the 1970s, GE Credit made around $45 million, or roughly 4 percent of GE’s pretax income. By the end of the 1990s, GE Capital was providing nearly 40 percent of GE’s pretax income, and by 2003, it was providing more than half of GE’s pretax net income. It’s fair to say that without the profits that GE Capital was churning out year after year, Jack would never have been named Fortune’s “Manager of the Century” and GE would never have become the world’s most valuable company.
