July 17, 2012

The Folly of Obama's Politics

By Christopher Chantrill
Who cares if President Obama and his acolytes want to spend $100 million in TV ads to paint Mitt Romney as the scowling Moloch of Wall Street, chewing up the jobs of helpless American workers for sport?  It's politics, and politics ain't beanbag. But is it wise? Is it wise to paint the Mark of Cain on private equity?  Think about what private equity does.  It takes troubled corporations and tries to turn them around.  It's a messy business, and, the Obamis are determined to tell us, people's lives get ruined when things go wrong.  But somebody has to do it, and it's probably not the management that sat around in a funk while the corporation's markets and profits went south. Also, how would the president propose to deal with failing businesses?  Does he think it is a good idea to follow what Attorney General Janet Reno used to call "the law of the land" -- i.e., bankruptcy court, with judges and all -- or replace it with a political bankruptcies, like the...(Read Full Article)