TAIBBI Finishes Mitt Off: Greed and Debt: The True Story of Mitt Romney and Bain Capital

[kpete]

Greed and Debt: The True Story of Mitt Romney and Bain Capital
How the GOP presidential candidate and his private equity firm staged an epic wealth grab, destroyed jobs – and stuck others with the bill

Four years ago, the Mitt Romneys of the world nearly destroyed the global economy with their greed, shortsightedness and – most notably – wildly irresponsible use of debt in pursuit of personal profit. The sight was so disgusting that people everywhere were ready to drop an H-bomb on Lower Manhattan and bayonet the survivors. But today that same insane greed ethos, that same belief in the lunatic pursuit of instant borrowed millions – it's dusted itself off, it's had a shave and a shoeshine, and it's back out there running for president.

.........................


"But what most voters don't know is the way Mitt Romney actually made his fortune: by borrowing vast sums of money that other people were forced to pay back. This is the plain, stark reality that has somehow eluded America's top political journalists for two consecutive presidential campaigns: Mitt Romney is one of the greatest and most irresponsible debt creators of all time. In the past few decades, in fact, Romney has piled more debt onto more unsuspecting companies, written more gigantic checks that other people have to cover, than perhaps all but a handful of people on planet Earth."

"By making debt the centerpiece of his campaign, Romney was making a calculated bluff of historic dimensions - placing a massive all-in bet on the rank incompetence of the American press corps. The result has been a brilliant comedy: A man makes a $250 million fortune loading up companies with debt and then extracting million-dollar fees from those same companies, in exchange for the generous service of telling them who needs to be fired in order to finance the debt payments he saddled them with in the first place..."

"If Romney pulls off this whopper, you'll have to tip your hat to him: No one in history has ever successfully run for president riding this big of a lie. It's almost enough to make you think he really is qualified for the White House."




Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/greed-and-debt-the-true-story-of-mitt-romney-and-bain-capital-20120829#ixzz24wOZQSKf

[enough]

1. Great article by Taibbi, a MUST read. (nt)

[xtraxritical]

17. Unfortunately, very few independents read Rolling Stone.

Rolling Stone has always been a read for liberals and progressives so it's pretty much five pages of preaching to the choir.

[sufrommich]

25. Have they shared their demographics?

Rolling Stone is an entertainment magazine,I would guess their demographic are more aligned with that.

[xtraxritical]

33. Well I sure hope you're right, I wish the NYTs would print this.

[progressoid]

44. Plus, it's too long and full of details and facts and stuff.

They need stories that are 4-5 simple paragraphs long.

With pictures.

And a graph that shows how this affected Kim Kardashian and the price of a McRib.

[ErikJ]

47. GOOD COVER!!

[ThomThom]

53. now this is true justice

[tclambert]

50. Facts? We ain't go no facts. We don't need no steenkin' facts!

One of Romney's campaign advisers said that, or something just like it. It was the theme of Paul Ryan's speech.

[spanone]

2. k&r...

[BumRushDaShow]

3. My thought too...

How this man managed to fly under the radar for 30 years?

They got Milken, Abramoff, and others including the likes of Madoff.... but this one was able to slither in and out of the cracks for even longer and remain hidden for far too long - perhaps under the cloak of his religion. He has now been flushed out and cornered (even after surviving the downturns that exposed the others), yet there he stands, arrogantly defiant.

[riderinthestorm]

8. I believe Mitt stays within the very thinnest edge of the legal boundaries.

That's why he's not in jail (yet?)

He's quite masterful at staying within the lines but ruthlessly exploiting every loophole his privileged class can buy from Congress....

[Where was George]

22. This is what makes Mitt the perfect candidate for the Koch's and GOP in general

Bad as he is John McCain isn't exactly a robber baron himself. Sure he did the bidding of the rat bastards but he himself isn't specifically known as an outsourcing, empire building, capitalist predator.

Well maybe McCain's ultra rich wife Cindy comes closer to that business model but still doesn't rival Romney in terms of pure devotion to impoverishing the great masses. She is more of a typical trust funder: doesn't care to go out of her way to make ever more HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS.

Romney on the other hand is an exact spitting image of the sick, twisted, lying, ruthless capitalist slave owner.

Which is why every Republican should feel proud of him. He's their boy fer sure..

[jtuck004]

46. Private Equity sounds so much more refined than Junk Bond Dealer. So they changed their name,

still a large pile of pain and misery for others. KKR,

Lots of names...still slithering

The Blackstone Group
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.
The Carlyle Group
Texas Pacific Group
Bain Capital
Providence Equity Partners
Apollo Advisors
Warburg Pincus
Cerberus
Thomas H. Lee

Why Private Equity Firms Like Bain Really Are the Worst of Capitalism
Here.

Hundreds of billions in speculative grade debt to be refinanced by 2014, and credit isn't nearly as loose as it was when they took out the loans to buy those companies in the first place, perhaps.

After shedding the broken lives, and bodies, of those they left behind, they employ about 7 million people. At least today.

Buyout of America: How Private Equity Is Destroying Jobs and Killing the American Economy
Josh Kosman
More Here

Just gotta find another greedy person with a company, and on they go...

[patrice]

4. Everyone in the Democratic Party should go find 2 uninformed persons & tell them this. nt

[antigop]

5. thanks,kpete for posting n/t

[hifiguy]

6. Kick and rec for Taibbi. nt

[krispos42]

7. Yeah, he's part of the problem, not the solution

All Republicans are, but he's bigger than most!

[Botany]

13. + 1,000,000

Mitt and his type are part of the problem not the solution.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

9. K&R

[calimary]

10. KICKING!

Probably won't reach the low-information "Oh, wasn't ann WONDERFUL?" voters, but anyone with a brain ought to sit up and take notice. Let's hope, anyway!

[valerief]

11. Not incompetence by the American press corps. Collusion. nt

[freshwest]

41. +1

[cbdo2007]

12. They're the ones making the Debt a core issue of the campaign....we need to drive this nail in deep!

[hifiguy]

14. The best explanation of the looting of the economy

I've yet read. Even by Taibbi's standards, an exceptional piece. A+.

[Botany]

15. A takeover artist all his life, Romney is now trying to take over America itself.

A takeover artist all his life, Romney is now trying to take over America itself. And if his own history is any guide, we'll all end up paying for the acquisition.

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/greed-and-debt-the-true-story-of-mitt-romney-and-bain-capital-20120829#ixzz24wlmoSBz

[truebrit71]

16. Excellent article...well worth the time to read it...

...

[summerschild]

18. This man can only be elected by a nation full of suckers.

[Harry Monroe]

39. Sadly, I quote John "Bluto" Blutarski

"And we're just the guys to do it".

Sadly, this nation is full of suckers.

[Vox Moi]

19. The companion piece about the Bain Bailout is just as damaging, if not more ....

... creditors can either accept big losses or lose it all to Bain executive bonuses.
A stroke of diabolical genius or maybe just the blind instincts a parasite.

[sunyasi]

20. Agreed

The three articles in Rolling Stone essentially gut and fillet Rmoney in public. The shame, as has been noted, is that this was not done in the NYT or WSD. They are too busy blowing Rmoney to do the job they are hired to do - journalism. It is both a shame and a blessing that we have Rolling Stone to get out the dirt on the dirtiest.

[George II]

21. Isn't Bernie Madoff in jail for doing just that?

[Javaman]

23. after reading this article I'm now completely convinced that mittens is a sociopath. nt

[sufrommich]

24. I just finished reading it, if this sociopath wins, we're screwed. nt

[Grammy23]

26. Worth the time to read

This article explains in terms anyone can understand what Mitt did and why he did it. (Naked ambition and greed will allow you to do almost anything to achieve your goals.) The details of exactly how his firm did their dirty work is worth knowing. And the idea that he is a "good family man" and all the other wholesome labels they are attempting to use to paper over this hollow, soulless shell of a man is the ultimate betrayal of the American people.

I really do believe he is not committed to the idea of being President for the good of the American people and making our country better or stronger but rather to achieve some other nefarious goal that the rest of us are not privileged with knowing. All the facts brought out in this article should be widely broadcast and discussed so as many voters as possible can get a glimpse at the Mitt Romney they don't want us to know.

[Brainstormy]

27. Greatest Paul Ryan description EVER

in this Taibi piece.

like [Romney] himself, a self-righteously anal, thin-lipped, Whitest Kids U Know penny pincher who'd be honored to tell Oliver Twist there's no more soup left.


WONDERFUL!

[polichick]

28. Rmoney "has emerged now to sell this make-nothing, take-everything, screw-everyone ethos"

Quote from the first page of Taibbi's article.

Dems should repeat this description - "make-nothing, take-everything, screw everyone ethos" - from now until the election.

Must-read k&r

[Viva_Daddy]

29. This "business model" also helps explain what happened 4 years ago.

"Wealth based on debt"...ie. "derivatives" created a "debt bubble" now estimated to be as much as 600 TRILLION DOLLARS that still looms out there somewhere waiting to bring down the entire world's financial system.

"Debt is essentially slavery" some wise man once said. The Romneys of the world are the ultimate slavers and their intention is to enslave the whole world while getting rich themselves.

[Hydra]

31. Bingo!

And the funny thing- a lot of people refuse to believe it.

"Success" has been enshrined in our culture. The cost is not counted, nor what the success accomplished.

[ellenfl]

30. kick for later. eom

[gopiscrap]

32. Really good article

[K Gardner]

34. K&R - Hope this doesn't get lost in Isaac and the RNC.. needs MAJOR media coverage. n/t

[grantcart]

35. Finally in print what DU has been saying for a year.

[WillyT]

36. HUGE K & R !!!

[hay rick]

37. K&R

[cantbeserious]

38. Taibbi's Peabody - Excellent Expose

eom

[WCGreen]

40. that is exactly what a leverage buyout is all about....

[grantcart]

42. kick

[freshwest]

43. Romney: 'The next president of the USA, Paul Ryan.' WOW, this just hit me.

What if Tricky Mitt does a Tricky Dick and resigns from scandal, which puts Paul Ryan in as POTUS.

Then Ryan can pardon Mitt, who can go on his merry way?

Mitt would be just a place card and has no intentions of doing the job at all?

Nordquist and Koch wanted Ryan for a reason.

Well?

[MissMarple]

45. That sounds a lot like the GW Bush business plan.

[Iwillnevergiveup]

48. I remember thinking Romney

was the least crazy of all the losers during the primaries....but now I think he was always the most dangerous. And to be as dangerous as he is, yes, you have to be really crazy. With greed.

Kudos to Matt. Again.

[Amonester]

49. K & R

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1251&pid=81005

Please send the links to: http://barackobama.force.com/questions

[Iggy]

51. and IMHO, the mormon "church" is nothing

but a cover for a GIGANTIC business empire.

this article which recently appeared in Bloomberg BizWeek is a real eye opener:

http://buswk.co/Mfcsbq

That's correct, they just opened a $2 BILLION dollar mega-mall across from the main
"church" in SLC.

sure, give me ten percent of your income every year, and I'll build a business empire,
too.