Some Actual Facts About Romney's Time at Bain Capital

       Many remember the Bush Administration as the worst in US history in terms of it's lack of transparency. But Mitt Romney's campaign is even less transparent than Bush's Administration was. His stock answer to questions about what he might do as President is, "I'm not going to tell you until after the election."

       This has got to be one of the worst starts with the American people one can imagine. While Ryan Avent and other Very Serious People like Cory Booker have been very offended that anyone has anything to say about Mitt's time over at Bain in any but the most reverent terms, the attacks are taking their toll on Romney with the only people who actually matter-the American people.

       Contrary to what Ryan Avent and the hive over at Modeled Behavior-Ryan's own word for them not mine- would have you believe, Krugman did not attack Free Trade as such just pointed out that there are legitimate questions for Romney's tenure at Bain, particularly as he's decided to make this the centerpiece of his campaign. Krugman's main point is that someone may or may not have a history as a businessman that we may or may not admire so much, however, this in itself tells us nothing about whether they would have any of the deep understanding of the economy Romney likes to think he has.

       As proud as he is of his Bain experience, he actually gives us little hint about what his real time at Bain was actually about, much less whether or not we can see it as a success. What we do get is that he takes the art of tax evasion to a whole new level. Mitt claims that he has a better budget reduction plan than does the President. Actually the best plan of all would be for him to just pay all his back taxes. That would pay the deficit about nine times over.

      In any case, as he is withholding information about what went on at Bain-other than some very inflated job creation numbers that have risen from 10,000 back when he was running against Ted Kennedy to 100,000 today-it falls to other sources to fill in the blanks. The Boston Globe has done some yeoman work in helping us to begin to at least fill in some of the blanks over his time over at Bain.

    "Government documents filed by Mitt Romney and Bain Capital say Romney remained chief executive and chairman of the firm three years beyond the date he said he ceded control, even creating five new investment partnerships during that time."

     "Romney has said he left Bain in 1999 to lead the winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, ending his role in the company. But public Securities and Exchange Commission documents filed later by Bain Capital state he remained the firm’s “sole stockholder, chairman of the board, chief executive officer, and president.”

      "Also, a Massachusetts financial disclosure form Romney filed in 2003 states that he still owned 100 percent of Bain Capital in 2002. And Romney’s state financial disclosure forms indicate he earned at least $100,000 as a Bain “executive” in 2001 and 2002, separate from investment earnings.
The timing of Romney’s departure from Bain is a key point of contention because he has said his resignation in February 1999 meant he was not responsible for Bain Capital companies that went bankrupt or laid off workers after that date."

      http://bostonglobe.com/news/politics/2012/07/11/government-documents-indicate-mitt-romney-continued-bain-after-date-when-says-left/IpfKYWjnrsel4pvCFbsUTI/story.html

     Again, he's been fudging the numbers every way back to his boyhood home in Michigan with all those trees of the same height and back again about his job creation numbers at Bain-why talk about his time as Governor at Massachusetts? The tall tales just keep getting taller. In 1994 he had only claimed 10,000. Now it's 100,000 and he even tries to claim that this is after you factor in downsizing,  outsourcing, and offshoring.

     Parenthetically, I was amused to see that the other day he was running around calling the President an outsourcer-is Ryan Avent going to write a new piece in the Economist criticizing Romney now for attacking such a venerable practice? And he claimed that the Obama campaign doesn't understand what outsourcing means.

    Many have pointed out that based on the 1999 departure date, by 1994 his tenure at Bain was two thirds over so it seems unlikely that his job creation increased by 900% over the last third of his term there.

    However, if he was still actually there in 2002 this as suggested by the Globe means that a lot more job losses are attributable to his term there. The beauty is he was the one who wanted this to be the centerpiece of his campaign.

    Again, though, I admit that he's the guy who could fix our deficit if only he would take all that money he's got stashed in the Cayman Islands back here to America and pay his own fair share of taxes. His myriad offshore accounts through 5 separate continents may be the chief reason we even have a deficit at all.