Sorry, Washington Post, Romney didn’t get rich moving U.S. jobs overseas

AEI ^ | June 22,2012 | James Pethokoukis

[Hojczyk]

In what is meant to be a bombshell political story, the Washington Post is attempting to paint Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney as a private equity boss who got rich by shipping American jobs overseas.

But the WaPo seems more than a little fuzzy about the basics of how international business works — and the difference between outsourcing and offshoring.

Or maybe this was a story just too politically juicy to properly check.

But whatever the reason, WaPo World’s version of Romney’s business career at Bain Capital may not correspond with reality, via a source familiar with Bain’s activities as well as a detailed analysis of the piece.

Romney Reality: What CSI actually did was provide U.S. software developers with technical support and sales. Example: It provided domestic outsourcing — which is different than overseas offshoring — for call centers and help desks. As far as its international business goes, CSI was reseller of U.S. software in European markets. In other words, they helped distribute U.S. software around the world.

Romney Reality: Those overseas call centers in the WaPo story were based in Europe and Japan, and serviced international customers of U.S. companies in their local languages.

Some more accurate options:

– “Romney’s Bain Capital invested in companies that expanded overseas jobs overseas after he left”

– ”Romney’s Bain Capital invested in companies that had international employees before it bought them”

– “Romney’s Bain Capital invested in companies that created foreign call centers to deal with foreign customers”

And it’s also just bad economics to suggest offshoring is necessarily a job killer. As this study suggests, “Increased globalisation of manufacturing processes does not necessarily imply a hollowing-out of domestic production … Firms that go abroad expand employment at home relative to non-globalizers.”

Bad reporting, it would seem, and bad economics, absolutely, from The Washington Post.

[pallis]

It’s not like this line of idiocy hasn’t been thoroughly covered by the desperately seeking Ron Paul nuts. I guess the White House has gotten out the old memos from the teleprompter, and passed them around the media again.

[entropy12]

These Romney critics would not recognize Corporations-101 if it hit them in the noggin. They have never worked in a business which survives by making a profit, much less owned or run a business.

[bossmechanic]

Didn’t Jeff Emmelt - Obumo’s job creation buddy - move All of GE’s medical imaging R, D, and production to China? The same GE that got sufficient “green” credits that it paid NO federal taxes last year? Seems to me the GE story is more damning but maybe that’s just me.

[GeronL]

Moving jobs overseas?

Try having the highest corporate tax rates on Earth.

[trebb]

These Romney critics would not recognize Corporations-101 if it hit them in the noggin. They have never worked in a business which survives by making a profit, much less owned or run a business.

Yep - yet they do persist with their lunacy and single-minded hatred. They're more dishonest than they claim him to be.

[a fool in paradise]

Is the Washington Poo still counting America’s war dead, or did that stop when Boosh left office?