Posted on 01/10/2012 9:26:42 AM PST by Zakeet
Before Armco sold off the KC plant, it had already sold off the foreign plants that made the same grinding balls used in mineral milling. From a history of the current operation I will post a link to later:
In the 1930s, Armco’s Sheffield Steel of Kansas City produced the first heat-treated grinding ball alloyed with molybdenum and copper. The new ball significantly improved wear performance versus the quality levels of that time, and was patented and appropriately trademarked as Moly-Cop®This histroy was from this year, showing the small rebirth of the remnant of this KC industrial technology as it goes through the maturation of any industy.In 1961, Armco built its first grinding ball forging operation outside the USA - now known as Moly-Cop Chile. This began several decades of growth to build the international Moly-Cop business with grinding ball plants located strategically around the world to include Chile, Peru, Mexico, and Canada
In 2001, then owner GS Industries went into bankruptcy and sold the international Moly-Cop businesses to Anglo’s Scaw Metals in 2002. The original Kansas City ball plant restarted as an independent company in 2003 and became part of OneSteel in 2007
With OneSteel’s acquisition of Moly-Cop, Kansas City has been reunited with the businesses it helped build, further enhancing the strength and depth of the new Moly-Cop organisation
As you have pointed out, we don't exist to just bash Romney -- we intelligently discuss the news and issues. Since when does FR believe that idustries exist for the workers and not the owners? Is this Marx central now.
Sure Bain was buying low and selling high. Carl Icahn butchered TWA in KC and we know how this all works. Poorly run companies get bought and either convert or are scavangerized for what is worthwhile. Factory workers with limited skill sets loose the well paid jobs and go through the transition that all factory workers do as industry changes.
More detailed is here http://www.onesteel.com/images/db_images/news/Analyst%20Presentation%20South%20America%20FINAL.pdf
Newt responded ONLY after Romney started hitting him with negative (untruthful) ads...and when Newt asked him to pull his punches, Romney made the comment that if Newt couldn't stand the heat, he should get out of the kitchen.
Newt's standing in Iowa was destroyed by Romney's negative and untruthful ads. He could either fight back or drop out.
He chose to stand and fight.
There are real corporate raiders like Gordon Gecko (and they seldom actually work on Wall St). Their goal is not to create value...they goal is to make money. They sometimes go to jail...that's a risk they are comfortable with.
It is better that these questions are raised now while we can still reject Romney, than pop up in September or October when it is too late for someone else.
If Romney thought he would skate past Axelrod without being skewered for his work at Bain, he is an idiot.
The Bain of Romney by Sultan Knish, link to full article follows excerpts:
Criticizing the way a politician ran a company at a time when he is running for office on that record isn’t radical leftism, it’s Politics 101. Unless any of Romney’s rivals have called for him to have to pay higher taxes or be closely regulated by the government, then they have nothing in common with Occupy Wall Street and suggesting otherwise is a talking point that doesn’t hold up.
Romney was the one who brought in his record as a job creator. It’s entirely legitimate for his opponents to question whether he really created jobs or destroyed them. Asking whether a candidate’s record holds up isn’t class warfare, it’s common sense. And it’s ridiculous that some of the same figures who turned Gingrich’s personal spending into a campaign issue are suddenly insisting that Romney’s time at Bain Capital is off limits.
A commitment to free enterprise does not mean supporting anything that any company does. It only means supporting their right to do it.
.....
Wrapping Romney up in a capitalism blanket and hissing that all the mean men attacking him are dirty Marxists is not only eye-rolling silliness, it’s also a concession that he can’t fight his own battles or defend his own record. Taking an issue off the table in a campaign where just about everything has been on the table is an admission of weakness that will not protect him in the general election.
This isn’t about class warfare, Marxism or Socialism. Romney, Gingrich and Perry are not poor men. This is about whether Romney can turn his record into an asset or will be stuck limping around with it attached to him like a chain. If he can’t defend the productive and constructive value of his work at Bain Capital now and win over voters, then what hope does he have of doing it in the general election?
Plenty of time has passed since his last devastating collision with Bain Capital political attacks and they won’t lose him the general election. They probably won’t even hurt him that much. Not unless he lets them. But it’s interesting to take a look back at the first collision between Gingrich and Romney. Back then Gingrich was trying to cut funding for the AmeriCorps beast, while Romney teamed up with Clinton to condemn any cuts by Congressional Republicans to the program.
Article Link: http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/2012/01/bain-of-romney.html
“It is better that these questions are raised now while we can still reject Romney, than pop up in September or October when it is too late for someone else.
If Romney thought he would skate past Axelrod without being skewered for his work at Bain, he is an idiot.”
I agree that Bain, his wealth and his Mormonism will be the three primary lines of attack by the Dems if he is nominated.Bain and his wealth were the primary lines of attack when he ran in Massachusetts. I just hate hearing Democrat imagery of capitalism mouthed by conservative Republican candidates for short term political gain. Santorum is the only guy not to stoop to this level and that is why I am leaning toward supporting him.
Romney's untruthful ads about Newt killed him in the polls...Newt must either fight back or get out of the race.
“Fixing broken companies and operating and/or reselling them for a profit is a totally capitalistic enterprise and nothing any conservative should be whining about.”
Agreed. And heartily so.
But taking over ailing companies with no more noble intent than to eat out their hearts and suck the last drop of lifeblood out of them...that ain’t “fixing”; that’s piracy.
Legal? Yeah, but who gives a damn when it’s as unjust, immoral, and unethical as all Hell?
