Writing for Newsweek, Harvard historian Niall Ferguson highlights the strengths former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney brings to the presidential race. Ferguson addresses his comments to the late financier/philanthropist Ted Forstmann:
Actually, the best case for Mitt Romney was just made by the other side. In an unintentionally hilarious piece, The New York Times attempted a hatchet job based on his time as the founder and CEO of Bain Capital: “After a Romney Deal, Profits and Then Layoffs.”
You’re not going to believe this, Ted. You know what this evil bastard did? Yes, that’s right. He used borrowed money to take over failing companies. And that’s not all. He fired some of the folks who worked at those companies. Wait, it gets even worse. He restored those companies to profitability. I know, I know. And—to cap it all—he made hundreds of millions of dollars doing it.
Pretty funny, isn’t it? Because that’s exactly the business model of private equity and leveraged buyouts that you pioneered. And as I was reading about Romney’s very impressive business career, I was reminded of you.
These days people like you are vilified as members of the “1 percent”—the rich elite that the Occupopulists blame for all our ills. Their remedy? Taxes that take the money you gave to great causes like the Children’s Scholarship Fund and channel it to the federal government, which has such a terrific record of managing money, after all.
In Europe these days, the answer to fiscal crisis is to put a technocrat in charge. But I think you’d agree with me, dear Ted, that what the U.S. government really needs is a private-equity guy in the White House.
