It seems that no print publication is immune from the wrenching changes in the publishing industry. Look at Reader's Digest. The company said it will likely file for a so-called prearranged Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

The main reason: to pare down the heavy debt load.

This morning, Goldman Sachs decided it a prudent move to upgrade General Electric (NYSE: GE) to Buy from Neutral and elevated the stock's price target to $15 from $13 per share. The reason for the upgrade was comments from U.S. House Financial Services Chair Barney Frank. The congressman seemed to indicate that there was support for regulatory reform that would "not mandate the separation of GE Captial."

The brokerage firm now estimates a 25% chance that GE Capital will be separated from GE, which could cost shareholders $40 billion, earlier the estimate was at 50%.

Have you ever heard of the FDIC's Term Liquidity Guarantee Program (TLGP)? Most people haven't. Its been kept under the radar and it has turned out to be a real bonanza to banks issuing corporate debt.

How does it work? The program was started last November by the FDIC and guarantees the issuance of bank debt securities at much lower interest rates. In the second quarter alone eight of the largest issuers of corporate debt cut interest rated by $24 billion under the TLGP.

General Electric Company (NYSE: GE) has taken quite the tumble under current CEO Jeffrey Immelt -- down 74% from the $41 it traded at when he took over in September 2001.

But if you had backed up the truck and bought the shares at its 52-week low of $6.66 on March 4, you would be sitting on a 61% gain. And that hypothetical gain is improving -- GE stock is up 5.9% this morning -- thanks to an investor conference underway now (which I discussed last night on Marketplace) to disclose details of GE Capital (GECC) -- its finance unit.

GECC -- which makes loans for goods ranging from commercial real estate to heavy equipment purchases -- accounted for 33% of GE's operating profit -- or $8.6 billion in 2008. Now GE's CFO, Keith Sherin, thinks it will make money in 2009 as well. "We expected GE Capital to be profitable in the first quarter and we expect GE Capital to be profitable in 2009," according to Thomson Reuters. Specifically, Sherin thinks GECC will earn $5 billion -- down 42% from 2008.

General Electric Company (NYSE: GE) missed by a penny. But a look behind its corporate veil reveals a company that is not getting the so-called benefits of diversification. Instead, the great performance of one of its businesses is being overwhelmed by all the other businesses which are shrinking. My concern is what happens if that one business also takes a dive.

GE net income fell 44% to $3.65 billion and its earnings per share (EPS) from continuing operations was 36 cents -- analysts had expected 37. Here's the bad news:

• GE's financial-services business, GE Capital, made a profit of $383 million -- an 88% drop while its revenues fell 18%. Its CNBC cable channel reported that it would cut 7,000 jobs and save $2 billion.
  
• GE's consumer and industrial business suffered an 86% earnings decline as revenue fell 17%
• GE's television and movie network. NBC Universal suffered a 6.3% earnings decline while revenue slid 2.7% as declines at local stations -- presumably suffering from weak advertising demand -- were partially offset by strong cable earnings

Remember how admired General Electric (NYSE: GE) used to be? After its stock has tumbled 71% from its all-time high in 2000 of $58.13, I don't think people admire it much anymore. You may have missed that GE got $139 billion in loan guarantees from the FDIC a few weeks ago but nobody blinked an eyelash. Meanwhile today, GE is reporting more disappointing earnings news.

GE is shrinking its GE Capital unit, which in 2007 accounted for about 50% of its profit and sales. Next year GE plans to earn $9 billion from GE Capital, excluding a potential charge of $1 billion to $1.4 billion to speed up cost cuts there. Meanwhile, GE Capital will have lots of bad loans -- its provision is expected to rise from $7.2 billion in 2008 to $9 billion in 2009.

As a result, GE cut its overall earnings forecast for the fourth quarter from between 50 cents to 65 cents a share down to a range of 50 cents to 52 cents -- which is in line with the 51-cents average of 14 analysts' estimates. These days it is very hard to admire almost any company, and stock prices are reflecting that lack of admiration.

