General Electric's $500,000,000,000 market wipeout is like erasing Facebook

The collapse -- an 81 per cent drop from the peak -- is all the more startling as it comes amid record-setting market gains

On August 28, 2000, Apple’s hottest product was a candy-coloured computer, Donald Trump was a New York real estate mogul and General Electric Co. was worth some $600 billion.

Apple and Trump have gone on to greater things. GE? It’s on the verge of a staggering milestone: a half-trillion dollars in market value wiped out since that all-time high 18 years ago. The iconic American corporation is now worth just under $100 billion, its stock at around $11, and investors are signaling they don’t expect things to get better.

The collapse -- an 81 per cent drop from the peak -- is