“Did we create income because somebody else couldn’t deliver in a quarter?” he asked. “Absolutely. There’s nothing wrong with that. We didn’t do anything illegal ever. We had financial flexibility [at GE Capital] that, if you’re making washing machines, you don’t have. You can monetize assets. You can sell assets. You can harvest assets. And that’s what we did on a regular basis. We securitized assets. We used our financial smarts to maximize the assets, and when called on to deliver income, we did it on a regular basis. And we had a record that’s unparalleled year after year.
