Posted on 02/10/2012 7:03:34 AM PST by OKSooner
Gonna be having dinner with a Romney supporter this weekend. I know everything I need to know about "Bain Capital" and their way of skimming the cream off the top of failing companies, but I need all the information I can get.
This isn’t the path to take for Conservatives. Companies like Bain have their place in the market. When companies are about to go under, the salvage what they can. People would be out of work either way.
I haven’t worked with Bain but I’ve worked with Blackstone and I’ll defend what they do.
This of them like auto-salvage. If you have a car that has or is about to die, you can sell it to a salvage yard who will use it for parts to keep other cars running. Parts of that car live on and help many other cars.
There are too many issues Romney is bad on to attack a legal and proper business in the free market.
You sound like a liberal. There are plenty of things to not like about Romney; this isn’t one of them.
Should be...
Think of them...
I should really proofread before posting.
(If you insist on using that line-of-attack).
Yes it is. Romney is running on his business record. Vetting Bain is absolutely on the table.
Totally agree.
Hammer in just two themes. Bain Capital’s strategy was to buy struggling firms, create hype to push up stock prices, dump the stock and quit the scene destroying livelihoods.
The second point is that Bain Capital took over a firm that committed Medicare billing fraud. According to court documents, the fraud coincided with Romney’s stint as CEO.
I am sure that the fraud must have occurred as a result of Bain’s management telling them to commit it.
You calling me heartless? You sound like when Rick Perry went lefty. Why don’t you stop trying to move conservatism to the left?
Romney is/was a great capitalist and your whole line of reasoning is disgusting.
You are wrong about Bain. They should be held liable for Medicare billing fraud. Does not seem like free market to me. Also, taking over firms and hyping up the stock price and dumping it seems like a breach of trust with the shareholders.
AGAIN, Romney is running on his record at Bain. It is open for vetting and discussion. See post 11.
Start up lending which is nice.
Leveraged Buy Outs which are not.
Google leveraged buyouts and educate yourself.
One can criticize business practice and not be a marxist.
the GOP establishment and Rush and Hannity (not Levin to his credit) used this card to thwart negativity about Romney's sometimes slash and burn business as it's ok anyhow...no it isn't
pure capitalism is not an ideal...it has to have some brakes here and there in practice or you end up with quite a few unintended consequence
where to brake and where to hit the gas is always the question
by and large we prefer unbridled but...that is sort of a platitude in practice
LBOs..what Mitt mostly did involves leveraging existing assets or receivables to finance a buyout or privatization even and which usually enriches the current management and the ones doing the buying more than the stockholders, debt holders or employees and frequently involves breaking up a business in the process and no it is not a remedy for weak companies but more a technique to strip the white meat off the bone of fat companies
I do not like it and I am not alone amongst business saavy folks...I have been a party to an LBO..it's unethical to me...largely...folks get very greedy
on the other hand...pure venture capital which Bain did is the only way most start ups get initial big funding before an IPO..and serves a useful purpose
Mitt also utilized govt subsidies and insurance opening too when raiding financial institutions...this will come up too...trust me
Newt was on to something but was shouted down by Rush and FOX and the establishment. The Dems won't be so muted.
If both of those items happened, then they should be investigated and prosecuted accordingly.
However, much of these attacks on Bain have gone way, way beyond specific illegal actions to an attack on the entire private equity structure and that is getting pretty disgusting. It is making normal, legal and ethical practices sound completely immoral. We can’t forget who we are or what we stand for.
If you know all you need to, then why are you asking for more?
I agree; while in principle there may be nothing wrong with the overall business of companies like this, and while they may have their function, Bain itself often seems to have been just this side of legal and perhaps on the other side of ethical.
One of the odd things I have noticed since attention was drawn to the company, however, is how many things it seems to be involved in. I guess I never noticed it before, but now the name jumps out at me when I read the financial or business pages and it's amazing how often it appears. So I wonder if perhaps much of the uproar was stirred up by Bain itself, which didn't like the attention called to itself and certainly had long experience in aggressive tactics against a perceived "enemy."
Having the pundits rush forward to proclaim that Bain Capital was synonomous with capitalism and that any question about it was an attack on the very system was one of the most bizarre things I have ever seen.
Yes we can!!!! Sometimes you have to suspend conservatism to save conservatism, especially if it helps beat that evil, soulless Romney!
I’m just amused by the scene: squishy conservative meets real conservative for dinner, and the real conservative uses commielib talking points to win him over to his side.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.