Mitt Romney has been called a “vulture capitalist” and even a “murderer” by Obama sycophants and the press does little to disabuse voters of it. CJ gave us ten reasons for liberals to hate Mitt Romney and I’d like to expand even more on that. There’s a lot more to Mitt Romney than the Obama press allows.
The Bain Story– the real one
Given the political controversy over private equity and Mitt Romney’s tenure at Bain Capital, it’s worth taking time to ask, how did Bain Capital perform for its investors?
To get some perspective, it’s first worth acknowledging that the average private equity firm has delivered better returns to its investors than those investors would have earned in the stock market. In a recent paper, Bob Harris, Tim Jenkinson, and I estimate that $1 invested in a private equity fund delivered 20 percent more than $1 invested in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.1 In our sample alone, the outperformance works out to more than $120 billion in additional value to investors. This performance benefited the pension funds, endowments, and other limited partners that invested over this period.
Even in an industry with such strong performance, Bain Capital stood out. During Romney’s tenure, the firm raised five private equity or buyout funds. All five outperformed the typical private equity fund. Four of the five were well into the top quartile of performance.
In other words, Bain Capital and Romney delivered strong results for their customers, better than other private equity firms that on average outperformed the public markets. Today, those customers include the California State Teachers’ Retirement System and the Teacher Retirement System of Texas.
Bain Capital also made venture capital investments from other funds in start-ups and other earlier stage companies that are not included in the performance measure mentioned above. Those venture capital investments included successful investments in Staples, Sports Authority, and Gartner Group.
How many jobs did Bain create?
Among Bain Capital’s investments under Romney, the large job creators are clearly Staples and Sports Authority. Both of these were small, young companies when Bain Capital invested in them. Bain invested in Staples when it had only one store, so there were likely fewer than 200 employees at the time. Bain appears to have invested in the Sports Authority when it had fewer than ten stores. Unfortunately, there are no public data to say how many people were employed at that time. At the end of 1998, Staples had more than 42,000 employees, Sports Authority had almost 14,000, Gartner Group had almost 3,000, and Steel Dynamics had over 500. So at the beginning of 1999, when Romney left Bain Capital, these four companies alone employed almost 60,000 total employees. While some of the job growth at Sports Authority came from acquisitions, there is no doubt that these four companies created tens of thousands of jobs over the period.
Fast forward to today. By the end of 2011, Staples had about 89,000 employees. Sports Authority is now a private company. The last time it reported employee numbers, in 2006, it had 14,300 employees. In addition, Gartner Group had over 4,400 and Steel Dynamics had over 6,000 employees. Using the most recently available data, these four companies alone employed almost 125,000 total employees.
Bain Capital also successfully turned around several existing businesses during Romney’s tenure. For example, Bain Capital bought Wesley Jessen Vision Care for $6 million in 1994. It had been a division of Schering Plough and was not profitable. Bain Capital and a new CEO turned it around and sold it to Ciba Geigy for over $300 million in 2001. When it was sold, it appears to have had 2,600 employees. Today, the company is part of Ciba Vision.
Overall, then, the companies Bain Capital funded under Romney have created tens of thousands of jobs using any measure.
Mitt Romney gave away his entire inheritance to charity
When Mitt Romney’s father passed away in 1995, he left an inheritance to Mitt totaling $1 million. Romney turned around and donated that inheritance money to Brigham Young University for the George W. Romney School of Public Management. This is an institute of public management that helps young people learn about government and about serving in public service.
The money goes to economically disadvantaged students wishing to purse a higher education in the field of public management and government.
Romney took no salary as Governor of Massachusetts
When Romney was asked by state leaders and prominent member in the state of Mass. to run for governor because their state had a $3 BILLION deficit while having the highest unemployment rate in the country; Romney not only said he would take on the task, but when he did win the election he refused to take the $135,000 annual salary his entire term as governor.
Ann and Mitt Romney have given tens of millions away:
Presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney amassed a fortune now worth an estimated $230 million during his career with Bain Capital. He would be wealthier still had he not set aside a trust for his five children in 1995, worth $100 million today. Also making a considerable dent in the former governor’s fortune has been his consistent charitable giving.
Mitt and Ann Romney have given over $13 million to their Tyler Foundation charity
Since the Tyler Foundation began making grants in 2000, its annual disbursements have averaged approximately $650,000 per year. The foundation’s most active years were 2003 and 2008, with approximately $2 million given away in each. In 2010, the most recent year for which data is available, the foundation hit its average, donating $650,000.