A lot of the attention over the weakness in GE's (NYSE:GE) stock has been due to the poor performance in its industrial unit and the cyclical nature of earnings at its NBC Universal entertainment business. But, like Wall Street firms, the real risks for the conglomerate's numbers could be in its financial and money divisions.

According to The Wall Street Journal, "Investors are worried about the value of assets held by GE Capital, which accounts for most of its borrowing and more than one-third of its profit."

GE shares fell to a five-and-a-half year low yesterday, bottoming at $24.60.

But, GE is an exceedingly complex company and focusing on its financial unit is only part of the story. The real engine of the firm's growth has been its infrastructure unit. This includes GE's aviation, health-care, energy, and natural resources operations. The current risk to those businesses is substantial.

GE has made a point of telling investors that the rapid improvement in its infrastructure earnings, especially due to growth in Asia, will help drive double digit revenue growth. The current damage to the world's financial markets and slowing economies in the West and Asia could undercut GE's forecasts.

GE's stock could go lower because of risks in all its units. The firm's financial businesses are only part of the picture.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

Bloomberg News reports that General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) has cut the number of its business units from six to four. This change in organization structure should trim its overhead. But it could make it more difficult for investors to compare GE's performance before the reorganization to how it's doing after the change in structure.

The key unresolved question is whether the new structure will boost GE's revenue and profit growth. Bloomberg reports that the four new units will be GE Technology Infrastructure, GE Energy Infrastructure, GE Capital and NBC Universal. GE formerly had six units -- Reuters reports that GE Health Care, which was one of the six former divisions, now falls under the new Technology Infrastructure unit. GE's $13 billion consumer and industrial businesses, which include washing machines and lighting, is not part of the new structure -- in 2009 GE wants to spin those businesses off to shareholders.

Bloomberg reports that in May, GE CEO Jeff Immelt said that he intends to change GE's product mix to about 60% non-financial by 2010 -- far more than it is today. In 2007, GE's finance-related businesses accounted for 44% of net income and 53% of profit from continuing operations. It is not clear whether the new organization structure will help revive GE's revenue and profit growth.

Friday was a fascinating day for General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE); the shares were actually up $1 and trading volume was at 91 million shares, nearly triple the usual amount. The hoopla started when Citigroup research mentioned that GE should be broken up and spun off into separate companies. It's about time.

I have been writing about the possibility of GE splitting up for the past year for members of my website. It only makes sense. The problem with General Electric is that it has too many moving parts to properly predict consistent growth. GE is expected to generate revenues of $176 billion this year, with earnings per share of $2.22. For 2008, early consensus is for revenues of $196 billion and earnings per share of $2.48, barely a 10% increase over 2007.

Revenues are growing at slightly less than 10%. The 10% number is a magical number for Wall Street. If a company falls under that benchmark, serious questions about strategy and direction need to be asked -- and answered. Jeff Immelt, CEO, has been under the gun recently as the shares of GE have plodded along for the past six years in a narrow trading range. The bottom line is that there has been minimal growth for shareholders, but a decent dividend -- currently at $1.12, for a 3.1% yield.

GE has a market capitalization of $378 billion and is one of the most successful companies in the world. No question, investors who have owned the shares these past 20 years have been superbly and amply rewarded. The Jack Welch era saw skyrocketing growth of revenues and earnings, not to mention many new management principles crystallized in his books.

That was then -- this is now.

General Electric has a few news items this morning for investors to digest -- or ignore, as the case may be. None of it looks very major. It's just the usual mix of deal talk and and legal wrangling. Here's the headlines:

- A South African firm, Sanlam, is in talks with GE to buy its U.K. life insurance business. Sanlam later confirmed that was true, but called talks "embryonic."

- GE Capital and Arden Capital Realty have agreed to settle class action law suits filed by shareholders who protested terms of their pending merger. GE's real estate group is buying Arden for about $5 million, plus assuming its debt.

GE's stock opens this morning at $33.97 and I doubt this news will have much impact, although I think both are mild postives for GE.