Tall Tales About Private Equity

New York Times:

PRESIDENT OBAMA started his general election campaign by taking aim at Mitt Romney’s job creation record at Bain, setting off a lively debate over the fairness of the attacks.

Read the whole story at New York Times

Comments

[NHGranite]

11:03 PM on 05/23/2012

Interesting. What Obama says about Romney is factual, whereas the stories from Romney are flat out lies. Obama actually lowered taxes, has not raised spending, got the unemployment rate down, and Romney has to know it. Falsehoods revealed: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/ns/msnbc_tv-hardball_with_chris_matthews/#47541924

[mrrgl]

09:28 PM on 05/23/2012

Disraeli warned of "lies and damn lies".

[seehowtheyrun]

08:52 PM on 05/23/2012

They're lies. Call them lies.

[MESGAIN26]

08:44 PM on 05/23/2012

come on people the man has swiss bank account that should tll u something what he thinks about how can't america

[Don Giovanni]

08:09 PM on 05/23/2012

If you want an Ivan Boesky or Michael Milken-type President then vote for Mitt "Dash Riprock" Romney for President (Get the reference?). Personally I don't think he's as smart as those two, but as President he'll bring in those types to loot and ravage the country for his ultra-rich cronies, selling off private lands to extraction industries, wrecking water tables, throwing people off their healthcare, privatizing everything they can get their "mitts" on. And then there is the issue of his potential Supreme Court appointments. Like Citizens' United? Expect more on that theme from him.

[krocklin]

07:55 PM on 05/23/2012

George Washington couldn't tell a lie. Clinton could.
With Myth R-Money the truth lies somewhere between, but he hasn't found it yet.

[Lady Xica]

07:48 PM on 05/23/2012

Unfortunately, 10 - 20% of Americans would much rather get their information from one source; are too lazy to investigate a candidate's record; unbelievably ignorant to think President Obama can miraculously turn eight years of Bush and HIS financial meltdown around in one term and have purged the Republicans' obstruction, filibuster, debt ceiling fiasco, America's downgrade from their memory. For these Americans, the Republicans are blameless. It's all Obama's fault. Americans are willing to give Mittens and the Repugs another shot at destroying our country.
With that said, I am amazed how many Americans suffer from self induced AMNESIA. It was only several months ago when prominent Republicans like Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry, Sarah Palin and Rick Santorum all questioned Mitt Romney's record at Bain and even his Massachusetts record. Folks, there's a reason why Romney duck and dodge questions about his Bain and Massachusetts records. People please, wake up! Don't take my word for it. Look it up.

[menlopian]

07:29 PM on 05/23/2012

From hearing liberals talk about the Bain stuff, it's clear they either are dishonest or simply do not understand the basic fundamentals of free enterprise and wealth/job creation. This is the stuff of low IQ debate- Bain both invests in companies and participates in the management of those companies. When those companies are in better shape than before the purchase they are resold to another party at a higher price. Sometimes the "better off" means there is some reason for the company to grow and therefore hire more workers. Hence job creation. Sometimes that "better off" means fewer employees because the company was poorly managed. In this case, society is still better off because that capital flows from an inefficient to an efficient use - perhaps to fund the next facebook, et al. The goal of government should not be support/prop/encourage the crappy inefficient company to keep employing dregs; it should be to create incentives for new capital formation, to help retrain the labor, and to make sure the game is fair. So all of these Obama anecdotes about this plant or that plant shutting down is really based in dishonest logical fallacy and connotes that his approach is to support jobs that do not have an economic justification to exist. It's a rather infantile argument, frankly.

[fredrdr]

07:56 PM on 05/23/2012

Closing down poor performer, ok. But in the process looting the pension fund is not. Buying a company, run it down to take money out, then throwing the husk away, not ok. Just be honest, the funtion of venture capital is to make money. That's it.

[menlopian]

10:58 AM on 05/24/2012

It is to make money. But the mechanism to make money requires (a) an ability to improve what was there before or (b) an ability to deceive the next buyer. One can do (b) for a short period or on a one off basis but not over decades again and again- the incremental buyer is not perpetually done. what you call "raiding pensions" is a very draconian view of things- the employees of a company that goes BK ought lose a lot just like everyone else in the process. And if what the PE owner did to prevent a company from going BK was preemptively soften that blow so a company can fight again, then it's not as clear as you would like to believe. The reality is the purpose of these characterizations is to erode the voter's perception of what Bain and Romney did and how they did it -whether these activities are socially good and productive. There is no question that they are but Obama (even if he says he is not) is clearly trying to argue that a pragmatic/business-centric approach to managing an economy is bad for America and a government-driven, "give the little guy entitlements that they will spend" (i.e. trickle up) is better. And I am yet to find any example in the history of modern civilization where redistributive, trickle up works unless the population has some unique characteristic or natural resource to draw from. 

[AFRescue143]

06:59 PM on 05/23/2012

Romney and the GOP keep saying that Obama was JUST a Community Organizer. Well I believe that qualification BETTER qualifies Obama for being President than Romneys silver foot in his mouth.

