Posted on 11/13/2011 6:50:20 AM PST by SeekAndFind
By the green-hued yardsticks of Wall Street, the 1990s buyout of an Illinois medical company by Mitt Romney’s private equity firm was a spectacular success.
Mr. Romney’s company, Bain Capital, sent in a team of 10 turnaround experts from Boston to ferret out waste, motivate executives and study untapped markets.
By the time the Harvard M.B.A.’s from Bain were finished, sales at the medical company, Dade International, had more than doubled. The business acquired two of its rivals. And Mr. Romney’s firm collected $242 million, a return eight times its investment.
But an examination of the Dade deal shows the unintended human costs and messy financial consequences behind the brand of capitalism that Mr. Romney practiced for 15 years.
At Bain Capital’s direction, Dade quadrupled the money it owed creditors and vendors. It took steps that propelled the business toward bankruptcy. And in waves of layoffs, it cut loose 1,700 workers in the United States, including Brian and Christine Shoemaker, who lost their jobs at a plant in Westwood, Mass. Staggered, Mr. Shoemaker wondered, “How can the bean counters just come in here and say, Hey, it’s over?”
Mr. Romney’s career at Bain Capital, which he owned and ran as chief executive, is a cornerstone of his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination — a credential, he argues, that showcases the management skills and business acumen that America needs to revive a stalled economy. Creating jobs, Mr. Romney says, is exactly what he knows how to do.
The White House, though, is already preparing a less flattering portrayal, trying to frame Mr. Romney’s record at Bain as evidence that he would pursue slash and burn economics and that his business career thrived by enriching the elite at the expense of the working class.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Basically, every company is America is over-manned. The same can be said for the US military....various government agencies....the post office....and even Wal-Mart. I don’t see a big deal with this story.
Someone needs to tell the NY Times to hold off articles like these until Mittens has the nomination on lock.
They’re going to make Romney out to be some evil CEO who hates “the working man” while Obama is the populist messiah. I hope the RINOs who love Romney and promoted him to death are ready for the MSM/Dem machine.
Having completely alienated 1/3 or more of you base pimping the smear at Cain, good luck finding anyone to rally to you now that the smear machine has turned it's eyes on your candidate.
Agreed. If anything, Mitt would fight the unions big time to eliminate waste. The media constantly equates the unions with everyman.
No such thing.
I guess NY Times is evil too then, since they laid off people a couple of years ago.
Huh? Go read Coulter's column from this last week. The Cain thing is coming from Axelrod and the Chicago thugs, not Rove or the GOP. And what's the "GOP media?" If you mean talk radio, they're rallying behind Cain.
The OWS crowd is in place when Romney gets the nomination.
Yet the establishment RINOs have already crowned him because they know the fix is in.
Another New York Times story carrying water for the DNC. The Times and DNC have already preordained Romney will be the Republican candidate and are lobbying preemptive strikes to lay the foundation for their storyline going forward.I am looking forward to the Times story that Obama’s chairman of his committee to save American jobs, Jeff Immelt of GE, has been busily shipping 15000 GE jobs overseas. I am sure the Times is interested in balance. NOT.
Companies aren’t in bussiness to create jobs!!
He's a socialist elite. It's absolutely true. Look at how he financially crucified every working man in MA with romneycare.
Romney is simply unacceptable.
I want to beat the republic GOP elite as badly as obama, perhaps more.
NYT had a big round of layoffs in 2009 and then actually made money in 2010, just like Romney ventures. The NYT then celebrated with more layoffs and another just last month. Capitalist pigs!
Yes, the Times has had multiple layoffs in recent years.
Beam. Mote.
Coulter and Talk Radio are not part of the GOP Establishment media.
Reduce size to regain profit.
Duh.
And the MSM is surprised.
Does anyone wonder why journalism is not considered to be an intellectual pursuit?
The Times' preferred brand of capitalism is called socialism.
Where would that be? (If you were repeating a comment of some else sorry, if not huh?)
It’s not a big deal unless you are uninformed about how a failing business returns to profitability thru the ramping up of productivity by reducing the work force.
When a company such as the one described acquires two of it’s rivals there is much duplication in the staff. Each company has a HR Dept where perhaps one is needed. Advertising, legal and sales may have similar over staffing. There are surely too many Vice presidents because there are always too many Vice Presidents.
This is a dumb story aimed at the uninformed in order to paint a business man as “eeeeeevil”
Profit is ALWAYS an evil notion to the left, unless, of course, it is George Soros, Michael Moore or Babs Streisand making the dough. I’m sure as hell no fan of the Northeastern liberal punk and serial liar Willard Romney, but only leftists would demand an apology for turning a business around and making it profitable. Leftists are too used to vote-buying with tax dollars. Here, investors are not SUPPOSED to make a profit...just finance the agenda of the Democrat party by placing dependents on welfare.
Every company is overmanned? Really? What are you basing that on?
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