You’ve NO idea how many decent establishments I’ve seen taken over, fiscally eviscerated, and destroyed by companies like Bain. No, they don’t ALWAYS ride them down into the dust; every once in awhile they’ll turn something around and make it prosperous; just not often.
How many pension funds did Bain raid in the course of their takeovers? Do we know this?
[Fixing broken companies and operating and/or reselling them for a profit is a totally capitalistic enterprise]
You obviously haven’t been around any such deals because there really is a difference between vultures and venture capitalists. When you go in and strip the equity out with no intention of either helping shareholders much less employees it is legal, but it certainly isn’t ethical.
But here you are crying over Romney’s actions at Bain being taken out of context when you could just view Gingrich as a hostile takeover of the Romney campaign. Why are Romney’s hostile business tactics good while Gingrichs’ hostile political tactics bad?
Gringrich’s hostile political tactics are no different than the tactics Bain used under Romney to do hostile takeovers. I think the Romney people are the big whiners, or is that weiners.
Romney. What was his role in this career? Where did his conscience draw the line?.
_____________________________________
ROFLMBO
Thanks! : )
I also found this..
Romney’s Bain Capital Made Billions While Bankrupting Nearly One-Quarter Of The Companies It Invested In
By Pat Garofalo on Jan 9, 2012 at 9:25 am
2012 GOP presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney, who has a large lead in the polls heading into the New Hampshire primary tomorrow, has been taking heat from both Democrats and his Republican challengers for his time at Bain Capital, the private equity firm that he headed. Bain’s modus operandi was to invest in companies, leverage them up with debt, and then sell them off for scrap, allowing Bain’s investors to walk away with huge profits while the companies in which Bain invested wound up in bankruptcy, laying off workers and reneging on benefits.
Last week, Reuters profiled one company, Worldwide Grinding Systems, that went belly up after Bain invested in it. The company not only lost 750 jobs, but the federal government had to come in to bail out its pension fund, while Bain walked away with millions in profits.
And according to an analysis by the Wall Street Journal, this was far from an isolated incident. In fact, 22 percent of the companies in which Bain invested wound up either in bankruptcy or shutting their doors entirely, while Bain itself has made billions of dollars for its investors:
The Wall Street Journal, aiming for a comprehensive assessment, examined 77 businesses Bain invested in while Mr. Romney led the firm from its 1984 start until early 1999, to see how they fared during Bain’s involvement and shortly afterward.
Among the findings: 22% either filed for bankruptcy reorganization or closed their doors by the end of the eighth year after Bain first invested, sometimes with substantial job losses. An additional 8% ran into so much trouble that all of the money Bain invested was lost. [...]
The Journal analysis shows that in total, Bain produced about $2.5 billion in gains for its investors in the 77 deals, on about $1.1 billion invested. Overall, Bain recorded roughly 50% to 80% annual gains in this period, which experts said was among the best track records for buyout firms in that era.
Adding insult to injury, Bain would hide its profits in tax havens, not even paying the rate it was supposed to on the profits it made laying off workers.
Let’s see how the taxpayers feel about bailing out these companies’ pension funds and receiving no tax money back from Bain. Let’s let the people decide what they think of bailing out Romney.
It could use a front page post, I think.
BUT why should American taxpayers have to be forced to pay for Willard’s business incompetence and greed?
—
Workers were denied the severance pay and health insurance they’d been promised, and their pension benefits were cut..
What’s more, a FEDERAL GOVERNMENT insurance agency had to PONY UP $44 MILLION TO BAIL OUT the company’s underfunded pension plan.
Nevertheless, Bain profited on the deal, receiving $12 million on its $8 million initial investment and at least $4.5 million in consulting fees.
http://legalinsurrection.com/2012/01/bain-drip-drip-drip/
bttt
Romney has yet to show his conscience. He lies with abandon and seems to have no ballast or center.
But then he is a Mormon...par for that course.
Joe Smith would smile upon him...spreading the demonic cave-wrought heresy.
Go Allah!!!
The Wall Street Journal analysis is devastating for Willard the Vulture/Lib at Bain..
Adding insult to injury, Bain would hide its profits in tax havens, not even paying the rate it was supposed to on the profits it made laying off workers.
Let’s see how the taxpayers feel about bailing out these companies’ pension funds and receiving no tax money back from Bain. Let’s let the people decide what they think of bailing out Romney.
Bottom line again: Why should American taxpayers have to be forced to pay for Willard’s business incompetence and greed?
“How many pension funds did Bain raid in the course of their takeovers?”
Good question. Here are some more:
How many people have lost their jobs because Bain ran their employer into the dirt?
How many of those lost jobs turned into mortgage defaults, auto repossessions, marital splits, lost college funding?
What did Romney’s profits from Bain actually cost those once-working Americans and their families?
How many of those now-dead companies could have been turned around instead of killed off if Bain had made the effort?
Someone knows, but I haven’t yet read. As this story grows hair, expect to see a mounting toll of victims of Bain under Romeny’s tenure. You and I both know that Team Obama is NOT going to let this issue leave the radar screens for many, many moons.
If Romeny ends up the GOP nominee; Obama’s got four more years all sewn up.
Newt should not have said that just to gain points and neither should any other candidate! No I Newt should not have said that Bain Capital was a Vulture company and how much money they should make. Now if Newt wants to go after Mitt on his record like how many jobs he created and how well he did at the company that is fair game but to just bash Bain Capital. I mean Mitt has so many flip flops Newt could talk about them for a week!
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.