Dana Milbank goes after Romney and Bain

[ProSense]

Dana Milbank goes after Romney and Bain

by teacherken

in a column in Wednesday's Washington Post titled Romney’s Bain games

His first paragraph is short and to the point:

My daughter has not yet reached her ninth birthday, but I already have her pegged for a job at Bain Capital.

That is because she is very good at

“Tiny Tower,” a business-simulation game that millions of people are using their iPhones and tablets to play capitalist, attempting to build ever larger towers with ever more businesses that generate ever more coins and “tower bux.”

She successfully owns a dozen businesses in this game. Milbank puts this in context in two paragraphs:

But in this game it doesn’t matter what type of business she operates — only that she operates it with maximum efficiency, firing and evicting her “bitizens” at will and benefiting from the help of “VIPs” to bring her more business and accelerate construction.

The game is devoid of business ethics; the goal is to maximize value by boosting output. Tiny Tower functions, in other words, strikingly like Bain Capital did under Mitt Romney

.
Milbank is focusing in particular on Bain's gaining a 25-fold profit on its investment in an Italian yellow pages company, profits moved through Luxemburg to avoid paying taxes, and a company that later collapsed.

It is incredibly pointed column, and by a major voice within The Village, the conventional wisdom of Washington DC political commentary.

This is not typical Milbank snark. It is worth reading.

He bluntly questions whether Romney has operated with any sense of ethics. That is pretty pointed.

I will push fair use and quote one more paragraph, offered after acknowledging that how Romney has been able to have such a low tax rate on his income without breaking any loaws:

The question is whether such things are fair, or whether Romney has exploited a system that allows rich people like him to get richer at the expense of less wealthy taxpayers — Italian, in the most recent case, or American, in other cases. Of more concern is that, as president, Romney would further expand the advantages of fellow rich people.

Read the column, especially the conclusion.

Pass it on.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/08/07/1117836/-Dana-Milbank-goes-after-Romney-and-Bain

Here's where Milbank is misleading:

Romney almost certainly didn’t break the law by putting his money in Switzerland or the Bahamas, or by paying an income tax rate of 15 percent. He didn’t necessarily break any laws by creating a $100 million 401(k).

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/dana-milbank-romneys-bain-games/2012/08/07/92aae1dc-e0c7-11e1-a19c-fcfa365396c8_story.htm

Hiding money in Swiss bank accounts is tax evasion.

Swiss-US Tax Amenesty Deal DID send someone to Jail
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021073338

Bloomberg: “Romney Persona Non Grata in Italy for Bain’s Deal Skirting Taxes”http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021081334

Romney lied to GOP about his investments
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021081574

[SemperEadem]

1. I dare say that game's real objective

is desensitizing people from the ramifications of wanton greed.

[vinny9698]

2. The number 1 rule of management is "Maximize profit"

That is the rule. As a manager, you are limited as to where you can cut costs, taxes, vendors, overhead, pretty much are untouchable. But labor costs, you can cut wages, cut hours, cut benefits.. and that is where management can maximize profit. It really is a no brainer.

[leftyohiolib]

4. that's the problem all costs are fixed excpt, for some reason, labor

why is that allowed? if you want to cut costs you cant goto the gas company and just lower your gas rates but you can always goto the people that got you where you are and slash away at their salary. that should be just as impossible

[unc70]

8. Sustainability used to be the first rule

But I have always been an old-fashioned business owner.

[gkhouston]

9. ^^ This. Apparently modern management doesn't mind killing the goose, as long as they're the ones

walking away with golden eggs.

[Betty Jo]

3. ROMNEY:ROBBER BARON

Mitty,Annie and the Horsey are all liars,cheats,hustlers and thieves.Romney was just on TV saying he would restore the culture of work.Please, will Mittty list any day he or his wife ever worked ? I watch the Republicans and I think of the Russian and French Revolutions.I watch and knit in my rocking chair.

[colorado_ufo]

6. That's not fair!

Rafalca is innocent!

[Betty Jo]

12. You are right !

The poor horse can't help who is owners are.But it should stampede away.

[Hubert Flottz]

5. Dana Milbank reminds me of some kind of smelly fungi...

Dana probably really wishes that Jeb Bush or Rick Perry would be the GOPer's main man.

I hope that Dana Mildew really does get his mind right some day and votes for a democrat, but I wouldn't really count on that outcome. I think Dana is too far into the Kool-Aid to ever come home to the democratic party. Those wishy-washy type fungi like Brother Dana are some creepy crawly things. I think Dana may be channeling Karl Rove half the time.

I love it though, when the Bullshit pitchers in the republican bull-pen fire their prairie pies at each other, point blank.

[grantcart]

7. Hiding money in Swiss bank accounts is tax evasion

Putting money in Swiss bank accounts and paying the tax on his intereste earned is not.

I seriously doubt that a coward like Romney would ever risk jail by blatantly not declaring income on those accounts, moreover if all you are doing is putting them in saving accounts there would be lilttle interest and little taxes.

So why does Romney use Swiss banks?

I am guessing that he used them to trade on currency speculation.

[ProSense]

11. Maybe that

"Hiding money in Swiss bank accounts is tax evasion"

...is what Mitt is hiding?

"I am guessing that he used them to trade on currency speculation."

All speculation on Mitt's secret is welcomed.

[Quantess]

10. Kick!