RDS-B vs GE

[earthtodan]

Your observation about financial institutions having high debt is correct, and it does skew the figures with GE. Reason being that banks deal in debt, which they buy wholesale and sell retail. They make money on the net interest margin (NOI), or the spread between their cost and what they charge their customers. Industrial companies that have a finance arm just to enable sales of their own high-dollar products, like DE and CAT, show a higher debt figure because of this even though it doesn't reflect on the core industrial operation.

I don't know what GE's industrial business' debt looks like without the finance arm, but it's safe to say the debt load comes from GECC.