Politics for Misfits
A Happy Mitt Romney, at Bain Capital, Cutting Jobs, Making Money.....
(Photo: Boston.com)
Romney as Job Creator Clashes with Bain Record of Job Cuts
"Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s campaign misses few opportunities to promote his record creating jobs, including his role in taking Staples Inc. (SPLS) from a start-up to the world’s largest office-supply retailer.
“You’d have a president who has spent his life in business -- small business, big business -- and who knows something about how jobs are created and how we compete around the world,” he said at a campaign stop last month at Buddy Brew Coffee in Tampa, Florida.
What Romney skips is his experience in eliminating jobs. It’s a facet of his career that presents a particular challenge for the Republican primary frontrunner: Tough business decisions don’t necessarily translate into good politics.
As head of private equity firm Bain Capital LLC, Romney was the lead deal-maker, buying and selling companies to make money for investors. Whether companies boomed or filed for bankruptcy, the Boston-based firm found profits for Romney, its other executives and investors. Romney, who spent most of his career at Bain, estimated his wealth in 2007 at as much as $250 million. He has yet to update his financial status for the 2012 presidential campaign.
Entrepreneurs and corporate founders “create the bulk of the jobs, not the financiers,” said Marc Wolpow, a former Bain managing director who left in 1999 and is now co-chief executive officer of Audax Group, which manages more than $4.8 billion.
“That is not necessarily a good political story for a candidate with a buyout background,” said Wolpow, a Democrat- leaning independent who said he would consider backing Romney in 2012.
At Dade Behring Inc., a medical-testing company based in Deerfield, Illinois, Bain cut at least 1,600 jobs during a series of acquisitions before the firm entered into bankruptcy in 2002. Romney foreshadowed those cuts in a speech to employees shortly after Bain acquired the firm.
DDi Corp., an electronics company in Anaheim, California, filed for bankruptcy in 2003 after Bain sold shares in the company generating at least $85.5 million and billed $10 million in management fees.
GS Industries Inc., a steel company in Charlotte, North Carolina, filed for bankruptcy in 2001 after workers said a chief executive hired under Bain made missteps, including installing managers who lacked industry expertise, former employees said.
Employees who lost jobs at Bain-controlled companies more than a decade ago say they still hold Romney responsible.
“I would not vote for him for anything,” said Phyllis Detro, 68, who lost her job at a Bain-owned office paper products factory in Marion, Indiana, closed in 1995. “I’d like to see the jobs that he’s created. He has taken away jobs.”
I suggest you read the entire article from Bloomberg.
source: www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-20/romney-as-job-creator-c...
A Happy Mitt Romney, at Bain Capital, Cutting Jobs, Making Money.....
(Photo: Boston.com)
Romney as Job Creator Clashes with Bain Record of Job Cuts
"Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s campaign misses few opportunities to promote his record creating jobs, including his role in taking Staples Inc. (SPLS) from a start-up to the world’s largest office-supply retailer.
“You’d have a president who has spent his life in business -- small business, big business -- and who knows something about how jobs are created and how we compete around the world,” he said at a campaign stop last month at Buddy Brew Coffee in Tampa, Florida.
What Romney skips is his experience in eliminating jobs. It’s a facet of his career that presents a particular challenge for the Republican primary frontrunner: Tough business decisions don’t necessarily translate into good politics.
As head of private equity firm Bain Capital LLC, Romney was the lead deal-maker, buying and selling companies to make money for investors. Whether companies boomed or filed for bankruptcy, the Boston-based firm found profits for Romney, its other executives and investors. Romney, who spent most of his career at Bain, estimated his wealth in 2007 at as much as $250 million. He has yet to update his financial status for the 2012 presidential campaign.
Entrepreneurs and corporate founders “create the bulk of the jobs, not the financiers,” said Marc Wolpow, a former Bain managing director who left in 1999 and is now co-chief executive officer of Audax Group, which manages more than $4.8 billion.
“That is not necessarily a good political story for a candidate with a buyout background,” said Wolpow, a Democrat- leaning independent who said he would consider backing Romney in 2012.
At Dade Behring Inc., a medical-testing company based in Deerfield, Illinois, Bain cut at least 1,600 jobs during a series of acquisitions before the firm entered into bankruptcy in 2002. Romney foreshadowed those cuts in a speech to employees shortly after Bain acquired the firm.
DDi Corp., an electronics company in Anaheim, California, filed for bankruptcy in 2003 after Bain sold shares in the company generating at least $85.5 million and billed $10 million in management fees.
GS Industries Inc., a steel company in Charlotte, North Carolina, filed for bankruptcy in 2001 after workers said a chief executive hired under Bain made missteps, including installing managers who lacked industry expertise, former employees said.
Employees who lost jobs at Bain-controlled companies more than a decade ago say they still hold Romney responsible.
“I would not vote for him for anything,” said Phyllis Detro, 68, who lost her job at a Bain-owned office paper products factory in Marion, Indiana, closed in 1995. “I’d like to see the jobs that he’s created. He has taken away jobs.”
I suggest you read the entire article from Bloomberg.
source: www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-20/romney-as-job-creator-c...