At a high level, I don't disagree with the idea as a whole but the problem with a plan like that is when you're facing a liquidity shortage, your shares may not

At a high level, I don't disagree with the idea as a whole but the problem with a plan like that is when you're facing a liquidity shortage, your shares may not be worth a lot. The problem with leveraging debt is that it can also compound and magnify your problems. Especially in the case of GE, the huge debt caused its debt rating to go down and that made the cost of borrowing higher, thus compounding the problem. If GE had paid down its debts, its book value would have gone up and eventually that would drive up its share prices (eventually... in a rational market).