He said relying on the commercial paper market to fund GE Capital was “a model that worked until it didn’t, and then it became definitely the wrong model. It didn’t go from white to gray to chartreuse. It went like white to black in like seven seconds.” (If Jeff had understood the risks of borrowing short and lending long—the inherent risks of finance—he might have anticipated how something like this could happen, even at the mighty GE. But he didn’t.)