A Community Organizer talks to PEOPLE, works with PEOPLE to solve problem that directly effect THEM. A CO gets to see people and what they need on a local level, not up from the 25th floor of some high rise looking at spread sheets. And lets not forget some other great Community Organizers. Mother Theresa, Dr Martin Luther King Jr, Gandhi, oh yeah and Jesus Christ. All were great people, all were Community Organizers and they got to know PEOPLE.

[democratinny]

05:53 PM on 06/01/2012

Your are darn right! I would rather have a community organizer as my leader than a fake, phony, greedy, self-absorbed, out of touch person who lives in a world quite removed from the real people. You made the point perfectly, thank you.

[hopepad08]

06:50 PM on 05/23/2012

Romney's Tall Tales About Private Equity

You call them tall tales, I just call them lies.

Maybe the only thing Willard is good at.

[silvercreeklady]

06:19 PM on 05/23/2012

The man has run a private business, a HUGE Special International Event and a state.....he is infinately more qualified to be President than a Community ORganizer who never ran so much as an ice cream stand!

[AFRescue143]

06:54 PM on 05/23/2012

yeah sure, you truly are clueless. The facts are that Bain destroyed more jobs than they created. Romney flatly refuses to talk about his time as Governor where the State was 47th in job creation.And don't brag about his Olympic stuff, the Olympics he ran were one of the biggest losers in history of the game. The Olympics lost a great deal of money.

But lets look at a few other things. lets look at the fact that Romney did not even qualify to be on the ballot for Governor because he did not change his primary residence from Utah to Mass and it took a Republican Appointed Judge to backdate his residency date so that he could even be on the ballot. Romney talks around every single question posed to him about Bain Capital. And Romney, just like the other GOP members, have this idea that THEY would run the country as President and that THEY could do anything they want. They seem to forget that there is a Congress to deal with. Romney could not do anything on "Day ONE" as he brags about anything. Everything he said he could do takes an act of congress to achieve.

[huhwut]

06:55 PM on 05/23/2012

Your problem is thinking that the country should be run as a private business,which it is not.

[menlopian]

07:37 PM on 05/23/2012

That is a logical fallacy- no one is arguing that one ought govern a country in the same fashion that you run a business. In fact Romney has years of experience as a governor suggesting he understands the difference very well. Your position is a stupid one. And in a debate Obama will get smoked on this topic. Just wait. I for one, cannot.

[GHENT007]

06:18 PM on 05/23/2012

So now Romney want to convince the American People that because he gutted companies, sold them off piece by piece, shipped Jobs overseas, and netted millions to both himself and stockholders, He thinks that qualifies him to be president, This is the last quality or experience Americans should want as a president, cause if Romney applies his "VULTURE" TYPE of experience to the American government, Knowing full well that the only thing that will actually be affected by Romney's Experience will be the social programs and anything that will bring prosperity to the Average American, cause Romney hangs out with Millionaires and Billionaires, Not Average Americans, and Any Average American that thinks Romney will solve any Economic problems he or she might have, let me quote LAWRENCE FISHBURN FROM THE "MATRIX" YOUR LIVING IN A DREAM WORLD NEO!!!

[HymnsToSilence]

06:12 PM on 05/23/2012

The Mitt Romney assertion -
I'm responsible for everything good that happened, and whatever bad that occurred is not my fault. Typical political speak to be sure.

[silvercreeklady]

06:21 PM on 05/23/2012

That would be the Obama mantra...and I "Inerited or evolved (an EXCUSE) on every promise or promise I made in 2007".....

[HymnsToSilence]

06:48 PM on 05/23/2012

"Every" promise? How does one inherit a promise?Rethink your misstatement and rewrite it.

[soitgoes12]

06:53 PM on 05/23/2012

Is that all you are here for?  To deflect?

[ciskokid]

06:03 PM on 05/23/2012

Mitt, the Tall Tale Teller...aka, LIAR.

[SeekingClarity]

06:02 PM on 05/23/2012

"Under Mr. Romney’s leadership, Bain Capital engaged in the less attractive practice of putting more debt on seemingly successful investments in order to take dividends out."

"Aware of private equity’s reputation, Mr. Romney still trots around the country erroneously calling himself a "venture capitalist.'”

Oh. I though he said "vampire".

[AFRescue143]

06:56 PM on 05/23/2012

what is not mentioned is the fact that MANY Small Businesses actually went out of business because of what Bain Capital did. The Small Businesses were LUCKY if they received pennies on a dollar of what they were owed when the companies that Bain raided went Bankrupt. This action did serious damage in local communities, and Romney and his crew took their very large checks and bonus's and left communities destroyed.

[menlopian]

07:39 PM on 05/23/2012

Which ones? And to suggest that was wide spread would be to suggest that Bain was adept at selling a bill of goods to the next party, again and again and again. It is an indefensible argument.

[huhwut]

06:57 PM on 05/23/2012

For me,"vulture" comes to mind.