They had a relatively larger fall from grace in the recession than the rest of the index.
In any case, even if he was a terrible executive what does that have to do with whether he was correct about general trends in the nuclear industry?
I'm saying he had a larger agenda at the time that comment was made, one that had him divesting not just from nuclear but many other of GE's historic heavy industry and power related business lines.
How so? Don't you agree with it?
DUBNER: Let me ask you this: in 1999, not long before you retired from G.E., you said that your ultimate success would be determined by how well your successor grows the company over the next 20 years. When you said that, G.E.’s market cap was up north of $450 billion. Now it’s almost 20 years later, it’s just north of $200 billion. So talk to me about that. I know that you —
WELCH: I don’t talk about that.
Now maybe Welch doesn't want to seem like he's bad-mouthing the performance of those who came after him, but he does have at least some responsibility for ensuring a good continuity of leadership.
https://freakonomics.com/podcast/extra-jack-welch-full-inter...