Predictably, given its utter lack of business expertise and experience, as well as its populist politics, and policy of personal destruction of its enemies, the Obama administration is going after Bain Capital--Mitt Romney's old private equity firm--for having engaged in the creative destruction process inherent in capitalism:
President Barack Obama's campaign released a video on Monday calling Mitt Romney's private equity firm a job-killing "vampire" that ran a steel mill into the ground, signaling a new effort to carve into Romney's image of corporate success.
We've dealt with this issue previously:
Why Romney's targets went bust so often
More on Mitt Romney's taste for firing people
Why Gingrich is wrong about Bain Capital, corporate takeovers, and private equity
To summarize: Job losses caused by private equity acquisitions are concentrated in takeovers of public corporations that are visible to the media and therefore to the public. The public doesn't see the vastly larger number of acquisitions of privately held companies, which exhibit large employment gains.
In sum, employment losses as a result of private equity transactions are modest and a consequence of the creative destruction process by which capitalism periodically shakes up firms that have become inefficient dinosaurs.
Given that faux capitalists by Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry wrote the playbook for attacking Romney on this issue, it's no surprise to see Obama following suit. But whether it's coming from faux capitalists or social democrats, it's still bullshit.
Meanwhile, the Obama hypocrisy parade continues. (1) The takeover for which the Obama people are bashing Romney occured after Romney had left Bain Capital. But you know who was working at Bain Capital when the contested deal took place? "Jonathan Lavine ... a major bundler for Barack Obama, raising between $100-200k for the his reelection." (Source)
(2) "On the same day his campaign launched an attack on Mitt Romney‘s record in private equity, President Obama is attending a big-dollar fundraiser at the Manhattan home of one of the industry’s top figures." (Source)
I'm not sure which is worse. The holier than thou facade Obama erects on a foundation of hypocrisy. Or the cattle going to slaughter-like stupidity of his private equity donors.
