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Bonfires of the Bainities.
What bothers me, is that Bain Capital took millions out of companies who failed.
Could these companies have survived, if they were not so burdened by "consultants"?
My grandfather Jim Margeson worked to save companies in the 1920s and 1930s, with great success. He had worked his way through Dartmouth, however, and agonized over laying anyone off (except for "The Family").
My grandfather, a lifelong Republican, would have NEVER posed for that picture of the "Bain Boys", with all that money.
When you come from money, however, I guess it is different.
This country should never let anyone from corporate america become the president of this country period ! Everyone of them i have ever met has always been a self serving person with nothing but concern for the money they could make off the work of someone else ! while cheating there workers !
I can't wait to see all the ads.
The Republican party will be portrayed as a bunch of flip floppers with Romney as their leader.
There is plenty of video of Romney flip flopping (often while talking to the same crowd, only minutes apart).
We will have plenty of McCain and Hucklebee ads from 2008 attacking Romney's Bain connection and the corporate welfare Romney received.
We will have plenty of ads for House and Senate Republicans criticizing Romney for corporate welfare, now they will have to hold their nose and deal with the consequences of having to flip flop and support the guy.
Romney is already talking about starting another war and cutting taxes. Gee, that will make it easy to portray Romney as another friend of Cheney (who also made billions from corporate welfare).
Tons of bad information here! Bain and comapaines like Bain do two things They give money to start up companies. some work some don't. Second they try to turn around companies in trouble. Bain turned around about 67% of the companies they took over. 33% failed. If they had not stepped in then nearly 100% would have failed. Sure turning around 100% would be great, but 67% success is much better then the 100% that were on the road to failure. Now backing Romeny.
"Failure" is defined in the eyes of the ownership...and, with public companies, that definition may end up having a very wide range.
Some "owners" may think a 5% steady return is better than a 10% more risky return rate. Therein lies true business of investment banking and companies like Bain. Therein also lies the opportunities for "Corporate Raiders."
Leveraged buyouts (which I understand Bain specialized in) serve a useful purpose to capitalism IF used properly and sparingly...in the same way short selling serves a purpose, futures and derivatives serve a purpose, etc. LBO's create "policing sources" within the private sector itself, without the necessity for government regulation (although that doesn't discount ALL such regulation).
Basically, the threat of an LBO, is a warning to existing management that they'd better run their company as efficiently as possible, or there will be a mope to take over ownership and replace them.
Bit the UC (Unanticipated Consequences) is that used too much, and for ulterior greedy motivations by take-over specialists, it can destroy what was once a sense of loyalty on the part of owners toward their workers and vice versa.
They do not try to turn around companies in trouble. PE firms don't touch faultering companies unless some company need to merge with them to stave off competition. PE firms seek companies in the black doing fine so they can pick off the money and run. It has to me several times in my life and I was a paralegal for the company taken over and I could see the entire hostile take over and they decimated the company. Read up on PE and what they do - they are not altruistic by any means.
Those "33%" failures failed because of Bain, not in spite of them. Bain always made millions, even on companies that went bankrupt, thanks to multi-million dollar "consulting fees" and racking up corporate debt to just to pay themselves massive "bonuses", they'd then spin off the company, which couldn't pay the debts and was forced into bankruptcy. Lots of money for Bain, but the workers lost jobs and benefits, and the creditors lost money from bad debts in bankruptcy.
Squeeze all the money out of a corporation, and throw away the husk. That's what they did.
What is this a Pep Rally Poll for Democrats in denial of the horrible state were in, or maybe a touchy feel good story to cheer disillusioned followers up? 99% here on MSNBC wouldn't vote Republican anyway so the poll is obviously trying to make democrats feel good. Have a nice day!
Burrrrppppppp!!! ~(:>) "Any one but Obama 2012"
Earle you are dead on! why psmnbc is doing stories on the president? his horrible record?
his corruption? his payoffs? his big union healthcare fast n furious soylandra gmc ge
bailouts green agenda failure chevy volt disaster the lies about jobs and the economy
the regulations that are rising energy prices and food prices cause he refuses to let
oil, gas and coal companies make cheap energy and jobs etc....if one of these stories
was under Bush it would be non stop psmnbc liberal bias coverage! but no not for the great one!
If only the republicans could find Anyone ! so far there a bunch of no ones !
No, but the fact that he is a Mormon (and therefore, to a huge chunk of the GOP base, a non-Christian) will doom him.
Romney rapes companies, leaves the workers by the side of the road and then leaves their pension bills to be paid for by the US tax payers. That is Romney's version of capitalism.
To any intelligent person, Romney's record at Bain will be viewed as a positive. Bain's role is to buy and sell distraught companies with the hope of either re-selling or turning them around. Either way, it is an "Amercian" thing to do because you are trying to improve the situation. Of course, some people lost their job because that is what happens to employees of bad companies. But Bain also helped turn around other companies and kept/created jobs. I realize liberals will try to spin this against Romney because Obama's record is horrible. However, the fact is that Romney did more at Bain to benefit society than Obamas has done and intelligent voters will know that.
That leaves out about 80% of the BSNBC traffic.
Jeff, Can you prove that Romney created 100,00 jobs? Romney can only prove he create 3,964 jobs as Governor in 4 years. Sarah Palin is right that he better show records!!
I know you Hate President Obama, but prove I am wrong!!
