Tags

Columbia Journalism Review content tagged Bain Capital

1. September 11, 2012 06:50 AM

   Audit Notes: Bain’s LBOs, Star Tribune, Wolff on JRC

   ProPublica reports that the "turnaround artist" narrative is off

   By Ryan Chittum

   ProPublica's Jesse Eisinger looks at Mitt Romney and Bain Capital, calling into question the narrative that it was largely about turning around struggling businesses: Yet in addition, under Romney's tenure, Bain often sought out solid businesses that didn't need to be turned around. The reason: Such companies could operate under the burden of the enormous debt that Bain would layer...

   Continue reading
2. September 13, 2012 11:30 AM

   Audit Notes: NYT and Bain, Dimon’s Comp Committee, 401(k)s

   Too much focus on Romney, who left the company years before the alleged collusion

   By Ryan Chittum

   It's great that The New York Times is going aggressively after court documents in a big private-equity bid-rigging lawsuit, filing a motion to get documents unsealed. But I wonder how relevant it is to mention its former CEO Mitt Romney so prominently in a story about alleged anticompetitive behavior that occurred at least two years after he left the firm....

   Continue reading
3. November 13, 2012 08:06 PM

   Audit Notes: WaPo on the Bain thing, deadbeat Forbes, hamster wheel

   The Post's revealing slip-up on the definition of swift-boating

   By Ryan Chittum

   The Washington Post apparently doesn't understand just how toxic Wall Street and its even more rapacious cousin, private equity—not popular in good times—really is now. The paper actually thought it might have been an error for Obama to attack Romney over his Bain Capital days: It also looked, at first, like a mistake. Democrats such as former president Bill Clinton,...

   Continue reading
4. July 11, 2012 03:20 PM

   Laurels for The New York Times and The Plain Dealer

   Amid some Dart-worthy coverage, a few stories stand out

   By Liz Cox Barrett and Greg Marx

   Brendan Nyhan’s post earlier this week about the lackluster coverage of President Obama’s “outsourcing” attack on Mitt Romney threw pointed darts across the media landscape, pricking outlets like the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, CBS News, and others for failing to truly examine the merits of charges. And when the Romney campaign and the Republican Party this week...

   Continue reading
5. January 6, 2012 03:15 PM

   Reuters on Romney’s Private-Equity Past

   How Bain Capital profited as workers got crushed

   By Ryan Chittum

   Reuters has a great look today at how Mitt Romney's Bain Capital loaded up a steel company with debt, mismanaged it, drove it into bankruptcy, dumped tens of millions of dollars of pension obligations on the federal government after underfunding them for years, cost workers up to a quarter of their pensions—and walked away with a big profit. The Republicans...

   Continue reading
6. May 25, 2012 02:26 PM

   The private-equity problem with Romney and GS Technologies (UPDATED)

   Loading up a company with debt to ensure Bain's own profits

   By Ryan Chittum

   It's seriously grating to see an Eton and Oxford-educated ambassador's son who works for the Council on Foreign Relations rant about Obama's "populist" attack on private equity. That's Sebastian Mallaby, who takes to the Financial Times to defend Mitt Romney and Bain Capital's honor, as well as the honor of the private-equity industry at large. Here's the top: Having hit...

   Continue reading