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As posted in another thread:

A lot of those defending Romney’s time at Bain Capital seem to be missing what should be the real point of this. That point being—if Romney’s going to run on his vaunted “private sector experience”, then it’s worth scrutinizing exactly what kind of “private sector experience” it really was, and whether that kind of experience is really conducive to the sort of entrepreneurial, free-market knowhow which it’ll really take to get the economy rolling again.

I’d argue that Romney knows more about vulture corporatism, than he does about real, free-market entrepreneurialism. And that it is absolutely not mere Leftist, Michael Moore-style rhetoric to attack Romney on this.

And just because what Romney was doing looks like capitalism on the surface, doesn’t mean it was. His whole firm could very well been based around the kind of crony capitalism any defender of real, free-market capitalism should rightfully despise.

And just because what Romney was doing looks like capitalism on the surface, doesn’t mean it was

Try doing all the nonsense that went on in the 80's 90's and 2000's without Greenspan's credit bubble explosion which was all about crony capitalism for bankers. Try asset stripping using your own and your clients money rather than credit sloshing around the system looking for a quick hit and takedown.

No. What Romney was doing was not capitalism - investment in the means of production to increase productivity. He and his vulture friends just want to call it that.

” And just because what Romney was doing looks like capitalism on the surface,doesn’t mean it was. His whole firm could very well been based around the kind of crony capitalism any defender of real,free-market capitalism should rightfully despise.”

Well if there is anything there regarding crony capitalism, political favors, kickbacks, or graft, bring it out, but that is not what I am seeing. Your statement is mere speculation. If something is there, it is a story, but I havent seen anything. What is there are flip flops and a very liberal politicql record. As far as I can see, his private sector experience is solid.

I think the premise is off. What is ‘vulture capital’? Is it any more definable than greed? Companies in trouble do not get the terms they wish they would get. As a person who’s been in Venture funded businesses I know that the terms that you want, the valuation that you want, ... are not what you get. You get the terms and $$ that the market is willing to provide to you based on your company’s profile and the general market.

If anyone here can define vulture capital or where ‘asset stropping’ crosses the line, we should compare what Bain did to that definition. I suspect that will be far more difficult than throwing around terms and slurs.

Here, here. There’s no creation - of anything except dollars - when you buy a company to take it apart, fire all the workers, ship the jobs overseas, and then use the money in the pension funds to play the market. This is more than vulture capitalism. It is more like a Mayan sacrifice capitalism: pull the still-beating heart out of the victim and then eat it.

Now he wants to use all the money he made pulling American businesses apart to buy his way into the Presidency, with a 527 headed by his personal lawyer pouring tens of millions into attack ads against other Republicans. What does Romney *want* the Presidency for, anyway? It can’t be because he is so committed to particular beliefs and values - because we KNOW that he’ll change his positions to suit whatever the polls are. Perhaps he’s planning to do for the US what he did for other companies what Bain Capital did - take the bits that are left apart and sell them off. Interested in buying the Grand Canyon? How about corporate sponsorship for the Washington Monument? Certainly he’s not going to be “putting America back to work” - because his work experience consists of using his inherited money to buy companies that he then tore to pieces.

American “capitalism” eviscerated manufacturing in this country. Now we are at the mercy of the Chinese, who make almost everything that is offered for sale at WalMart. They collect our debt while they work on hacking into all of our most secure computer systems, from finance to aerospace to military. We probably won’t even get an opportunity to fight once the war starts - all they have to do is yank the plug on our computers.

Man, rant over. But this Romney guy just chafes my tender parts.

"A lot of those defending Romney’s time at Bain Capital seem to be missing what should be the real point of this. That point being—if Romney’s going to run on his vaunted “private sector experience”, then it’s worth scrutinizing exactly what kind of “private sector experience” it really was, and whether that kind of experience is really conducive to the sort of entrepreneurial, free-market knowhow which it’ll really take to get the economy rolling again.

I’d argue that Romney knows more about vulture corporatism, than he does about real, free-market entrepreneurialism. And that it is absolutely not mere Leftist, Michael Moore-style rhetoric to attack Romney on this.

And just because what Romney was doing looks like capitalism on the surface, doesn’t mean it was. His whole firm could very well been based around the kind of crony capitalism any defender of real, free-market capitalism should rightfully despise. "

Bump that.