You are only thinking worldly. Some of us think spiritually and spiritually this is a grave sin to reap riches on the backs of workers by laying them off or cutting benefits. Grave sin my wordly friend.
Why don't you start looking for the truth
http://www.salon.com/2012/01/13/romney_and_the_sociopathology_of_bain/
Romney may not be a crook, but he's right next door to it....do you want a man who took the feds for 44M in just one deal(there were more), who is perfectly happy to abandon working people for his own profit, as President????
He set a tone at Bain that included a later attempt to help a company whose founder and CEO was and is a former Chinese military officer to get a stake in an American company, 3COM, that was stopped by the feds because of the national security issues involved. The company had a product used by the Pentagon, which cause us a good deal of trouble if it got into the wrong hands. This was going on during the 2008 primary. Romney was being paid by Bain then, and he still is. Is this the guy you want to be President??? By the way, I found this on my own doing research, as far as I know, this has not made the news lately.
Romney's investments may have created jobs, but Domino's and Staples jobs are mostly part time, low wage jobs, and the worst pizza in the world is nothing to brag about. I hope he's got something better to show me.
Will Bain hurt Romney? Only if you're a Left-wing fanatic who hangs out on BSNBC to get your back padded by your fellow Marxists would you be influenced by that BS. Considering BSNBC is 80% Progressive Socialist/Marxists you can figure out how the poll will go.
So if the greedy bastards just like him support him we can just hope and pray there are more of us than of you and your ilk.
So Dan, how come he's being attacked from the right about this?
Your childish remarks about leftist being Marists is indicative of someone who has an agenda but a very small brain and zero spirituality.
It may affect the Obama Sheeple, but that's about it.
Romney's not had a chance since day one. I had to laugh the other night, watching the exit polls, knowing first hand just how many people there were going to say "Yes" when asked if they were supporting Mitt, when they were there expressly for the purpose of skewing the polls.
Do you people not realize that Romney and others just like him on Wall Street are the reason we are in this economic crisis? He and his other greedy bros skimmed the cream off this country for the last 30 years.....now he want to be the President.....I THINK NOT !!!
I agree with you Kathryn! None of the greedy capitalists should be elected to any office. We need to rid of lobbyists too.
Have you seen that picture of those marines in Afghanistan.Is what their doing any different then what Mitt and the 1% have been doing to the 99%in this country for the last thirty years
I damn sure don't hate Obama, he is lightyears closer to my political position than the GOP or the TP will ever be...........most of them hate the President to the point it is clouding all their thoughts.
How politically tone deaf can the Republican Party be? With OWS demonstrating from coast to coast the Republican Party is putting up a candidate for the presidency who stands for everything the 99% are opposed to! In a time where millions of families are losing their homes to foreclosure the Romney's tore down a 6000 sq ft beach house to build an 11,000 sq ft beach house. At a time where the unemployment rate is above 8% Bain Capital laid off 22,000+ workers and oh by the way kept their pensions so that the corporate raiders at Bain could turn a nice little profit and Mitt Romney could afford to tear down that 6000 sq ft beach house. Something tells me that OWS is going to be a mainstay at Romney events.
What Romney did at Bain probably is not illegal. It is real capitalistic greed at its best. There was no thought of workers and their fate, it was plain grab as much money as you can, as fast as you can. Most Americans aren't able to empathise with what Romney was doing. It so out of their league, as far as ruthlessness, uncaring, greed, and almost soulless. The majority of Americans aren't built like Romney and probably have a hard time understanding how a person can be such a heartless egomaniac. This is not a war about capitalism, but rather look at what some people in the capitalistic system can be like. Not all of the big movers worked like Romney and Bain. I think that is what the distinction will be. Not capitalism itself, but rather untethered, uncaring, egotistic greed in some folks vs capitalism with a heart.
Well regulated capitalism with watchdogs and severe penalties for those who get too greedy is fine. It's the greedy all-for-me-and-screw-you capitalism that is turning people off. Those whose greed supercedes any caring for others that may be collateral damage in their quest for riches, have a god called Mammon (wealth regarded as having evil influence). Those who think continually that money is the answer and goal to everything have Mammon for their god. Some of us actually have God as our god and money is just something we need enough of to have a decent life - we are not interested in getting filthy rich and we are not interested in scams that steal from my borther or my neighbor. We would rather give a little to our neighbor and have less ourselves than become filthy rich and watch our hard working neighbor do without essentials or loose their home. It is not a right or left issue as a party affiliation, but rather it is an ethica/moral right or wrong issue.
The GOP campaign strategists have really lost it this time. They have McCain on TV defending Romney on the very thing he was attacking him 4 years ago. YouTube is littered with Romney saying that he is and always has been pro choice and also pro gay marriage. He even publicly distanced himself from Reagan and now he has reversed all of it because he is running as a "conservative".
The President would have to commit a serious crime for Mitt Romney (assuming he wins the nomination) to replace him in the White House. However, considering Obama's long list of accomplishments that resonate with the middle of the road voters, that is highly unlikely. I believe we are looking at the 2008 Deja Vu here.
Can anyone prove that Romney created 100,00 jobs? Romney can only prove he create 3,964 jobs as Governor in 4 years. Sarah Palin is right that he better show records!!
I know some of you Hate President Obama, but prove I am wrong!!
or are some of you like my 5 &7 year old children that call each other names all day!!