Gross’s comments were a shot at the heart of GE Capital, which generated its outsized returns by borrowing huge sums via short-term debt and commercial paper, then lending it out at higher rates for longer terms. At the time of Gross’s attack, Moody’s reported that GE Capital’s short-term debt, covering commercial paper and debt due within twelve months, totaled a stunning $127 billion and that only 24 percent of this amount, or $31 billion, was backed by bank lines. That $31 billion was the only credit that GE, “the largest corporate issuer of commercial paper in the world,” could draw down
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