TPM Reader GB sends this along about GE ...

Through its GE Capital subsidiary gets about from 30-50% of its revenue from the finance business. So bailing it out makes as much sense as bailing out AIG or the investment banks.

And in terms of assets, it's leveraged also - about 80% of GE's total assets are controlled by GE Capital. So it's better to think of it as a bank with an industrial base, rather than an industrial company that does financing.

As the WSJ article I linked to makes clear, this is definitely the case. But I don't think GE's huge stake in its finance arm is actually what makes it eligible for the federal guarantee. It's the two banks proper that it owns that does that. And that still strikes me as a backwards way to make policy.

On a more general note though, GE's heavy reliance for profits on its finance arm seems troubling to me for a different reason. It gives me the sense that the profitable parts of our real economy -- as opposed to the inflated finance economy -- were only profitable -- or mainly profitable -- because they've wedged their way into the paper economy.