While at Bain, Romney claims he did perfectly legal work, all above board. Maybe you and I don't have the stomach for the meaner aspects of serious Business, but Mitt does...and it is exactly that kind of business acumen and spine that he claims is his "killer app" for the Presidency.
Follow me below the fold to see the bigger picture of Mitt's plan for the Oval Boardroom...
So....what did Mitt do at Bain? Clearly he was good at whatever it was, his bank account shows that he's more profitable than God. The formula is simple:
"buys large companies that are on the verge of bankruptcy, breaks them up and sells them in smaller parts, at a price that's more than the whole company, for profit."
That's Richard Gere's description, from Pretty Woman. Probably the friendliest way to describe a corporate raider. Now, what Gere did was actually more directly vicious than Mittens....Gere's character in the film was a true 80s "corporate raider" of the Gordon Gekko role. What Romney did at Bain was more insidious, and a better preperation for his run for the Presidency. Mitt came to his raids as a friend, offering to help these beleagured companies find their footing by giving them the assistance of his stellar business sense. He swooped in like Mary Poppins, floating down just in time to fix the balance sheets on your company. Of course, some pieces have to be jettisonned, and Mitt will be compensated for consulting and managing your company back to health and OOPS! oh no, it appears your company just couldn't be saved. God knows Mitt tried. I guess we just all lose sometimes. Except you still owe Mitt for the failure. Which he profited from.
And again, all that seems legal. Vicious, but legal.
But if Mitt just did that, he wouldn't have done quite as well as he did. The better formula is this:
"buys large companies that were strong and have become weak or will become weak because of either market pressures or outside influence, reducing them to a better price to us while allowing for more profitable break-up of the assets."
or even this:
"buys large companies that were strong and still have enough pull to borrow an unholy sum of money, which is paid out to the new owner as a fee for consulting them to borrow more. When the borrowing can't continue, break them up into smaller pieces and sell at a profit. Take remaining piece and force bankruptsy, walking away from entire enterprise with all the borrow cash laundered to you through the company while all investors get in line in court."
So, taking this as his wheelhouse, his strength...what will Mitt do for the shareholders of "AmeriCo"? Let's take a guess:
America is still valued too high to be as profitable as Mitt wants when the sell-off happens. So, you get your Party to whittle down the credit rating of America. You spend every waking hour and every open mike telling everyone that the current CEO of the company is crazy, lazy, stupid, an alien, against the values of the company, against the values of humanity, a fool, etc. Anything to degrade the credibility of the company.
Then you move in.
Now that America has a weaker credit rating, a weak economy, weak shareholder confidence, Mitt makes his move to be named CEO of this weak, once-great company, promising to restore it to former glory. By some expensive and difficult lobbying of shareholders (frequently with false and misleading information) he becomes head of AmeriCo.
He sells off the pensions and health coverage for employees to a private bidder who backed his move to CEO.
He sells off the transportation infrastructure to a private toll company who backed his move to CEO.
He sells off the ___ utility/national treasure/national resource to a private company who backed his move to CEO.
Rinse. Repeat. After all, given the state of the company when he took the reins, this is ALL HE CAN DO. HE'S SAVING YOU.
Once the nation, sadly, cannot be saved any more with cuts, it will be time for Mitt to announce to the US that because the last guy just ruined it all, our company must now forfeit everything and declare bankruptsy. Mitt will be sad, because he tried his best and all he could do was sell off pieces at a profit. With a tear in his eye, he will wave goodbye to this once-great land now owned by a series of banks and creditors. Years from now, from his Cayman Island retreat, Mitt will write a touching memoir about how he tried to save America and all he got was all the assets.
He is a businessman, and he said this was his skill. We should believe him, before someone elects him CEO.