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Romney Was a Speculator, Not a Businessman

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Anonymous

Guest
David Stockman Says Romney Was a Speculator, Not a Businessman

David Stockman, Ronald Reagan's budget director and later a private equity investor has brutally dissected Mitt Romney's claims to be a smart businessman. Stockman says Romney was simply a financial speculator who bought troubled companies, sold off their assets and outsourced their jobs, and made them look good enough to get rid of them before they collapsed. Stockman's critique carries weight with Republicans who worship Ronald Reagan since it was Stockman who actually carried out Reagan's economic program and he knows in great detail how this stuff works.


Mitt Romney claims that his essential qualification to be president is grounded in his 15 years as head of Bain Capital, from 1984 through early 1999. According to the campaign’s narrative, it was then that he became immersed in the toils of business enterprise, learning along the way the true secrets of how to grow the economy and create jobs. The fact that Bain’s returns reputedly averaged more than 50 percent annually during this period is purportedly proof of the case — real-world validation that Romney not only was a striking business success but also has been uniquely trained and seasoned for the task of restarting the nation’s sputtering engines of capitalism.

Except Mitt Romney was not a businessman; he was a master financial speculator who bought, sold, flipped, and stripped businesses. He did not build enterprises the old-fashioned way — out of inspiration, perspiration, and a long slog in the free market fostering a new product, service, or process of production. Instead, he spent his 15 years raising debt in prodigious amounts on Wall Street so that Bain could purchase the pots and pans and castoffs of corporate America, leverage them to the hilt, gussy them up as reborn “roll-ups,” and then deliver them back to Wall Street for resale — the faster the better.

That is the modus operandi of the leveraged-buyout business, and in an honest free-market economy, there wouldn’t be much scope for it because it creates little of economic value. But we have a rigged system—a regime of crony capitalism—where the tax code heavily favors debt and capital gains, and the central bank purposefully enables rampant speculation by propping up the price of financial assets and battering down the cost of leveraged finance. So the vast outpouring of LBOs in recent decades has been the consequence of bad policy, not the product of capitalist enterprise.



http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/10/14/david-stockman-mitt-romney-and-the-bain-drain.html


And as Stockman infers- being born with a silver spoon in your mouth with a wealthy well known politician Daddy works wonders in the crony system when trying to raise capital for speculating (gambling) ...
 

Faster horses

Well-known member
That sounds like sour grapes to me.

And even if it's true (after all it is one man's opinion) I'll still take him
over a lying Muslim lover--American hater--socialist with blood on his hands.
 

TexasBred

Well-known member
Oldtimer said:
David Stockman Says Romney Was a Speculator, Not a Businessman

David Stockman, Ronald Reagan's budget director and later a private equity investor has brutally dissected Mitt Romney's claims to be a smart businessman. Stockman says Romney was simply a financial speculator who bought troubled companies, sold off their assets and outsourced their jobs, and made them look good enough to get rid of them before they collapsed. Stockman's critique carries weight with Republicans who worship Ronald Reagan since it was Stockman who actually carried out Reagan's economic program and he knows in great detail how this stuff works.


Mitt Romney claims that his essential qualification to be president is grounded in his 15 years as head of Bain Capital, from 1984 through early 1999. According to the campaign’s narrative, it was then that he became immersed in the toils of business enterprise, learning along the way the true secrets of how to grow the economy and create jobs. The fact that Bain’s returns reputedly averaged more than 50 percent annually during this period is purportedly proof of the case — real-world validation that Romney not only was a striking business success but also has been uniquely trained and seasoned for the task of restarting the nation’s sputtering engines of capitalism.

Except Mitt Romney was not a businessman; he was a master financial speculator who bought, sold, flipped, and stripped businesses. He did not build enterprises the old-fashioned way — out of inspiration, perspiration, and a long slog in the free market fostering a new product, service, or process of production. Instead, he spent his 15 years raising debt in prodigious amounts on Wall Street so that Bain could purchase the pots and pans and castoffs of corporate America, leverage them to the hilt, gussy them up as reborn “roll-ups,” and then deliver them back to Wall Street for resale — the faster the better.

