Fuller disclosure would have revealed he played the GM bailout politically - - "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt," pleasing the Ayn Rand wing of the GOP - - and personally, by reaping millions in profits when the bailout eventually boosted the value of Delphi Automotive, a key GM parts manufacturer.
When has vulture capitalism been a path to The White House?
The story has become a big issue in Ohio after surfacing in The Nation:
...Romney has done a good job of concealing, until now, the fact that he and his wife, Ann, personally gained at least $15.3 million from the bailout—and a few of Romney’s most important Wall Street donors made more than $4 billion. Their gains, and the Romneys’, were astronomical—more than 3,000 percent on their investment.How blue-collar voters could support Romney is beyond me.
Do you mean that when GM stock fell all the way to almost nothing per share that Romney and his friends ended up with the money?
ReplyDeleteAs a union blue collar worker I will tell you that I have not identified with the Democratic Party for over 2 decades.
ReplyDeleteOnce my father retired from his union job as a life long supporter of Democratic candidates, he understood the same identity concerns I had.
The Democratic Party no longer represents hard working American blue collar family values.
Hope this gives you some insight from nothing but my simple blue collar opinion.
Anon, 11:05: The GM bailout raised the value of the Delphi stock because Delphi is the #1 supplier of GM parts, and Romney and friends made a whopping capital gain on their botton-feeding Delphi purchase.
ReplyDeleteParaphrased and quoted directly from The Washington Spectator, September 15, 2012: Bain Capital acquired GS Industries for $8.3 billion in 1993. One year later it borrowed $125 million to pay off existing debt, modernize its Kansas City steel mill -- and pay $36.1 million to Bain Capital. "When GS [Industries] went bankrupt, closed its plant, and dismissed all of its employees, its pension fund couldn't meet its obligations ..." So the federal Pension Benefits Guaranty Board had to bail out Bain, covering about $44 million in benefits for the retired workers.
ReplyDeleteIn 1991, when the Bank of New England, one of Bain's holdings, "went under and was seized by federal regulators," Bain "was responsible for $38 million of [the bank's] loans. "In 1993, while Romney was CEO of Bain and Co., the company cut a deal with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation" to shift $10 million of Bain's financial liability onto FDIC balance sheets.