The humble and altruistic beginnings of corporate raider ... or so the title of this NYTimes piece would have to believe.
In Real Estate Deal, Romney Made His Loss a Couple’s Gain
The basic story is that in 1982 an aspiring millionaire, young Mitt Romney, hears of a sweet real estate deal in the great state of Texas that boasted “affluent free enterprise capitalists who desire a quality investment with tax shelter benefits.”. Mitt jumps in, buys 5 houses and things sour. For years he carries the houses (or in other words: "bad investment), renting them out as he can until the market rebounds. When it finally does he decides he will take a risk lending the money to the long-time renters of one house so they can buy it, and he can get out of his crappy, (at this point) pain-in-the-ass deal. And this, ladies and gentlemen, is supposed to be an example of Romney's giving heart.
Puh-leeze.
Did Romney get into this deal to secure housing for low-income people? NO. He was in it to (shocker) dodge taxes and make quick money. Did he continue to do this because his heart grew 5 times the day he made that loan? NO. He GTFO when he could, never looking back. The best you can say about Mitt in this case is that his instincts for not loaning money to a deadbeat were right on. But we already know this about MittBott™, he is a cyberman programmed to make gobs of money, and at that he is wildly proficient. Nothing new. But to stretch this as evidence he has a beating human heart is a bit much.
One succinct comment from the online discussion:
Let me understand this - the couple paid $600 monthly payments on a $50,000 mortgage and we should congratulate Romney on his generosity. I would say that payment reflects usury. Any mortgage calculator would tell you that the couple has been paying a mortgage with a 13% interest rate. I would call that robbery.
I understand the desire of journalists trying to present a different narrative, or break a story that is surprising, but if this is the best real journalists can find to "balance" Mitt's image he's really in for a slog.