“I should tell my story,” Mr. Romney said. “I’m also unemployed.” – via Jeff Zeleny
The article from Zeleny portrays an honest conversation with Mitt Romney, someone who can’t seem to catch any good press. That’s his toughest challenge, actually. Fighting the media and cable talking heads and hosts is going to prove a very long slog, indeed.
“Are you on LinkedIn?” one of the men asked.
“I’m networking,” Mr. Romney replied. “I have my sight on a particular job.”
The focus on the unemployed and jobs is his entire rationale for running for president. His foundation is Bain Capital. Here’s an article from 2008, with this snippet a fair start on the story:
[...] Much as he did when running for Massachusetts governor, Romney is now touting his business credentials as he campaigns for president, asserting that he helped create thousands of jobs as CEO of Bain. But a review of Bain’s investments during Romney’s tenure indicates that job growth was not a particular priority.
Romney’s approach at Bain Capital was more reflective of the economic philosophy articulated by his opponent, John McCain: to acknowledge that some less efficient jobs will be lost and concentrate on creating new jobs with potential for higher growth.
In many cases, such as Staples Inc., the Framingham retailer, and Steel Dynamics Inc., an Indiana steelmaker, the companies expanded and added thousands of jobs. In other cases, such as Ampad and GS Industries, another steelmaker, Bain-controlled companies shuttered plants, slashed hundreds of jobs, and landed in bankruptcy.
But in almost all cases Bain Capital made money. In fact, the firm earned substantially more from Ampad than Staples. Staples returned about $13 million on a $2 million investment; Ampad yielded more than $100 million on $5 million, according to reports to investors.
“It’s not that employment grows, it’s that their investment grows,” said Howard Anderson, a professor at MIT’s Sloan School of Management. “Sometimes its expansion, and sometimes it’s shutting things down.”
What I’m most concerned about with our political system and politicians is the Right’s tendency to want to privatize what government does cheaper and better and with more of an eye toward what’s good for the people.
Profit over people is capitalism’s model and Romney seemed to be very good at it:
In 1996, another Bain company, Dade International, a maker of medical diagnostic equipment, bought a similar unit of E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co., of Wilmington, Del. Dade soon shut down two plants and cut more than 700 jobs, according to government filings. The next year, Dade merged with Behring Diagnostics, a German company, to form Dade Behring Inc. Dade Behring shut three US plants, affecting more than 1,000 workers, some of whom were offered transfers to other facilities.
Sometimes, Bain cut jobs to right underperforming companies. In 1997, after acquiring Live Entertainment, later known as Artisan Entertainment, the producer of the hit film “Blair Witch Project,” Bain slashed 40 jobs, about 25 percent of the workforce, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Midwest of Cannon Falls, Minn., a giftware distributor, cut 40 jobs, or about 10 percent of its workforce, less than a year after Bain bought a “significant” stake in the company.
One thing you can say about Romney is he understands the system that’s churning and burning workers at an alarming rate. The problem is he’s on the side of business, while saying he’ll fight for every job, though when push comes to shove, like any corporate CEO, he’ll do what’s needed.
In assessing deals, Romney and partners didn’t consider whether they saved or created jobs, according to a former Bain employee who requested anonymity, citing confidentiality guidelines. When Bain partners discussed shutting down failing businesses in which they invested, Romney never suggested they had to do something to save workers’ jobs. “It was very clinical,” the former employee said. “Like a doctor. When the patient is dead, you just move on to the next patient.”
Bain Capital had failures, but “one of the investment industry’s best track records in terms of return to its investors.”
The problem for Pres. Obama against a lousy economic backdrop is that nobody thinks he’s offered any answers on the economy and he didn’t start talking about jobs until he began running for reelection.
Romney’s betting that business will see him coming and respond by getting involved in job creation. They also bet they’ll have a friend in the White House, which is a good gamble as far as it goes, which is to say business better deliver. I don’t sense any sentimentality from Mr. Romney at any level and I’ve been watching him for quite a few years. I warned in 2007 he was going to come back and give the Democrats hell one day and now the political landscape is ripe for him.
That is, if the Tea Party doesn’t scuttle his bid.
What Romney bodes for union workers and the drowning middle class is something else altogether.
Bain Capital is a private equity firm, private equity is just another name for leveraged buy out. The beginning of the end for this economy was the creation of the LBO. First introduced during the early Reagan years ( a direct result of his tax cuts ) the LBO firm walked into healthy companies employing many people in high paying jobs and ripped it to pieces. They sold off what they felt was not a core business and loaded up the rest with debt to finance the buyout. Workers would be thrown into the street to cut costs. This scenario was repeated thousands of times across the country. The companies would be bought and sold over and over again, each time the LBO firm making money while the workers losing out. Americans should have been warned, Oliver stones Wall Street was a huge hit.
I will not vote for Obama in 2012 like I did in 2008, unless the Republicans pick Romney or Bachmann. Romney because he is fake and he will flip-flop just to tell people what they want to hear. Bachmann because of her husband who is a Christian Mental Health Therapist who some are saying he can “cure” homosexuals, which as a homosexual myself, is full of crap, plus Rep.Michelle Bachmann has said some really crazy things that scares me. I will vote for Huntsman or Palin, I don’t no if Huntsman can will the primary though and don’t know if Palin is running, I am a Independent so I don’t even know if I can vote in a Republican primary, but anyway if those two don’t run, I am either not voting or vote third party.
Romney is a frinkin Millionare, so he can take his “I’m also unemployed” crap and shove it. Share us please !!
It’s funny, I took Romney’s remark about being unemployed to be self-effacing humor, and thought no more of it. What I thought was troubling was his proposed solution for curing unemployment, which is the same old nonsense that got us all that unemployment in the first place.
Thanks for sharing the bit about self-effacing humor. I was beginning to think no one else had that reaction.
Agreed on the rest.