Posted on 01/13/2012 4:34:26 PM PST by JediJones
...it overstates the purposes of Bain’s investments and has now led Romney into a factually challenging cul-de-sac.
...it has become increasingly hard to understand how Romney’s personal involvement played a role in creating these jobs, especially years later.
...a company such as Staples — one of the biggest contributors to Romney’s job figures — was largely the brainchild of entrepreneur Tom Stemberg. Stemberg presumably should get most of the credit... (Left unsaid, of course, is all the jobs that might have been lost at small stationery stores unable to compete...)
Moreover, should Romney even get any credit for jobs at Domino’s, as his campaign claims? The deal in which Bain Capital bought Domino’s closed on Dec. 21, 1998, according to a Domino’s news release that referred to “Milt Romney.” Less than two months later Romney had left Bain to run the Salt Lake Olympics, meaning he had barely any role in running the company...
Interestingly, when Romney ran for the Senate in 1994, his campaign only claimed he had created 10,000 jobs.
Now, apparently, those 10,000 jobs have increased tenfold, apparently in part because of Bain investments in which Romney had at best a tangential role.
In the 2008 presidential campaign...Romney never highlighted any number for jobs created, having learned a lesson from how ruthlessly he was attacked by Sen. Edward Kennedy in that Senate race for jobs lost through Bain investments.
The Pinocchio Test
...if he is to continue to make claims about job creation, [he] needs to provide a real accounting of how many jobs were gained or lost through Bain Capital investments while the firm managed these companies — and while Romney was chief executive. Any jobs counted after either of those data points simply do not pass the laugh test.
Three Pinocchios
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Do I recall RINO Mitt flippantly saying he was a numbers guy in answer to someone challenged him on that 100k number at one of the latest debates? You mean he still hasn’t put the numbers wherehis mouth is? Hopefully he is not as big a liar as the newsletter producer.
Creative statistics in an election year, what a surprise? I really do look forward to a much more nuanced esamination of this job creation/job loss issue. For example, to what degree do jobs created by Walmart (for example) result in jobs/businesses/other tax revenue lost in communities where Walmart sets up shop? There is simply not enough cost/benefit analysis done in many government situations.
Let me see if I have this right.
I start a widget repair business hiring 20 widget repair folks and an office staff of 4. Because my widget folks are better than other widget folks we get the business and others move on to other endeavors. So according to you I have invested my money, pay a staff of 24 and have created 0 jobs. Is that correct?
Rather Staples was a good thing because it drove down the cost of doing business in the United States. Competition is a good thing.
I'm not sure Mitt would say it that way. But, there, I said it.
ML/NJ
This is 2012, and Romney has adjusted his numbers to account for political inflation....
Why? Obama lost over two million jobs since the end of the recession even after squandering trillions of dollars. Charts here:
Why? Obama lost over two million jobs since the end of the recession even after squandering trillions of dollars. Charts here:
Why? Obama lost over two million jobs since the end of the recession even after squandering trillions of dollars. Charts here:
Romney Camp Admits That Its Bain Job Creation Number Is Bogus
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/01/04/397565/romney-admits-bain-jobs-bogus/?mobile=nc
[Romney spokesman Eric] Fehrnstrom says the 100,000 figure stems from the growth in jobs from three companies that Romney helped to start or grow while at Bain Capital: Staples (a gain of 89,000 jobs), The Sports Authority (15,000 jobs), and Domino’s (7,900 jobs).
This tally obviously does not include job losses from other companies with which Bain Capital was involved — and are based on current employment figures, not the period when Romney worked at Bain.
Bain Capital has been responsible for thousands of layoffs at companies it bankrupted, such as American Pad & Paper, Dade International, and LIVE Entertainment, which Romney’s stat completely leaves out. He’s also taking credit for jobs created long after he left the firm to launch his political career. To sum it up, the stat Romney uses is incredibly dishonest...
I really hate Romney and I hate sounding like I’m defending him, but what Newt and his merry band of Socialists are doing in their crusade against Capitalism is much worse than some politician embellishing his accomplishments.
Newt and his supporters do not understand Capitalism.
Newt’s idea of Capitalism is taking a $1.6 million payoff from Fannie Mae, which he equated to free enterprise.
Newt and his supporters are dangerous.
Newt and his supporters dangerous lack of understanding of free markets, free enterprise and Capitalism will undoubtedly result in even more regulations against “evil businessmen” like Mitt Romney and Bain Capital.
Please do not feed the Newt Gingrich Socialists. They are trying to destroy everything we’ve built — free markets were supposed to be the Republicans main debating point for 2012.
Please do not support Newt Gingrich.
.
That's correct, sir! In the new conservative economics, you are not only credited with the jobs you have personally created -- but you are penalized for the number of competitors' jobs your superior entrepreneurship has wiped out.
We are -- here, at the Institute for a New Conservative Economics -- considering following the lead of progressive youth sports teams across the nation and eliminating the counting of new jobs (or profit and loss) at all. It's just too distressing for the incompetent and unlucky.
That would be affected by whether the other widget folks got replacement jobs and did not end up on unemployment. In the case of the Walmart example, you have to consider that Walmart profits are being sent back to corporate headquarters. If local businesses fail, then the local owners are not paying taxes, and a number of other related economic factors. Cost/benefit analysis is more complicated than your example. Also, it would depend on whether the analysis was for the benefit of the affected community or the economy as a whole. One problem for Walmart is the purchase of so much of their merchandise overseas (China) which affects our entire balance of payments.
You have no credibility for understanding economic matters yourself when you completely get wrong the facts about Newt and FREDDIE MAC, NOT FANNIE MAE.
