Back then it was plain to see in real-time that upon GE's acquisition of Cooper Tools, Welch immediately set about destroying what made Cooper uniquely outstand

Back then it was plain to see in real-time that upon GE's acquisition of Cooper Tools, Welch immediately set about destroying what made Cooper uniquely outstanding. And that was just one company. Other victim companies had been given the same treatment by then, the de-industrialization was well underway and picking up steam as upcoming American executives "across-the-board" tried to emulate the famous Welch by extracting long-term hard-earned intangibles and posting it as short-term profits in place of the real sustainable thing.