time bomb.......tick tick tick tick tick tick........ Romney's Bain made millions as S.C. steelmaker went bankrupt | McClatchy Abner
What Bain Capital did under Romney (and they were/are in the business to make money, BTW, which is the heart of capitalism and free enterprise) is go into failing companies, and attempt to save them. If that meant laying-off some workers to save the jobs of other workers (since the entire company would close if Bain didn't get involved), then so be it. The laid-off workers would have been laid-off anyway if Bain didn't get involved, along with all the rest of the workers who weren't laid-off after Bain got involved. In the cases of companies that were closed after Bain took over, they were going to close anyway because they weren't profitable. In a free market economy, businesses that aren't profitable have to eventually close. Who wants to run a company that loses money? Yes, Bain Capital made a lot of money. They also started many profitable companies that created thousands and thousands of jobs (Staples, Sports Authority, etc.) and saved many companies that would have folded without the influx of capital from.....Bain Capital. Sometimes, you have to shrink a company before you can grow that company.
Yeah, and when Bain Capital took over Staples in 1986 there was one store - now there over 2000 stores.
I don't think that Bain Capital was being any greedier than any other company would be. Business is about making money, and Bain Capital did just that. I agree with the posters above. IMO, though, Romney's experience at Bain Capital is irrelevant as a qualification or disqualification for the presidency. The President is not the CEO of America. You can't radically restructure American government like Bain Capital did for struggling businesses. Even if something makes sense, either the GOP or the Democratic party (or both) is likely to oppose it, and the President has to negotiate that kind of obstructionism. Just like Obama was misguided when he talked about "changing" the culture, so is Romney off-base when he tries to claim business experience as a presidential qualification. IMO, the benefit of working in business is that you are aware of the needs of businesses. Of course, this can be limited, as the needs of a particular sector do not necessarily reflect the needs of small businesses in that sector or of other sectors entirely.
Shouldn't Romney be saying that if his opponents really want to hold up Bain's way of doing business as an example of how Romney might govern, it would mean he'd cut the federal payroll and close lots of redundant agencies? Not that I expect he really would, but you'd think that Republican primary voters would like that.
Bain was one of 4 venture capital companies that initially invested in Staples and Sports Authority. Romney accurately stated in a recent debate that “we’re only a small part of that, by the way,” when he talked about Bain’s role in job creation. So Did Romney Create 100,000 Jobs, Or Not? - Forbes Factcheck.org FactCheck.org : Romney’s Shaky Job Claims Most of Bain’s deals under Romney were leveraged buyouts. From the article – Bain expanded many of the companies it acquired. But like other leveraged-buyout firms, Romney and his team also maximized returns by firing workers, seeking government subsidies, and flipping companies quickly for large profits. Sometimes Bain investors gained even when companies slid into bankruptcy. Bain managers said their mission was clear. "I never thought of what I do for a living as job creation," said Marc B. Walpow, a former managing partner at Bain who worked closely with Romney for nine years before forming his own firm. "The primary goal of private equity is to create wealth for your investors." A look at Mitt Romney's job-creation record at Bain Capital - latimes.com
With his own associates speaking about out against these issues, I just don't think this will play out well. Especially among the thousands who have been victims of these types of tactics, whether it is accepted business practice or not. I actually hope he tries to use his business acumen as an asset. :smile: Abner
I don't follow the various republican candidates closely enough to know if venture capitalism is somehow essentially antithetical to their general polical/economic positions. I tend to think it's not because, in general, hardcore republicans tend to be very "pro-business, don't let government get in the way, let the market take care of itself, etc." So if I'm correct in that area then it seems clear that the citicisms of Romney related to Bain are just desperate attempts to drag him backwards in the polls.
Abner and others, I started a new thread that touches on this topic and more: http://www.degreeinfo.com/political-discussions/40918-what-right-gets-right.html :Eyecrazy:
