Let me guess. Teachers, Firemen, Policemen... alll the people that can't get better jobs, and exist "to serve."
-John
-John
If he is vague, then Obama is a failure, because Obama promised us better today, than we are.
I wouldn't really worry about vague. They all lie.
I would worry about proven examples of success, and failure.
As far as I know, Obama is a failure.
Romney was a success in Massachusetts... it is his turn.
-John
If he is vague, then Obama is a failure, because Obama promised us better today, than we are.
I wouldn't really worry about vague. They all lie.
I would worry about proven examples of success, and failure.
As far as I know, Obama is a failure.
Romney was a success in Massachusetts... it is his turn.
-John
Private equity
For more details on this topic, see Bain Capital.
In 1984, Romney left Bain & Company to co-found the spin-off private equity investment firm, Bain Capital.[67] He had initially refrained from accepting Bill Bain's offer to head the new venture, until Bain rearranged the terms in a complicated partnership structure so that there was no financial or professional risk to Romney.[54][63][68] Bain and Romney raised the $37 million in funds needed to start the new operation, which had seven employees.[57][69] Romney initially held the titles of president[70] and managing general partner[71][72] or managing partner.[73] The sole shareholder of the firm, publications also referred to him as managing director or CEO.[74][75][76]
Initially, Bain Capital focused on venture capital investments. Romney set up a system in which any partner could veto one of these potential opportunities, and he personally saw so many weaknesses that few venture capital investments were approved in the initial two years.[54] The firm's first significant success was a 1986 investment to help start Staples Inc., after founder Thomas G. Stemberg convinced Romney of the market size for office supplies and Romney convinced others; Bain Capital eventually reaped a nearly sevenfold return on its investment, and Romney sat on the Staples board of directors for over a decade.[54][69][77]
Logo of Bain Capital, the private equity firm Romney co-founded in 1984
Romney soon switched Bain Capital's focus from startups to the relatively new business of leveraged buyouts: buying existing companies with money mostly borrowed from banking institutions using the newly bought companies' assets as collateral, then taking steps to improve the companies' value, and finally selling those companies once their value is maximized, usually within a few years.[54][63] Bain Capital lost money in many of its early leveraged buyouts, but then found deals that made large returns.[54] The firm invested in or acquired Accuride, Brookstone, Domino's Pizza, Sealy Corporation, Sports Authority, and Artisan Entertainment, as well as some lesser-known companies in the industrial and medical sectors.[54][63][78] Much of the firm's profit was earned from a relatively small number of deals; Bain Capital's overall successtofailure ratio was about even.[nb 8]
Romney discovered few investment opportunities himself (and those that he did, often failed to make money for the firm).[80] Instead, he focused on analyzing the merits of possible deals that others brought forward and on recruiting investors to participate in them once approved.[80] Within Bain Capital, Romney spread profits from deals widely within the firm to keep people motivated, often keeping less than ten percent for himself.[81] Data-driven, Romney often played the role of a devil's advocate during exhaustive analysis of whether to go forward with a deal.[54][77] He wanted to drop a Bain Capital hedge fund that initially lost money, but other partners disagreed with him and it eventually gained billions.[54] He opted out of the Artisan Entertainment deal, not wanting to profit from a studio that produced R-rated films.[54] Romney served on the board of directors of Damon Corporation, a medical testing company later found guilty of defrauding the government; Bain Capital tripled its investment before selling off the company, and the fraud was discovered by the new owners (Romney was never implicated).[54] In some cases, Romney had little involvement with a company once acquired.[69]
Bain Capital's leveraged buyouts sometimes led to layoffs, either soon after acquisition or later after the firm had concluded its role.[60][68][69] Exactly how many jobs Bain Capital added compared to those lost due to these investments and buyouts is unknown due to a lack of records and Bain Capital's penchant for privacy on behalf of itself and its investors.[82][83][84] Maximizing the value of acquired companies and the return to Bain's investors, not job creation, was the firm's fundamental goal.[69][85] Bain Capital's acquisition of Ampad exemplified a deal where it profited handsomely from early payments and management fees, even though the subject company itself ended up going into bankruptcy.[54][77][85] Dade Behring was another case where Bain Capital received an eightfold return on its investment, but the company itself was saddled with debt and laid off over a thousand employees before Bain Capital exited (the company subsequently went into bankruptcy, with more layoffs, before recovering and prospering).[82]
