In 1994

[4est_4est_Gump]

Romney was laying people off at Bain:

Obama’s team is working hard to exploit those layoffs. A former Dade Behring human-resources officer, Cindy Hewitt, detailed her experience at the company in a press conference organized by the campaign. According to the Tampa Bay Times, Hewitt said that she was concerned about a culture in which “businesses are used to generate wealth for a small number of people and businesses are run to the ground and the lifeblood is sucked out of [them] and all of their employees lose their jobs.”

It is true that 850 workers lost their jobs at a Miami plant. But, according to a source familiar with the company at the time, that plant was the “the oldest and the least inefficient plant” they operated and, in a declining industry, cuts had to be made somewhere.

“This was not one of those situations where somebody snapped their fingers and said, ‘Okay, we’re going to close this plant tomorrow.’ The plant was wound down over an extended period of time. There was a year of job fairs and other outplacement efforts that were made by the company, generous severance payments were made, and ultimately, about 80 percent of the people found other positions,” added the source.

Ken Spain, vice president of public affairs and communications at the Private Equity Growth Capital Council, makes the case that sometimes private-equity firms have no way to avoid layoffs.

“Oftentimes, companies that are in need of a turnaround are already in the process of shedding jobs, and in order to successfully make the company profitable and stay in business, private-equity firms have to find ways to shed waste and inefficiency,” he says. “That can mean a variety of things, [including] streamlining processes, improving the management, and, unfortunately at times, shedding jobs.”

Still, Spain argues, private-equity firms may have to cause temporary pain, but they create jobs over time: “Companies that benefit from private-equity investment often grow jobs at an even faster rate over the long term.”

But for Romney, explaining the rationale behind the layoffs may not be enough. The Obama campaign’s argument is that private-equity firms are inherently geared toward “maximiz[ing] profits” and not concerned with job creation. To some, it may thus appear ridiculous for Romney to claim that his business experience gives him an edge in creating the right climate for new jobs.

“When you’re president, as opposed to the head of a private-equity firm, your job is not simply to maximize profits,” Obama said yesterday during a press conference in Chicago. “Your job is to figure out how everybody in the country has a fair shot.”

Romney’s campaign rejects the idea that possessing business experience such as his is irrelevant to the role of president. “President Obama can’t come close to matching the many years of experience that Mitt Romney has as a private businessman, so he has chosen to attack the free market,” Romney spokesperson Andrea Saul argued in a statement. “But millions across this country are struggling and deserve a leader who understands [how] the economy works.”

And a Romney aide dismissed the Obama campaign’s attacks on Dade Behring, labeling them the “type of policy posture and reasoning from President Obama and his administration that helps prove just how anti-business they are.”

“Cherishing free markets and working with entrepreneurs and industry to form capital for businesses aids job creation and economic expansion,” the aide adds, saying that voters have “lost confidence” in Obama as a result of his disdain for the private sector.

As for Romney himself, he is determined to frame Obama’s attacks on Bain-backed companies as part of Obama’s larger problem with the private sector.

“President Obama confirmed today that he will continue his attacks on the free enterprise system,” Romney said in a statement yesterday, responding to Obama’s comments in Chicago. His own campaign, Romney added, would take a different tack: “offering a positive agenda to help America get back to work.”

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/300762/mitt-romney-it-s-1994-katrina-trinko

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

Barack Obama was busy too, playing the race card.

Mr. OBAMA: The idea that inferior genes account for the problems of the poor in general, and blacks in particular, isn’t new, of course. Racial supremacists have been using IQ tests to support their theories since the turn of the century. The arguments against such dubious science aren’t new either. Scientists have repeatedly told us that genes don’t vary much from one race to another, and psychologists have pointed out the role that language and other cultural barriers can play in depressing minority test scores, and no one disputes that children whose mothers smoke crack when they’re pregnant are going to have developmental problems.

Now, it shouldn’t take a genius to figure out that with early intervention such problems can be prevented. But Mr. Murray isn’t interested in prevention. He’s interested in pushing a very particular policy agenda, specifically, the elimination of affirmative action and welfare programs aimed at the poor. With one finger out to the political wind, Mr. Murray has apparently decided that white America is ready for a return to good old-fashioned racism so long as it’s artfully packaged and can admit for exceptions like Colin Powell. It’s easy to see the basis for Mr. Murray’s calculations. After watching their income stagnate or decline over the past decade, the majority of Americans are in an ugly mood and deeply resent any advantages, realor perceived, that minorities may enjoy.

I happen to think Mr. Murray’s wrong, not just in his estimation of black people, but in his estimation of the broader American public. But I do think Mr. Murray’s right about the growing distance between the races. The violence and despair of the inner city are real. So’s the problem of street crime. The longer we allow these problems to fester, the easier it becomes for white America to see all blacks as menacing and for black America to see all whites as racist. To close that gap, we’re going to have to do more than denounce Mr. Murray’s book. We’re going to have to take concrete and deliberate action. For blacks, that means taking greater responsibility for the state of our own communities. Too many of us use white racism as an excuse for self-defeating behavior. Too many of our young people think education is a white thing and that the values of hard work and discipline andself-respect are somehow outdated.

That being said, it’s time for all of us, and now I’m talking about the larger American community, to acknowledge that we’ve never even come close to providing equal opportunity to the majority of black children. Real opportunity would mean quality prenatal care for all women and well-funded and innovative public schools for all children. Real opportunity would mean a job at a living wage for everyone who was willing to work, jobs that can return some structure and dignity to people’s lives and give inner-city children something more than a basketball rim to shoot for. In the short run, such ladders of opportunity are going to cost more, not less, than either welfare or affirmative action. But, in the long run, our investment should payoff handsomely. That we fail to make this investment is just plain stupid. It’s not the result of an intellectual deficit. It’s theresult of a moral deficit.

http://www.pickledpolitics.com/archives/2323

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

Plus de choses changent, plus qu'ils restent la même chose.



That's not Austrian doll...

 

[Saint Peter]

I was fabricating mining equipment and thanking the Good Lord Mitt was not buying my company to raid my pension, sell the manufacturing equipment, and put boys out of work.

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

I was fabricating mining equipment and thanking the Good Lord Mitt was not buying my company to raid my pension, sell the manufacturing equipment, and put boys out of work.

Yeah, the world would be a lot better off if companies like that were just allowed to fold with full employment.





Your idea of economics is why the country is in full-scale Decovery...