Government gifts boost Bain, buyout firms

USA Today
May 29, 2012

In the binary world of politics, President Obama’s new ad attacking Mitt Romney’s record at Bain Capital is one of two things: a spot-on depiction of how the greedy enrich themselves by ruining people’s lives, or a shameless indictment of free enterprise that confirms Obama’s socialist leanings.

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Forgive us for being unimpressed with the furor over the ad. It would be far better to have an honest debate about the many benefits that private equity firms such as Bain get from government, and whether those benefits are justified.

At their best, private equity firms perform a valuable service. They make the companies they buy more efficient, sometimes just by bringing in better management, but often by making tough but necessary job cuts. Bain — which Romney founded in 1984 and ran for 15 years — can point to a number of successes, including Domino’s Pizza and mattress-maker Sealy.
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But at their worst, private equity firms buy companies with borrowed funds, suck money out and leave them for dead.

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This article was posted: Tuesday, May 29, 2012 at 8:21 am

Tags: domestic news, financial, government corruption

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