Mark Kleiman:
Bloomberg on Romney’s bust-out operation: Anthony Gardner, himself a private-equity operator, has crunched some numbers: > 10 of roughly 67 major deals by Bain Capital during Romney’s watch produced about 70 percent of the firm’s profits. Four of those 10 deals, as well as others, later wound up in bankruptcy.
Gardner then explains, using some of those big deals (including Ampad and GS Steel) as examples, how the asset-stripping operation worked… sticking creditors, workers, and sometimes the government with the tab…. [T]he notion that Romney is somehow not responsible because the actual bankruptcies only took place after he stopped active management of Bain whenever that turns out to be) is just absurd. What ought to count is when the fatal blow was struck, not when the medical examiner signed the death certificate.
