The fall of GE

What happened to the house that Jack built?

A General Electric factory.
(Image credit: LOIC VENANCE/AFP/Getty Images)

What happened to General Electric? For much of its 128-year history, GE was a quintessential American company. It produced the iconic incandescent bulb, the first commercial power station, the first commercial nuclear plant, the first American jet engine, and early advancements in plastics and silicon, just to name a few.

But today, the company's market capitalization is plummeting, and it's frantically selling off divisions for spare parts. It may eventually break up entirely.

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Jeff Spross

Jeff Spross was the economics and business correspondent at TheWeek.com. He was previously a reporter at ThinkProgress.