Mitt Romney’s "power alley" — the economy and his business background.”

Glen Johnson article yesterday noted a “rare moment” for Mitt. Johnson is the journalist who, during Romney’s last presidential race, won broad applause when he challenged Romney.

Romney Caught in Lie by Glen Johnson


Johnson in his article wrote:

“Republican Mitt Romney, in a rare moment of reflection about his losing 2008 presidential campaign, said Wednesday he would have been better served by keeping the focus on his "power alley" — the economy and his business background.”

After giving serious reflection to Romney’s “power alley”, it was not difficult to conjure up Mitt’s business background, but it was a stretch to see where Romney has an economic background – but then maybe it is only me who is unaware of Mitt’s vast expertise in economics and the economy.

Reflecting on Romney’s business background -

Romney did well at Bain, amassing a fortune for himself and his Bain partners. Mitt Romney typically, purchased companies thorough leveraged buyouts, often at the peril of other people’s jobs and companies. Mitt would sell off companies, pocketing a large profit, or shut companies’ doors after mortgaging the business to the hilt.

On the human side, not to make Mitt Romney out as a complete Scrooge, Romney’s business experience threw Mitt into suffering internal conflict, putting Romney in the throws of moral dilemmas. Jonathan Darman and Lisa Miller in their article for Newsweek relate one of Romney's conflicts.

“Romney struggled internally. R-rated movies are frowned upon in the Mormon faith, but the deal looked good for Bain. Romney's solution: make the deal happen, but skip his usual practice of putting some of his own money into it as well.”

Alas! Mitt found a loophole around the issue of moral conscience and the greed making a dollar. Romney’s perspective, by not “putting his own money in” he made money for Bain, not for himself. But wait! Romney would have made money. Romney certainly drew a salary at both Bain and Bain Capital, or did Mitt through the wizardry of accounting; deduct the tainted profits from his pay-check?

According to David D. Kirkpatrick 2006 article: “Mitt Romney owes his nearly $350 million fortune and his political career to a delicate negotiation with his boss (at Bain) in the summer of 1983.”

As for Mitt Romney’s internal struggles, Romney had voted as a board member of Marriott Corp., to offer porn in the hotel chain. Marriott is Mormon and an early fore-runner in introducing porn into the hotel industry.

Mitt the business private equity man -

“The amounts of money are so vast that it is truly a matter of time before the taxation of private equity is front and center of the public agenda,” said James E. Post, a Boston University professor who teaches business-government relations. “Increasingly, this world of private equity looks like a world of robber barons, and Romney comes out of that world.”

Romney’s type of business background was causing some issues in Washington:

“In Washington, Congress is considering ending a legal quirk that lets fund managers escape much of the income tax on their earnings.”

Searching for Romney’s economic background came up with few examples, except for excessive campaign spending. Whitman, a former Bain partner, is not to be undone by Romney on pouring in dollars into her campaign in California. Meg and Romney must feel unbridled spending during campaigns strengthens the nations economy.

Romney believes in keeping money among friends and family. Romney’s former Bain buddy, Meg Whitman has received strong criticism for her over the top spending, during her Romney backed, run for Governor in California. Whitman is spending a reported, $358,439.00 a day, $14,935.00 an hour, $249.00 a minute as reported by Michael Rothfeld and Jack Dolan of the L.A. Times.

According to Dan Morain of the Sacramento Bee, Meg is enjoying –

“ACM Aviation, which boasts on its Web site that it "has been offering white-glove, on-demand, premium jet charter services for more then 28 years”, spending $371,125.00 for air travel."

Meg has also:

“… paid $96,000 last year to Solamere Capital, a Massachusetts-based firm who’s Web site says it "was founded to serve as a multifamily office focusing on superior private equity opportunities."

“Solamere's principals include Romney's son Tagg Romney and Spencer J. Zwick, who was prominent in Mitt Romney's presidential campaign. Zwick is her finance chair; she has paid his firm, SJZ Inc., $842,000.”

What the article failed to mention, Meg’s son Griff's listed in his LinkenIn profile the private equity firm of Solamere. Clink on the reference link ‘gawker.com below, for a read on Meg’s sons. It is not understood what Solamere has done for the Whitman campaign.

The only economic experience Romney appears to have is improving his families and former Bain partners’ lavish life-style, and an attempt at political control.

References:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hvWSdl8-sh9izAmBN1Z8vtDUQGfgD9ELCL1O0
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/04/us/politics/04bain.html
http://www.sacbee.com/2010/03/24/2629104/meg-whitman-flies-far-above-the.html#ixzz0j5nx9GNV
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-money24-2010mar24,0,7372116.story
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/04/us/politics/04bain.html
http://gawker.com/5429465/it-gets-worse-meg-whitmans-sons-racism-and-entitlement-

Romney’s views on Unions and Executive Greed- Other Executives Not Himself, Of Course

Romney tries to walk a middle path regarding his views on labor unions in his book, Romney writes the following:

“Not all unions adopt counterproductive attitudes. … [I]n some cases, unions are a necessary check on excessively demanding, insensitive, or thoughtless employers.”

Romney particularly has stated in the past, he likes the Carpenter Union, which advances its workers skills, making them more productive. In today’s economy with the devastation of Wall Street greed and the greed of banks, the carpenters who honed their skills, have no work. Executive greed.

Mitt goes on to say on page 254 of "No Apology":

“Poor corporate management and excessive CEO compensation are capable of causing the kind of worker resentment that undermines hard, smart, effective work. While governor, I met with union workers at a plant in western Massachusetts that manufactured socket sets. These workers had been informed by their management that they had to agree to a pay cut or the facility would be closed. The union leaders understood that it was in their best interests to agree to the cuts rather than risk unemployment in a weak job market. But the fact that the company’s CEO had received a reported $20 million bonus the prior year outraged these workers as it would have me had I been in their shoes. It was all they could talk about. The rank and file simply wouldn’t surrender a large share of their wages when the CEO had been so selfish.”

Out raged workers? Selfish wages? Is this a bit of Romney projection? Rolling Stone ran an article a few years back, during Romney revving up for his last presidential run the following story:

“Despite this success, however, Romney moved Bain away from boom-bust venture-capital investments and into the darker world of leveraged buyouts, where the firm borrowed money to make deals. A typical example of Bain's approach was its experience with another office-supply company called Ampad, which it acquired in 1992. In 1993, the company had $11 million in debt; by 1999, that number had grown to nearly $400 million, and the firm eventually declared bankruptcy. But despite Ampad's failure, Bain made a fortune, raking in more than $100 million while driving the company into the ground and destroying hundreds of jobs in places like New York (where 185 people were thrown out of work in a plant closing near Buffalo) and Indiana (where the firm fired 200 workers from a paper factory).”

Executive Greed?

“Even more telling was Romney's interest in a medical-testing firm called Damon Corp., which Bain bought in 1989. The company was eventually fined a record $119 million for defrauding the federal government out of $25 million, but Bain still tripled its investment on the Damon deal. And Romney, who was sitting on the Damon board at the time of the fraud (his claim that he was the one who called for an internal investigation has never been substantiated), made a personal profit of $473,000 on the deal.”

What about all those statements made regarding Romney being an ethical man? Wonder if some of the $25 million went into the Romney off-shore accounts.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/16983679/mitt_romney_the_huckster/3