Since President Obama took office, the Dow is down nearly 1,200 points. In February alone, stocks fell 12 percent. It is obvious Wall Street is not yet confident the president knows what he's doing.
But investors also see continuing corruption on Wall Street, and many Americans have stopped buying stock and will not start again until things get cleaned up. Count me in that group.
Let's take blue chip company General Electric for example. "Talking Points" has hammered GE because CEO Jeffrey Immelt did business with Iran while that country was killing American soldiers and Marines in Iraq. And he has allowed NBC News to veer sharply left, using personal attacks every step of the way. On February 5, Immelt told the world that GE would not cut its dividend.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEFFREY IMMELT, GENERAL ELECTRIC CEO: We have the best cash flow and set of industrial businesses in the world, with strong visible service revenues, things like that. So I think it's just a question of, you know, we've got the cash flow to pay the dividend.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Sure. On February 27, just three weeks after Immelt said that, GE cut its dividend almost 70 percent. Obviously Immelt, because of his incompetence, mislead the public, and some people bought GE stock based on his dividend statement. Some have suggested that's fraud in the inducement. No question Immelt should not have made the dividend statement, and it wasn't the first time he's made mistakes like this. In September of 2007, "Factor" producer Jesse Watters asked Immelt about the Iran business:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JESSE WATTERS, "FACTOR" PRODUCER: Mr. Immelt, Jesse with FOX News. We'd like to talk to you about your involvement with Iran. Are you still trading with Iran while Iranians are killing Americans in Iraq? You're not selling them airplane parts that they can be used for military equipment?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Oh yeah? On January 23, 2008, on his own network, CNBC, Immelt finally told the truth:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
IMMELT: We stopped taking orders in a place like Iran in 2005. Most of our customers in Iran were European companies, you know, European oil companies, things like that. So we just didn't go cold turkey. You know, we finished the projects we started but we took no new orders.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Now my question: Why would anyone believe anything Immelt says? Since Immelt took over GE in 2001, the stock has fallen 81 percent, to its lowest level since 1993. Monday was another disaster. GE stock closed at $7.60. Hard to believe.
So let's do the math. General Electric is being mismanaged. The mismanager apparently has trouble telling the truth, yet he keeps his $20 million job. $20 million a year. That adds up to corruption to me, ladies and gentlemen. Perhaps I'm wrong.
It is very likely that Immelt will finally be fired, but he'll walk away with tens of millions of bucks. Mark my words. And while GE may be an extreme case, it does reflect an abuse of stockholders that is not uncommon among publicly traded companies.
So if Wall Street is rigged against the folks, why should we invest? Until President Obama begins to understand that private industry is the only vehicle that can restore the American economy to strength, and until the feds begin to police Wall Street, demanding honesty in public statements and accounting practices, the economy will remain a mess.
The simple truth is the government can't run the economy, but it can enforce a code of honest conduct. Mr. Obama should stop the semi-socialistic nonsense that has Wall Street spurning him and demand that the Street get back to honest capitalism.
And that's "The Memo."
Pinheads & Patriots
Actress Maria Conchita Alonso is from Venezuela and knows firsthand about Hugo Chavez and his corrupt policies. So when Sean Penn won an Oscar, Ms. Alonso called him out on his friendship with Chavez.
Click here to watch "Pinheads & Patriots"!
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARIA CONCHITA ALONSO, ACTRESS: He has no clue at all what's going on in Venezuela. He's crazy, Hugo Chavez, who's a dictator and a killer and whatever, whatever, whatever. So, you know, I try to put aside him being an amazing actor and the political view, which he has no clue. He should just shut up about what he doesn't know.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Ms. Alonso has appeared with Penn in a movie called "Colors," and she is a patriot for speaking her mind on this one. And she's right.
On the pinhead front, Reed Harris wanted to surprise his girlfriend, Kaitlin Whipple, with an engagement ring. Uh-oh. Reed actually put the ring in a milkshake, and you guessed it, Kaitlin swallowed it, which of course, is not good. Why mess up the shake?
Anyway, X-rays showed the location of the ring, which is probably more than we need to know. Therefore, old Reed becomes a pinhead.
— You can catch Bill O'Reilly's "Talking Points Memo" and "Pinheads & Patriots" weeknights at 8 and 11 p.m. ET on the FOX News Channel and any time on foxnews.com/oreilly. Send your comments to: oreilly@foxnews.com
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