Newt’s consulting firm collected $1.6 million gross from Freddie Mac over several years time. Newt got $30,000 a year for his involvement. Freddie Mac was not funded by taxpayer money then and Newt gave a speech insisting the government not bail out Fannie and Freddie with taxpayer money in 2008.
"Lately, Bain founder and GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney has found himself in a spirited defense of the private equity industry, doing all he can to spin decades of data which confirm, without failure, that PE Leveraged Buy Outs are nothing but "efficiency maximizing" transactions whose only goal is the "maximization" of EBITDA in the pursuit of dividend recap deals, IPOs or outright sales, while loading up the company with untenable amounts of leverage. All this with a 3-5 year investment horizon, which ignores the long-term viability of a company and seeks to streamline (read fire as many as possible) operations as quickly as possible in the goal of maximizing short-term returns. We wish him luck in his endeavor."Also take note that Romney relied on corporate welfare.
Bain Capital began in 1984 . Going from $37 Million in assets to $78Billion 2012
a 2000% incrrease within 28 yrs.Not bad.
Gee i guess Obama is the chioce. 8 million unemployed and a extra $5Trillon of debt in 3 years.
let’s keep bashing our own and the election will surely be lost. Ron Paulwill definitely seek third party status.
“For people not familiar with Romney’s background as the owner of Bain Capital or with his relationships to other private-equity firms, the irony of this advice might not have been immediately clear. PE firms during the 2003—7 buyout boom often had their companies use increased short-term earnings that came from reducing customer service, raising prices, and starving them of capital—not to reinvest or pay debt, but instead as the basis to borrow more money, which they then gave to their PE owners through dividends. Many of these businesses are now stuck with enormous debt and falling earnings.”
“Mitt Romney was a pioneer of this strategy. His private-equity firm, Bain Capital, was the first large PE firm to make a serious portion of its money not from selling its companies or listing them on the stock exchange, but rather by collecting distributions and dividends, which in this context is the exact opposite of reinvesting in a company. Bain Capital is notorious for its failure to plow profits back into its businesses.”
“Traditionally, cash-rich public companies have paid dividends to lure and reward investors. They distribute some of the profits that they are not reinvesting as a way to say they have surplus funds and expect to have them in the future. These dividends generally amount to cents or a few dollars per share paid quarterly. But when private-equity firms take distributions, they typically do not tap excess profits. Instead, they increase the pool of available funds by having their companies borrow money—on top of the original debt taken on to finance the LBO.
Mitt Romney used this strategy in the 1990s as part of his private-equity playbook, long before it became common practice during the 2003—7 buyout boom. The credit crisis that started in mid-2007 limited the practice, as it became difficult for companies to borrow funds to pay the dividends. But the scale back was purely a function of credit availability, not of any backing off by the PE firms. Just as venture capitalists rushed to get their businesses listed on the public markets in 1998 and 1999 to take advantage of the IPO frenzy, private-equity groups used dividend payments in this decade as a way to profit from the cheap-credit bubble. If Bain’s experience is any indication, many of the companies that borrowed money to issue dividends will not be able to survive.”
Romney Camp Admits That Its Bain Job Creation Number Is Bogus
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/01/04/397565/romney-admits-bain-jobs-bogus/?mobile=nc
[Romney spokesman Eric] Fehrnstrom says the 100,000 figure stems from the growth in jobs from three companies that Romney helped to start or grow while at Bain Capital: Staples (a gain of 89,000 jobs), The Sports Authority (15,000 jobs), and Domino’s (7,900 jobs).
This tally obviously does not include job losses from other companies with which Bain Capital was involved — and are based on current employment figures, not the period when Romney worked at Bain.
Bain Capital has been responsible for thousands of layoffs at companies it bankrupted, such as American Pad & Paper, Dade International, and LIVE Entertainment, which Romney’s stat completely leaves out. He’s also taking credit for jobs created long after he left the firm to launch his political career. To sum it up, the stat Romney uses is incredibly dishonest...
BINGO!
And then Willard goes on to govern Massachusettes by massively increasing taxes to businesses (he called it closing loopholes) leading to..
Job growth was devastated by Romney’s policies. The Massachusetts Taxpayer Foundation says that under Romney, “job growth has been anemic.” (28)
According to job creation experts Andrew Sum and Joseph McLaughlin of Northeastern University, manufacturing employment during the Romney years “declined by 14%, the third worse record in the country.” (31)
The same scholars wrote that “from 2001 to 2006, Massachusetts ranked 49th in the nation in job creation…” (32)
The Boston Globe business columnist Steve Baily wrote that “there are 40,000 fewer people in the workforce than when Romney took over.” (33)
This view was echoed by the Boston Herald’s business columnist, Bret Arends, who wrote, “During the four years Mitt Romney was governor of Massachusetts, it had the second worst jobs record of any state in America…it wasn’t a regional issue. The rest of New England created nearly 200,000 jobs.” (34)
Another way to judge a state’s economy is to look at its Gross State Product and these statistics are kept by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Between 2001-2005, the percent GSP increase for Massachusetts was an anemic 8.44%, one of the lowest five-years increases in the country – 44th out of 50 states. (35)
We’ll let labor market economist Andrew Sum summarize: “as a strict labor market economist looking at the record, Massachusetts did very poorly during the Romney years…on every measure you’ve got, the state was a substantial under-performer.” (36)
31) Mass Jobs, Center for Labor Studies, November, 2007, Northeastern University.
32) Ibid
33) Boston Globe, 2/15/06
34) Boston Herald, 2/21/07, http://news.bostonherald.com/editorial/view.bg?articleid=184105
35) www.ssti.org/Digest/Tables/061206t.htm
36) Reuters, 1/21/08, www.reuters.com/artilce/politicsNews/idUSN2033704120080120
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