That is the modus operandi of the leveraged-buyout business, and in an honest free-market economy, there wouldn’t be much scope for it because it creates little of economic value. But we have a rigged system—a regime of crony capitalism—where the tax code heavily favors debt and capital gains, and the central bank purposefully enables rampant speculation by propping up the price of financial assets and battering down the cost of leveraged finance. So the vast outpouring of LBOs in recent decades has been the consequence of bad policy, not the product of capitalist enterprise.



http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/10/14/david-stockman-mitt-romney-and-the-bain-drain.html


And as Stockman infers- being born with a silver spoon in your mouth with a wealthy well known politician Daddy works wonders in the crony system when trying to raise capital for speculating (gambling) ...

Just about any "investment" is based on speculation when you get right down to it. Anytime you're able to buy stock in a company your anticpating it will go up....the stock is for sell only becuase the seller feels it has peaked and will go down. All speculation......Bain capital did a lot of speculating but then there had to be great management in order to turn the many companies they had invested in around....not all were successful but many were....they had to be....they also had billions of other investors (speculators) money invested......Check out the city of Chicago...they have a lot of money invested thru Bain. :wink:
 

Larrry

Well-known member
Gee ot how stupid are you. The whole aspects of life are based on speculation. I see you drank the koolaid again.
 

TexasBred

Well-known member
Oldtimer said:
That is the modus operandi of the leveraged-buyout business, and in an honest free-market economy, there wouldn’t be much scope for it because it creates little of economic value. But we have a rigged system—a regime of crony capitalism—where the tax code heavily favors debt and capital gains, and the central bank purposefully enables rampant speculation by propping up the price of financial assets and battering down the cost of leveraged finance. So the vast outpouring of LBOs in recent decades has been the consequence of bad policy, not the product of capitalist enterprise.[/b]


And as Stockman infers- being born with a silver spoon in your mouth with a wealthy well known politician Daddy works wonders in the crony system when trying to raise capital for speculating (gambling) ...


OT please tell me this created little of economic value: 1. Romney helped Staples get its start
Before Staples opened its first office-supply store, the company's founder, Thomas G. Stemberg, went to Bain for help, says Ronald Kessler at Newsmax. Stemberg told Romney that companies were spending more on office supplies than they thought. Romney had his associates do a survey of office managers, then checked the figures against invoices, and found that Stemberg was right. "Romney agreed to put $600,000 of Bain Capital money into the new venture," and within a few years, he had made back eight times his money while contributing to the launch of a successful national company.

2. Bain played a role in Sports Authority's success
Romney and Co. were "among a handful of venture-capital firms that helped found the Sports Authority" by forking over much-needed cash in exchange for a minority stake, says The Washington Post. At the time, Sports Authority had fewer than 10 stores, and was hungry for money to fuel its expansion. By the time Romney left Bain, Sports Authority had exploded, and employed nearly 14,000 people across the country.
3. Bain backed a startup that became a steel giant
Romney's critics have focused on Bain's investment in a now-defunct steel firm, GS Technologies, as "the worst kind of private-equity investment," says Patrick Brennan at National Review. But Bain's "more successful involvement" in another steel company, Steel Dynamics, has gone largely overlooked. The steel industry was "hardly a hot startup market" in 1994, but Bain saw potential in the company's "mini-mill" as a way to lower costs. Bain invested $18 million, giving others confidence to invest and helping the company reach the $80 million in seed money it needed to get going. Bain sold its stake in 1999 for $104 million, and Steel Dynamics (SDI) has since grown to become the fifth-largest U.S. producer of carbon-steel products.4. Bain itself is a success
Romney should be eager to talk about Bain, says Ford O'Connell at U.S. News & World Report, and not just because of the firm's 80 percent success rate in driving up revenue at the companies it acquires. Romney should be most proud of "his own success in building Bain Capital from scratch into a successful organization with a great reputation that met a significant payroll and provided a service on which the economy absolutely depends." Over 28 years, the firm has boosted income at the companies it backed by $105 billion, creating thousands upon thousands of jobs. To attack Bain, you have to attack all of private equity, says Chris Stirewalt at Fox News. "Romney and Bain were widely seen as very good at what they did, not plunderers, but responsible corporate citizens."
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
TexasBred said:
Oldtimer said:
That is the modus operandi of the leveraged-buyout business, and in an honest free-market economy, there wouldn’t be much scope for it because it creates little of economic value. But we have a rigged system—a regime of crony capitalism—where the tax code heavily favors debt and capital gains, and the central bank purposefully enables rampant speculation by propping up the price of financial assets and battering down the cost of leveraged finance. So the vast outpouring of LBOs in recent decades has been the consequence of bad policy, not the product of capitalist enterprise.[/b]


And as Stockman infers- being born with a silver spoon in your mouth with a wealthy well known politician Daddy works wonders in the crony system when trying to raise capital for speculating (gambling) ...


