ROBERT BARTHOLOMEW

Only a liberal by contrast to a fascist

Articles Posted: 27 Links Seeded: 2363

Member Since: 5/2009 Last Seen: 5/09/2012

Mitt Romney Wouldn't Know a Free Market If It Bit Him on the Ass!

Seeded on Mon Jan 23, 2012 7:38 AM EST

Article Source: AlterNet.org

politics, mitt-romney, greed

Seeded by Robert Bartholomew

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The lion's share of the wealth Mitt Romney accumulated during his years at Bain Capital was extracted not only by laying off workers and raiding their pensions, but by using what conservatives call “big government” to redistribute wealth from taxpayers to Bain's investors and partners.

Bain Capital was not in the business of creating jobs, or even saving companies over the long-term. Its model had a relatively low rate of success; a study by Deutche Bank found that 33 out of 68 major deals cut on Romney's watch lost money for the firm's investors. Its richest deals made up for the flops, however, and Bain's partners were guaranteed hefty fees regardless of how the businesses they “restructured” ultimately performed.

Romney and his partners then exploited a loophole in the tax code that allowed them to pay just 15 percent of their growing fortunes in taxes – a rate less than what many of their companies' employees forked over to Uncle Sam.

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Public Discussion (15)

Robert Bartholomew

Once upon a time, bankers would lend money to businesses and people in order to expand and make money. This was the healthy basis of free enterprise. Now these morons make the claim that gambling on the future value of assets, and buying companies, dismantling them and selling off the components at a profit is somehow "improving the economy". What a load of crap! The only economy that gets improved is their own.

16 votes

#1 - Mon Jan 23, 2012 7:50 AM EST

wude121

Once upon a time, bankers would lend money to businesses and people in order to expand and make money.

Along came a hedge fund to bet against it.

8 votes

#1.1 - Mon Jan 23, 2012 8:01 AM EST

Zoolopolis

Calling Romney a 'vulture capitalist' is an insult to vultures.

Vultures do an important job in circle of life. Romney's just a self enriching parasite sucking dry job creating companies.

Romney's the tapeworm of capitalists.

8 votes

#1.2 - Mon Jan 23, 2012 9:40 AM EST

hugh b

Zoo, that is dead on.

a parasite that grows unchecked on the host, providing nothing but waste...

2 votes

#1.3 - Mon Jan 23, 2012 9:47 AM EST

petridishofideas

Neither would most of the gNOp!

1 vote

#1.4 - Mon Jan 23, 2012 3:33 PM EST

reddirthippy

great Interview

DAVID STOCKMAN: We have crony capitalism, which is the worst. It's not a free market. There isn't risk taking in the sense that if you succeed, you keep your rewards, if you fail, you accept the consequences. Look what the bailout was in 2008.

There was clearly reckless, speculative behavior going on for years on Wall Street. And then when the consequence finally came, the Treasury stepped in and the Fed stepped in. Everything was bailed out and the game was restarted. And I think that was a huge mistake................ The big leverage hedge funds on Wall Street that called themselves investment banks weren't really investment banks. They were just big trading operations using 30, 40 to one leverage. And it was that that was being corrected.

9 votes

#2 - Mon Jan 23, 2012 8:11 AM EST

freetacosDeleted

reddirthippy

Stockman: He should immediately stop the unconscionable bailout of Wall Street, housing, autos and other sectors. These bailouts are an enormous waste of resources that add huge amounts to the public debt while accomplishing nothing in terms of real economic recovery. Instead, he needs to focus government spending exclusively on the safety net; that is, helping the poor and unemployed to cope with the economic disaster created by the Fed and Washington, while leaving the markets and economy to liquidate excessive debts and failed investments. The second thing he needs to do is fire his economic team: Bernanke, Geithner and Summers. [That would be Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke; Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and White House economic adviser Lawrence Summers.]

7 votes

#3 - Mon Jan 23, 2012 8:13 AM EST

Buckeye Voter

...stop the unconscionable bailout of Wall Street, housing, autos and other sectors.

I disagree. Such bailouts were necessary to prevent dangerous dislocations in the market, which could have lead to a depression otherwise. My criticism is that the government wasn't as cutthroat as they should have been. Should have paid a dime on a dollar for failing Wall Street concerns and cut loose, without compensation, entire boards. If we bail a company out, we should own it - and sell it off as maximum profit once stable.

Our government played patsy with our money.

One good way of shoring up the safety net is to reduce the number of people who hit it.

3 votes

#3.1 - Mon Jan 23, 2012 8:35 AM EST

thisbusymonster

Such bailouts were necessary to prevent dangerous dislocations in the market, which could have lead to a depression otherwise.

I agree, and I also agree that instead of a no-strings-attached bailout, it should have been a "you are a now in federal receivership" bailout, with the board immediately fired, the executives immediately fired, NO GOLDEN PARACHUTES, and an immediate reorganization of the company under Federal guidelines designed to prevent further catastrophe.

But letting the economy just fail would have been a Hooverian mistake that might well have ended our country right there.

5 votes

#3.2 - Mon Jan 23, 2012 9:59 AM EST

Rixar13

"The lion's share of the wealth Mitt Romney accumulated during his years at Bain Capital was extracted not only by laying off workers and raiding their pensions, but by using what conservatives call “big government” to redistribute wealth from taxpayers to Bain's investors and partners."

There is no other way to spin it....

5 votes

#3.3 - Mon Jan 23, 2012 10:15 AM EST

reddirthippy

If we bail a company out, we should own it - and sell it off as maximum profit once stable.

it should have been a "you are a now in federal receivership" bailout,

that might have worked except for all the screams socialism.

2 votes

#3.4 - Mon Jan 23, 2012 1:19 PM EST

Buckeye Voter

that might have worked except for all the screams socialism

Oh, I know. We heard it about GM. But millions of jobs hung in the balance. Those crying "socialism" didn't have a solution that would have kept millions of hard working Americans on the job.

Your concern lies with the less fortunate among us. Moving millions from the worker category to the unemployed would have both increased the number of people needing assistance and decreased the number of taxpayers.

I may criticize the details, but the overall plan was sound. I didn't see any viable solutions coming from the President's detractors. Their suggestions were undeniably worse.