goes beyond the traditional critiques of Bain Capital.Taibbi puts the operations of Bain within the larger context of what is happening in our current hyper-financial ,globalized capitalism.Bain would locate troubled corporations, and arrange a leveraged buyout.Bain would put in about 10% of the buyout loan, and then it would go to Wall St. to get the other 90% of the buyout financing.The troubled corporation would then be faced with repaying the loan debt, as well as the huge fees imposed by Bain.Many of the Bain captured companies were forced to down-size, lay off employees, cut pay and benefits, and even off-shore, out-source their manufacturing operations.Many went bankrupt, and closed.Some prospered through the Bain re-configuration, like Staples.While I haven’t gone into Staples in my current lifetime, I imagine most of the stuff on its’ shelves are made in China.The cover of Rolling Stone has a super cartoon, picturing Mitt in Guilded Age robber baron top hat, kicking the take-over companies” employees in the keister.Taibbi summarized his analysis this way:
“..Romney, on the other hand, is a perfect representative of one side of the ominous cultural divide that will define the next generation, not just here in America but all over the world. Forget about the Southern strategy, blue versus red, swing states and swing voters – all of those political clichés are quaint relics of a less threatening era that is now part of our past, or soon will be. The next conflict defining us all is much more unnerving.That conflict will be between people who live somewhere, and people who live nowhere. It will be between people who consider themselves citizens of actual countries, to which they have patriotic allegiance, and people to whom nations are meaningless, who live in a stateless global archipelago of privilege – a collection of private schools, tax havens and gated residential communities with little or no connection to the outside world…)

How this is a more interesting story

VJ Machiavelli