OT please tell me this created little of economic value: 1. Romney helped Staples get its start
Before Staples opened its first office-supply store, the company's founder, Thomas G. Stemberg, went to Bain for help, says Ronald Kessler at Newsmax. Stemberg told Romney that companies were spending more on office supplies than they thought. Romney had his associates do a survey of office managers, then checked the figures against invoices, and found that Stemberg was right. "Romney agreed to put $600,000 of Bain Capital money into the new venture," and within a few years, he had made back eight times his money while contributing to the launch of a successful national company.

2. Bain played a role in Sports Authority's success
Romney and Co. were "among a handful of venture-capital firms that helped found the Sports Authority" by forking over much-needed cash in exchange for a minority stake, says The Washington Post. At the time, Sports Authority had fewer than 10 stores, and was hungry for money to fuel its expansion. By the time Romney left Bain, Sports Authority had exploded, and employed nearly 14,000 people across the country.
3. Bain backed a startup that became a steel giant
Romney's critics have focused on Bain's investment in a now-defunct steel firm, GS Technologies, as "the worst kind of private-equity investment," says Patrick Brennan at National Review. But Bain's "more successful involvement" in another steel company, Steel Dynamics, has gone largely overlooked. The steel industry was "hardly a hot startup market" in 1994, but Bain saw potential in the company's "mini-mill" as a way to lower costs. Bain invested $18 million, giving others confidence to invest and helping the company reach the $80 million in seed money it needed to get going. Bain sold its stake in 1999 for $104 million, and Steel Dynamics (SDI) has since grown to become the fifth-largest U.S. producer of carbon-steel products.4. Bain itself is a success
Romney should be eager to talk about Bain, says Ford O'Connell at U.S. News & World Report, and not just because of the firm's 80 percent success rate in driving up revenue at the companies it acquires. Romney should be most proud of "his own success in building Bain Capital from scratch into a successful organization with a great reputation that met a significant payroll and provided a service on which the economy absolutely depends." Over 28 years, the firm has boosted income at the companies it backed by $105 billion, creating thousands upon thousands of jobs. To attack Bain, you have to attack all of private equity, says Chris Stirewalt at Fox News. "Romney and Bain were widely seen as very good at what they did, not plunderers, but responsible corporate citizens."

Tell it to Ronald Reagan's budget director- David Stockman... He's the one that wrote the article- and says old Mitt is a false idol....
He knows a lot more about business than I or probably you will ever wish to...
 

S.S.A.P.

Well-known member
Oldtimer said:
TexasBred said:
Oldtimer said:
That is the modus operandi of the leveraged-buyout business, and in an honest free-market economy, there wouldn’t be much scope for it because it creates little of economic value. But we have a rigged system—a regime of crony capitalism—where the tax code heavily favors debt and capital gains, and the central bank purposefully enables rampant speculation by propping up the price of financial assets and battering down the cost of leveraged finance. So the vast outpouring of LBOs in recent decades has been the consequence of bad policy, not the product of capitalist enterprise.[/b]


And as Stockman infers- being born with a silver spoon in your mouth with a wealthy well known politician Daddy works wonders in the crony system when trying to raise capital for speculating (gambling) ...


OT please tell me this created little of economic value: 1. Romney helped Staples get its start
Before Staples opened its first office-supply store, the company's founder, Thomas G. Stemberg, went to Bain for help, says Ronald Kessler at Newsmax. Stemberg told Romney that companies were spending more on office supplies than they thought. Romney had his associates do a survey of office managers, then checked the figures against invoices, and found that Stemberg was right. "Romney agreed to put $600,000 of Bain Capital money into the new venture," and within a few years, he had made back eight times his money while contributing to the launch of a successful national company.