In 1990, facing financial collapse, Bain & Company asked Romney to return.[67] Announced as its new CEO in January 1991,[71][72] he drew a symbolic salary of one dollar[67] (remaining managing general partner of Bain Capital during this time).[71][72] He managed an effort to restructure Bain & Company's employee stock-ownership plan, real-estate deals and bank loans, while rallying the firm's one thousand employees, imposing a new governing structure that included Bain and the other founding partners giving up control, and increasing fiscal transparency.[54][57][67] Within about a year, he had led Bain & Company through a turnaround and returned the firm to profitability.[57] He turned Bain & Company over to new leadership and returned to Bain Capital in December 1992.[54][86][87]
Romney took a leave of absence from Bain Capital from November 1993 to November 1994 in order to run for the U.S. Senate.[45][88] During that time, Ampad workers went on strike, and asked Romney to intervene. Against the advice of Bain Capital lawyers, Romney met the strikers, but told them he had no position of active authority in the matter.[89][90]
By 1999, Bain Capital was on its way towards becoming one of the foremost private equity firms in the nation,[68] having increased its number of partners from 5 to 18, with 115 employees overall, and $4 billion under its management.[63][69] The firm's average annual return on investments was 113 percent.[57][91]
Romney took a paid leave of absence from Bain Capital in February 1999 to serve as the President and CEO of the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic Games Organizing Committee.[92][93] Billed in some public statements as keeping a part-time role,[92][94] Romney remained the firm's sole shareholder, managing director, CEO and president, signing corporate and legal documents, attending to his interests within the firm, and conducting prolonged negotiations for the terms of his departure.[92][95] He did not involve himself in day-to-day operations of the firm or investment decisions for Bain Capital's new private equity funds.[92][95] He retained his position on several boards of directors during this time and regularly returned to Massachusetts to attend meetings.[96]
In August 2001, Romney announced that he would not return to Bain Capital.[97] His separation from the firm finalized in early 2002;[92] he transferred his ownership to other partners and negotiated an agreement that allowed him to receive a passive profit share as a retired partner in some Bain Capital entities, including buyout and investment funds.[81][98] The private equity business continued to thrive, earning him millions of dollars in annual income.[81]
Personal wealth
As a result of his business career, by 2007, Romney and his wife had amassed a net worth of between $190 and $250 million; their net worth remained in the same range as of 2011.[98][99] Most of it has been held in blind trusts since 2003.[98][99] An additional blind trust, valued at $100 million in 2012, exists in the name of the Romneys' children.[100] The trust, created in 1995, allows the Romneys to transfer money to heirs outside their estate, taking advantage of sophisticated tax planning techniques used by high-net-worth families in an effort to defer or reduce their tax burden.[101] Romney has an SEP-IRA worth between $21 million and $102 million.[102] A portion of Romney's financial assets are held in offshore accounts and investments.[103][104]
In 2010, Romney and his wife received $21.7 million in income, almost all of it from investments such as such as dividends, capital gains, and carried interest.[105] For 2010, the Romneys paid about $3 million in federal income taxes, for an effective tax rate of 13.9 percent.[105] For the years 19902009, his effective rates were at least 13.7 percent with an average effective rate of 20.2 percent.[106]
Romney has regularly tithed to the LDS Church, including stock from Bain Capital holdings.[10][107][108] In 2010, he and his wife gave $3 million to charity, including $1.5 million to the church.[105] The Romney family's Tyler Charitable Foundation gave out about $650,000 in that year, with some of it going to organizations that fight diseases such as cystic fibrosis and multiple sclerosis.[109] In addition, the Romneys have often donated to LDS Church-owned BYU.[11] For the years 19902009, the Romneys' total charitable donations as portions of their income averaged 13.5 percent.[106]
He said he was going to put Americans to work, building a transonctinental Oil pipeline.