All told, Mitt and Ann Romney have doled out over $7 million via the Tyler Charitable Foundation. And although last year’s annual tax disclosure won’t be publicly available until this coming November, I would wager that the Romneys kept the pace in 2011, and that figure is now around $8 million. As of the 2010 disclosure, the Tyler Charitable Foundation had assets of more than $10 million.
So where does all the money go? From AIDs Action to the Wright Museum, Romney’s charities of choice are diverse; in fact, through 2010 the Tyler Foundation had made grants to nearly 100 distinct organizations. Many of the donations have gone to youth programs or health related charities. Of the bunch, the following are Mitt Romney’s top 10 favorite philanthropic targets in terms of total dollars awarded by the Tyler Foundation since 2000:
1. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints: $4,781,000
2. Brigham Young University: $525,000
3. The United Way: $177,000
4. Right to Play: $111,500
5. The George W. Bush Library: $100,000
6. Operation Kids: $85,000
7. Center For Treatment of Pediatric MS: $75,000
8. Harvard Business School: $70,000
9. City Year: $65,000
10. Deseret International: $50,000
11. Weber State University: $50,000
Romney has given away three times what Barack Obama is worth. Well, net worth, anyway.
Romney shut Bain down to search for a friend’s daughter
“As the days went by and her parents, Robert and Lynette Gay, grew more and more frantic, they finally told Mr. Gay’s partners at the private equity-investment firm Bain Capital. A few hours later, executives of the Boston-based firm were on the shuttle to New York for a huge volunteer effort, harnessing corporate manpower throughout the city and immersing professional baby boomers in a youth party culture many knew nothing about. …
“Bain Capital’s partners closed down the firm and drew on friendships and connections to find volunteers for the search. R.R. Donnelly, the firm’s printer, printed more than 300,000 fliers bearing Ms. Gay’s picture and last known whereabouts. Duane Reade, a drugstore chain in which Bain Capital is an investor, had clerks at 52 stores insert fliers in shopping bags. …”
The NY Times sort of forgot that Bain was Romney’s firm and sort of didn’t mention him, but Robert Gay, the father of the missing girl, didn’t forget Romney:
In an article in 2002, the Globe quoted Robert Gay as crediting Romney with organizing the search for his daughter.
“It was the most amazing thing, and I’ll never forget this to the day I die,” Gay told the Globe. “What he did was literally close down an entire business. He basically galvanized an entire industry that just doesn’t do this, and got them all on the streets for 48 hours.”
Romney once rescued capsized boaters:
Gov. Mitt Romney rode to the rescue over the weekend during a vacation trip — using his Jet Ski to help pluck a New Jersey family and their dog out of Lake Winnipesaukee after their boat sank.
The drama began at about 8:30 p.m. Saturday, as Romney and his family were relaxing at their lakeside summer home in Wolfeboro, N.H.
Gubernatorial son Josh Romney told the Herald yesterday that he and brother Craig were cleaning the beach while their father puttered in the garage when the quiet night air was pierced with screams.
“We heard a whole bunch of screaming,” said Josh Romney, who immediately hopped onto his Jet Ski. “We tore out of there and my dad hopped on the other Jet Ski and came out right after us.”
Roughly 300 yards out onto the lake, six adult family members and their dog were floundering in the water, after their boat suddenly sprung a huge leak — sinking in less than 90 seconds, Josh said…
The governor pulled the two younger women aboard his three-seater Jet Ski and zoomed back to shore, while his sons helped the mother of the family onto their vehicle.
In the middle of the rescue, the governor actually took a dunking himself — thrown off the Jet Ski as one anxious boater scrambled aboard and tipped the craft off-balance.
Successful businessman, successful husband, father and philanthropist. Romney has created thousands of jobs. And sorry, Obama, but he did build that.
And did I mention that he saved the Olympics?
The only job Obama really ever held was teaching Alinsky- teaching not how to create wealth but rather only how to take wealth from others.
DrJohn has been a health care professional for more than 30 years. In addition to clinical practice he has done extensive research and has published widely with over 70 original articles and abstracts in the peer-reviewed literature. DrJohn is well known in his field and has lectured on every continent except for Antarctica. He has been married to the same wonderful lady for over 30 years and has three kids- two sons, both of whom are attorneys and one daughter on her way into the field of education.
DrJohn was brought up with the concept that one can do well if one is prepared to work hard but nothing in life is guaranteed.
Except for liberals being foolish.