2. Bain played a role in Sports Authority's success
Romney and Co. were "among a handful of venture-capital firms that helped found the Sports Authority" by forking over much-needed cash in exchange for a minority stake, says The Washington Post. At the time, Sports Authority had fewer than 10 stores, and was hungry for money to fuel its expansion. By the time Romney left Bain, Sports Authority had exploded, and employed nearly 14,000 people across the country.
3. Bain backed a startup that became a steel giant
Romney's critics have focused on Bain's investment in a now-defunct steel firm, GS Technologies, as "the worst kind of private-equity investment," says Patrick Brennan at National Review. But Bain's "more successful involvement" in another steel company, Steel Dynamics, has gone largely overlooked. The steel industry was "hardly a hot startup market" in 1994, but Bain saw potential in the company's "mini-mill" as a way to lower costs. Bain invested $18 million, giving others confidence to invest and helping the company reach the $80 million in seed money it needed to get going. Bain sold its stake in 1999 for $104 million, and Steel Dynamics (SDI) has since grown to become the fifth-largest U.S. producer of carbon-steel products.4. Bain itself is a success
Romney should be eager to talk about Bain, says Ford O'Connell at U.S. News & World Report, and not just because of the firm's 80 percent success rate in driving up revenue at the companies it acquires. Romney should be most proud of "his own success in building Bain Capital from scratch into a successful organization with a great reputation that met a significant payroll and provided a service on which the economy absolutely depends." Over 28 years, the firm has boosted income at the companies it backed by $105 billion, creating thousands upon thousands of jobs. To attack Bain, you have to attack all of private equity, says Chris Stirewalt at Fox News. "Romney and Bain were widely seen as very good at what they did, not plunderers, but responsible corporate citizens."

Tell it to Ronald Reagan's budget director- David Stockman... He's the one that wrote the article- and says old Mitt is a false idol....
He knows a lot more about business than I or probably you will ever wish to...

Oldtimer is this the David Stockman of whom you speak:

Business career

Having left government, Stockman joined the Wall St. investment bank Salomon Brothers and later became a partner of the now very successful New York–based private equity company, the Blackstone Group.[11] His record was mixed at Blackstone, with some very good investments, such as American Axle, but also several large failures, including Haynes International and Republic Technologies.[12] During 1999, after Blackstone CEO Stephen A. Schwarzman curtailed Stockman's role in managing the investments he had developed,[13] Stockman resigned Blackstone to start his own private equity fund company, Heartland Industrial Partners, L.P., based in Greenwich, Connecticut.[14]

On the strength of his investment record at Blackstone, Stockman and his partners raised $1.3 billion of equity from institutional and other investors. With Stockman's guidance, Heartland used a contrarian investment strategy, buying controlling interests in companies operating in sectors of the U.S. economy that were attracting the least amount of new equity: auto parts and textiles. With the help of about $9 billion in Wall Street debt financing, Heartland completed more than 20 transactions in less than 2 years to create four portfolio companies: Springs Industries, Metaldyne, Collins & Aikman, and TriMas. Several major investments performed very poorly, however. Collins & Aikman filed for bankruptcy during 2005 and when Heartland sold Metaldyne to Asahi Tec Corp. during 2006, Heartland lost most of the $340 million-plus of equity it had invested in the business.[15]

Collins & Aikman Corp.

During August 2003, Stockman installed himself as CEO of Collins & Aikman Corporation, a Detroit-based manufacturer of automotive interior components. He was ousted from that job days before a Chapter 11 filing on May 17, 2005.

Criminal and civil charges

On March 26, 2007, federal prosecutors in Manhattan indicted Stockman in "a scheme ... to defraud [Collins & Aikman]'s investors, banks and creditors by manipulating C&A's reported revenues and earnings." At the same time, the Securities and Exchange Commission brought civil charges against Stockman related to actions he performed while CEO of Collins & Aikman.[16] Stockman suffered a personal financial loss, estimated at $13 million, along with losses suffered by as many as 15,000 Collins & Aikman employees worldwide. Stockman said in a statement posted on his law company's website that the company's end was the consequence of an industry decline, not fraud.[17] On January 9, 2009, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced that it did not intend to prosecute Stockman for this case.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Stockman
 

TexasBred

Well-known member
Oldtimer said:
Tell it to Ronald Reagan's budget director- David Stockman... He's the one that wrote the article- and says old Mitt is a false idol....
He knows a lot more about business than I or probably you will ever wish to...

