In December, Jeffrey Immelt took a stage usually reserved for the comedians of Saturday Night Live to deliver a serious message to General Electric shareholders.

In spite of the economic headwinds and growing financial crisis, GE’s chairman and chief executive told Wall Street analysts that a 10 per cent growth in earnings for 2008 was “in the bag”. On Friday, Mr Immelt had to admit that the bag had broken, letting GE’s reassurances and confident profits forecasts smash on the floor.