Romney and Bain Capital

[Professor S]

Originally Posted by Typhoid

Yeah, I just did.

I wonder if they were getting involved with different companies in the same field of work (I don't mean all of them, but some of each, rather than all of one, or one of everything), and then somehow running their own smaller businesses/investments out of business, in order for their larger ones to get even larger, because you've just made the market smaller.

Well, that might be the case, but beside the fact that a minority of the businesses went bankrupt there is nothing to lead you to believe this is the case. One thing to keep in mind is that in all appearances Bain's business model was to make failing businesses profitable (a risky model to be sure). If a business fails, all of those jobs are lost, not just some created by layoffs to reduce costs, so there is more evidence to suggest that Bain actually SAVED jobs rather than killing them because the alternative was assured failure.

Now if there is any evidence that Bain was predatory as Gingrich suggested, I'm all ears, but Bain's track record doesn't reflect it the way I read the evidence. Reading that article I think it's very difficult to make a case that Bain's model was that of a corporate cannibal.