Paul Revere by Cyrus Dallin, North End, Boston

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Thursday, January 12, 2012

"Don't Just Take Our Word For It"

Says the new DNC video below. 


Democrats have been critical of what Bain Capital, Rmoney's venture capital company, has done to individuals and communities when it took over companies, fired people, and destroyed a way of life for many working-class Americans.


But the criticism of this heartless practice isn't limited to Democrats alone.  Listen to Willard's fellow Republicans tell us how Bain Capital and its "vulture capitalism" made people's lives miserable, while making Rmoney and his buddies rich as potentates.





Andrew Sullivan has more on how Rmoney's association with Bain Capital can do damage to his campaign for the presidency.   HERE.

"Romney's private equity firm, Bain Capital, bought companies and often increased short-term earnings so those businesses could then borrow enormous amounts of money. That borrowed money was used to pay Bain dividends. Then those businesses needed to maintain that high level of earnings to pay their debts...

* Bain in 1988 put $5 million down to buy Stage Stores, and in the mid-'90s took it public, collecting $100 million from stock offerings. Stage filed for bankruptcy in 2000.

* Bain in 1992 bought American Pad & Paper (AMPAD), investing $5 million, and collected $100 million from dividends. The business filed for bankruptcy in 2000.

* Bain in 1993 invested $60 million when buying GS Industries, and received $65 million from dividends. GS filed for bankruptcy in 2001.

* Bain in 1997 invested $46 million when buying Details, and made $93 million from stock offerings.

The company filed for bankruptcy in 2003.

Romney's Bain invested 22 percent of the money it raised from 1987-95 in these five businesses, making a $578 million profit."

6 comments:

(O)CT(O)PUS said...

Most ironic: Romney touted Bain to divert attention and downplay his record as governor to an audience of Tea Party Republicans. Curious how Bain has turned into the bane of his campaign. Speaking of unintended consequences ...

S.W. Anderson said...

Any problem other Republicans have with vulture capitalism is tactical in this primary season and for show only. Outfits like Bain and 1 percenters like Romney are e$$ential to the GOP being competitive.

Interestingly, a wealthy South Carolinian has just switched from backing Perry to backing Romney because of the way Perry and Gingrich are bashing Bain and Romney over vulture capitalism.

Jack Jodell said...

The gtaph says it all and shows precisely why a return to Bush-era economic policy must NOT occur, as it surely would under Romney or any other Republican. As for Bush-era foreign policy, I'll just save comments on what a disaster that would be for my next post on why Romney mustn't be elected, out on Sunday or so...

Joe "Truth 101" Kelly said...

Who'd ever thought Rick Perry could do something useful? Like bring the phrase "vulture capitalism" into common use.

(O)CT(O)PUS said...

The phrase 'Vulture Capitalism' may have been derived from this book, Vultures' Picnic: In Pursuit of Petroleum Pigs, Power Pirates, and High-Finance Carnivores, by Greg Palast of the BBC.

Joe "Truth 101" Kelly said...

My brother bet me dinner I couldn;t say one nice thing about Rick Perry besides he had nice hair and stood up straight for the Pledge of Allegiance.

We're going to Lakeview. That's where I'm taking you should you ever pass through my town Octo.

Tip big. My daughter works there.