Hank Paulson’s book revives worries about GE

IT IS supposed to be a cosy chat between friends, but the onstage conversation scheduled for February 18th between Hank Paulson and Jeffrey Immelt could turn into a fight to preserve the reputation of at least one of these corporate titans. Until a few days ago this event, to be held at a cultural centre in New York, looked like a classic example of the old pals’ act—Mr Paulson, a former treasury secretary and boss of Goldman Sachs, having insisted on being interviewed about his new book by his friend, Mr Immelt, the boss of General Electric, rather than by a journalist. (In a similar event on February 9th Mr Paulson took soft-ball questions from another old chum, Warren Buffett.)

Now, assuming the event goes ahead at all, it could turn into a brawl. This is because of revelations by Mr Paulson in “On The Brink: Inside the Race to Stop the Collapse of the Global Financial System”, about discussions that he claims to have had with the boss of GE in the thick of the financial crisis in the autumn of 2008. GE and Mr Immelt dispute his account. …