It killed entire brands, Pontiac included, and axed high-performance cars like the G8, a full-size, V8-powered sedan very similar to the new Chevy SS. It even went so far as to completely disband its long-standing High Performance Vehicle Operations unit, which had developed such fast, gas-guzzling cars as the Cadillac CTS-V and Chevrolet Corvette ZR-1.

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Through this performance lens, government operations become a way to drive better results, not an end in and of itself.

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Still, it didn't change the rising defaults in GE's finance business, its dangerous reliance on commercial paper or the lackluster performance of its industrial operations.

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