AAA rating? The long debate over General Electric (nyse: )'s true identity--an industrial conglomerate or a finance outfit--is over. The Fairfield, Conn. company is a bank in drag, and its makeup is starting to run. By stooping to accept $3 billion from Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (nyse: ) at a near-usurious 10% interest rate, GE's chief executive, Jeffrey Immelt, demonstrated just how desperate things have become. Buffett's cash, along with a $12.2 billion stock offering at not much more than half GE's price a year ago, helped the company clutch its AAA rating, one of six awarded to U.S. corporations. But it didn't do much to change the rising defaults in GE's finance business, its dangerous reliance on commercial paper or the lackluster...
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