Deputy Obama campaign manager Stephanie Cutter wrote a memo last week blasting Mitt Romney for leading a private equity firm:
Mitt Romney has staked his entire candidacy on one claim: that his “real world” experience in the private equity business uniquely qualifies him to lead our economy and the nation. …
But in fairness, Romney’s objective in business was never job creation. As one of his colleagues recently told the Los Angeles Times:
“I never thought of what I do for a living as job creation,” said Mark B. Walpow, a former managing partner at Bain, who worked closely with Romney for nine years before forming his own firm. “The primary goal of private equity is to create wealth for your investors.” …
When asked by TIME Magazine whether Mitt Romney is a job creator or destroyer, Warren Buffett said that while businesses shouldn’t hang on to people they don’t need, “I don’t like what private-equity firms do in terms of taking out every dime they can and leveraging [companies] up so that they really aren’t equipped, in some cases, for the future.” Voters need to understand the kind of economy Mitt Romney’s experience entails – and it doesn’t sound like the kind of economy that’s built to last.
But apparently Cutter wasn’t always so opposed to private equity firms: she previously worked as a spokeswoman for J.C. Flowers … a private equity firm.
The goal of companies like Bain is to make profits for its investors. This most often includes outsourcing jobs to other countries, taking money out of companies and then declaring bankruptcy, dismantling companies and laying people off so that the Bain executives can reap the biggest personal profits, while swindling the people who take the company next, or swindling the US taxpayers to pay the bill for the bankruptcy. Companies like Bain are largely parasitic entities whose main purpose is to enrich its executives and investors at the expense of the US taxpayers and the employees of companies they take over.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAnother Capt Renault (see my post on Ms Kennedy-Cuomo)
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMs. Trinko: Ms. Cutter never "blasts Mitt Romney for leading a private equity firm" and she nowhere evinces a hostility to private equity firms.
Cutter is doing what some Republicans have done: criticize Romney for using his private equity experience in support of the argument that he has created jobs.
There are plenty of honorable jobs in this world: leading a private equity firm, being a lawyer, teacher, soldier, doctor, janitor, groundskeeper, car washer, etc.
But you have to be a bit careful if you're going to use your experience in these jobs in support of an argument that you have "created jobs". Because odds are that you haven't.
And if you have, fine (plenty of ways you could have). But be prepared to back it up and don't get the vapors if someone challenges your job-creation success.
I think Mitt Romney is the strongest opponent to Mr. Obama. But not if he's going to be a whiny girl about people challenging his credentials and arguments.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse“I never thought of what I do for a living as job creation,” said Mark B. Walpow, a former managing partner at Bain, who worked closely with Romney for nine years before forming his own firm. “The primary goal of private equity is to create wealth for your investors.”
What a pifflingly idiotic argument this whole thing is. It truly makes me despair to think that anybody could be swayed by it.
Anybody can "create a job". Just take a brick and put it through your neighbor's window. Voila! You've "created a job" for a window repairman. What's that you say? The neighbor's the one who has to pay him? The hard part isn't creating the job, it's creating the salary? That is, creating the wealth? Well..what do you know!
“The primary goal of private equity is to create wealth"
like every business, in every way, under every circumstance, everywhere, forever.
For PETE'S SAKE.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIt amazes me that our president and his surrogate Warren Buffet want to vilify a business sector that is an important component in creating jobs in this country.
Don’t Obama and Buffet know that creation of jobs needs money?
Romney knows this fact. And he knows that it is better for the economy if the private sector funds the creation of jobs via profit, private equity.
Mitt tells a great contrast story of his starting Staples versus the way Solyndra was lavishly started on government largesse. Romney goes even further by explaining how the government funding Solyndra; it suppressed other start ups in that industry because the government was picking the winner not the free marketplace.
Barack Obama doesn't like free enterprise, he might even hate it (maybe because he doesn't understand how it works).
Mitt Romney believes free enterprise is apart of the pursuit of happiness and defends it loudly and often.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI think Warren Buffett should give me some of his money. He has a lot, I don't. He needs to share the wealth. His little lapdog Obama needs to give me some of his money too. He has a lot more than I do and I deserve some of his. These two parasites need to share. Why aren't they?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe healthcare industry doesn't save lives, it creates health.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse“The primary goal of private equity is to create wealth for your investors.”
I guess these mythical "investors" just bathe in their wealth like Scrooge McDuck.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseShe Froma Harroped herself
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"Warren Buffett said that while businesses shouldn’t hang on to people they don’t need, “I don’t like what private-equity firms do in terms of taking out every dime they can and leveraging [companies] up so that they really aren’t equipped, in some cases, for the future.”...not a lot of specificity there, Warren. Oh, and while we're at it, Mr. Buffett, can you name one business you purchased for the sole purpose of keeping the jobs? Has there ever been a time when keeping jobs was even a secondary consideration in your purchase of a business? Have you ever purchased a business that failed? Mr. Buffett (Berkshire Hathaway) has an exemplary record, as does Bain Capital. Neither have 100% success rates, but when the businesses they acquire succeed, as happens at almost 2 to 1 ratio or better, jobs grow, both in quantity and quality.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbusePrevious posters miss the point...it's not a referendum on whether private equity plays a reasonable role. Mitt Romney is running as a private sector job creator. That is indisputable. The point is, he's never been a direct job creator. He engaged in financial engineering to benefit his clients...nothing wrong with that...but to now try to run as if he began a chain of pizza shops or franchised his own ideas and risked his own capital...well, that's the kind of logical leap we expect from D's, not R's. THAT'S why the base is saying, "No sale"!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseOnly in the deranged minds and twisted logic of inside the beltway Washington DC, could a tremendously succesfull and lawful business persons carreer, by any measurment, be portrayed as a negative.
I've been a small business owner for 20 years. I have NEVER run across any other business owner who started and remain in business for themselves whos main goal is job creation. This astonishing line of argument coming from career politicians and hacks ... who never created or produced ANYTHING of economic value in their entire careers.
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