But apparently he knows considerably less about business than Mitt Romney yet the liberals have come to love him as their republican ally because of his attacks on Romney and Ryan and Stockman is all too willing to go along as long as it might get him back into the spotlight after having been once disgraced via indictment.



As economist Justin Wolfers tweeted Tuesday morning, "I don't get liberals getting excited about David Stockman's anti-Ryan tirade in the NYT. His complaint is that Ryan isn't right wing enough." For Democrats, the enemy of their enemy is just that -- he's still not their friend.
 

Whitewing

Well-known member
Talking about false idols, Obama was a community organizer.

If the situation weren't so critical, I'd laugh at your dribble.
 

CottageFarm

Well-known member
Business career

Having left government, Stockman joined the Wall St. investment bank Salomon Brothers and later became a partner of the now very successful New York–based private equity company, the Blackstone Group.[11] His record was mixed at Blackstone, with some very good investments, such as American Axle, but also several large failures, including Haynes International and Republic Technologies.[12] During 1999, after Blackstone CEO Stephen A. Schwarzman curtailed Stockman's role in managing the investments he had developed,[13] Stockman resigned Blackstone to start his own private equity fund company, Heartland Industrial Partners, L.P., based in Greenwich, Connecticut.[14]

On the strength of his investment record at Blackstone, Stockman and his partners raised $1.3 billion of equity from institutional and other investors. With Stockman's guidance, Heartland used a contrarian investment strategy, buying controlling interests in companies operating in sectors of the U.S. economy that were attracting the least amount of new equity: auto parts and textiles. With the help of about $9 billion in Wall Street debt financing, Heartland completed more than 20 transactions in less than 2 years to create four portfolio companies: Springs Industries, Metaldyne, Collins & Aikman, and TriMas. Several major investments performed very poorly, however. Collins & Aikman filed for bankruptcy during 2005 and when Heartland sold Metaldyne to Asahi Tec Corp. during 2006, Heartland lost most of the $340 million-plus of equity it had invested in the business.[15]

Collins & Aikman Corp.

During August 2003, Stockman installed himself as CEO of Collins & Aikman Corporation, a Detroit-based manufacturer of automotive interior components. He was ousted from that job days before a Chapter 11 filing on May 17, 2005.

Criminal and civil charges

On March 26, 2007, federal prosecutors in Manhattan indicted Stockman in "a scheme ... to defraud [Collins & Aikman]'s investors, banks and creditors by manipulating C&A's reported revenues and earnings." At the same time, the Securities and Exchange Commission brought civil charges against Stockman related to actions he performed while CEO of Collins & Aikman.[16] Stockman suffered a personal financial loss, estimated at $13 million, along with losses suffered by as many as 15,000 Collins & Aikman employees worldwide. Stockman said in a statement posted on his law company's website that the company's end was the consequence of an industry decline, not fraud.[17] On January 9, 2009, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced that it did not intend to prosecute Stockman for this case.


So apparently Stockman, upon returning to private industry, went on to do, largely unsuccessfully, exactly the same thing that Romney did, largly successfully, which he now claims to not really have anything to do with being a "businessman". And we should take that to mean that he (Stockman) knows something about business and what really constitutes being a "businessman"???
That makes perfect sense :roll:
 

TexasBred

Well-known member
OT is what Obama and the government did with GM and Chrysler any different than what Romney and Partners at Bain Capital did with the companies they invested in?? Other than most of Bains became highly successful and they used their own money; and GM is teetering once again on bankruptcy in spit of BHO's intervention. Wouldn't a regular Chapter 11 (Reorganization) bankruptcy have accomplished the goal more simply and actually with more real money and incentive backing them as well as their suppliers??
 

Mike

Well-known member
The consulting part of Bain never speculated on anything.

People simply hired them to turn their company around. That's it.

Corporate Renewal

Bain's corporate renewal group provides expertise for boards and equity sponsors of underperforming, capital constrained companies. We focus on turnarounds that preserve shareholder equity. Our experts are uniquely skilled in financial restructuring and strategic, operational and organizational transformations.
 

okfarmer

Well-known member
ranch hand said:
Obama is a speculator with taxpayer money. How many green companies did he speculate on? He can't even do that job right!

I don't think it was as much speculation as it was money transfering. That makes it even worse.
 
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