Years later, from the comfort of his Florida home (and his post-GE life), Wendt was more candid about the use of GE Capital’s assets to smooth GE’s earnings. “We did, we did,” he said. “We were able to. I always had a lot of things available for the quarter. I had to because I knew he”—Jack—“was going to call up and say, ‘I need another $1 million or another $2 million or whatever,’ and so I’d go over to [James] Parke and I’d say, ‘Okay, let’s do this one and this one.’ ” He said under Jack, GE “always” made its numbers. “Making your earnings was just life to us,”