So corporate welfare for a sector of the economy that's seeing record profits?
We have done that throughout the history of human civilization. The strong have always helped the weak. There have always been taxes and they have been used to feed the less fortunate in all but the most disgusting civilizations. The fact that you can't grasp this simple concept and actually rail against this system shows just how little thought you have put into it.Rather than defaulting to the Democrats, let's add "If you believe that government taking money from one person and giving it to another person produces prosperity, then the Democrats are your party." Then one can either seek out a third party that better fits one (or ill fits one the least) or take a deeper look to see which party (of all available) is the lesser evil.
...
Asking who won the presidential debate is akin to asking who won a professional wrestling match. It doesn't really matter who won, it's all fixed to produce a certain result, and that result is maximized profits and increased power for the owners and promoters backstage. Obama might as well be Hulk Hogan and Mitt Romney Andre the Giant. They are performers. Politics in America is theater. It's a show. You can support Hulk Hogan or Andre the Giant all you want, but it's not going to have any effect on the final outcome, because the competition is illusory.
The interesting thing is, you can explain to an American voter the fact that professional wrestling isn't real. That the angry, violent wrestlers up in the center of the wrestling ring are best buddies backstage and aren't really hurting each other with their choreographed moves. You can explain that the whole thing is just a fraud to make money and they'll say, "I know that!". But if you try to explain to an American voter that the two presidential candidates are also putting on a show, that they represent the same moneyed interests, that the outcome of their competition is rigged and will produce the same net result they say, "No way, it's real, I know it is, the two parties represent a meaningful difference, if I support one candidate over the other he'll win and we'll get real change!".
It's such a sad, sad state of affairs in this country when the overwhelming majority of the population can't decipher reality from make-believe.
Don't know if this has been posted or not. But Romney CHEATED in the debate!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQZ5_qdHLV8
Not down on the rules here... is using a note card that that vids seems to show against the rules?
Don't know if this has been posted or not. But Romney CHEATED in the debate!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQZ5_qdHLV8
Even as the Obama campaign desperately attempts to portray Romney’s debate performance as that of bully, the talk surrounding the Republican nominee has seen a sharp increase in positivity.
The President, by contrast, looks to be still mired in negative talk, and has been unable to achieve any sort of bounce following the debate.
Good article showing just how damaging the debate was to Obama. A whole shit load of minds were made up that night, and almost none of them for obama.
http://legalinsurrection.com/2012/1...just-how-damaging-first-debate-was-for-obama/
You're insane to compare the complete demolition of Obama to that debate.
The desperation is historical from the left. Romney is mean! He's a bully! He was better prepared. It's not fair! He cheated. It was the altitude.
The reaction is hurting him even more in the eye of Americans.
Good article showing just how damaging the debate was to Obama. A whole shit load of minds were made up that night, and almost none of them for obama.
http://legalinsurrection.com/2012/1...just-how-damaging-first-debate-was-for-obama/
You're insane to compare the complete demolition of Obama to that debate.
The desperation is historical from the left. Romney is mean! He's a bully! He was better prepared. It's not fair! He cheated. It was the altitude.
The reaction is hurting him even more in the eye of Americans.
Have you considered the idea that you might not be the most objective observer when it comes to things like or be very good at judging what the American people think? Just the fact that you absolutely HATED Obama well before this debate while he was ahead in the polls tells me that maybe you're better off just trying to speak for yourself...
You're insane to compare the complete demolition of Obama to that debate.
Don't know if this has been posted or not. But Romney CHEATED in the debate!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQZ5_qdHLV8
Well, at least we're avoiding the trappings of exaggeration and hyperbole..
^_^