MuckReads Podcast: Examining Mitt Romney and Bain Capital
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Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney addresses the NAACP National Convention at the Geoerge R. Brown Covention Center in Houston, Texas, on July 11, 2012. (Eric Kayne/Getty Images)
For this week's MuckReads podcast, ProPublica managing editor Stephen Engelberg spoke with the Boston Globe's Michael Kranish and Beth Healy about their series of stories probing presidential candidate Mitt Romney and the financial firm he co-founded, Bain Capital.
Kranish, the deputy chief of the Globe's Washington bureau, and Healy, a financial reporter, have written several reports about Romney and Bain, most recently focusing on Romney's severance package negotiations. They discuss Michael Milken's involvement with Bain, what their reporting means for voters as the election draws near, and profile several deals Bain Capital made over the past 15 years, including household names Domino's and Staples.
You can read all of Kranish and Healy's reporting at boston.com and in their book, The Real Romney. You can also subscribe to all of ProPublica's podcasts on iTunes.
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4 comments
Wolf Bogacz
July 31, 2012, 3:04 p.m.
Can you remember to add the mp3 file as an enclosure for the RSS feed? That way feed followers will not need to come here just to download.
clarence swinney
Aug. 1, 2012, 9:08 a.m.
Bill Clinton is being honored for his record show a better one
CLINTON PRAISE-WITH PLEASURE
GDP—rose from 6300 to 11,600
NATIONAL INCOME-5,000 to 8,000 Billion—took 20 years to grow 2500B before Clinton
JOBS CREATED—over 22 million—record by far
AVERAGE WEEKLY EARNINGS—$360 to $478
AVERAGE WEEKLY HOURS WORKED—never hit 35.0—hit that mark 4 times in 80’s
UNEMPLOYMENT—from 7.2% down down down to 3.9%
WELFARE TO WORK—11,533,710 on federal roll in 1996 and 3,880,321 in 2007.
MINIMUM WAGE—$4.25 to $5.15
MINORITIES—did exceedingly well
HOME OWNERSHIP—hit all time high
DEFICIT—290 Billion to whoopee a SURPLUS
DEBT——+28%—-300% increase over prior12 years
FEDERAL SPENDING—+28%—-80% under Reagan- who da true conservative?
DOW JONES AVERAGE—3,500 to 11,800 all it’s history to get to 3500 and Clinton zooms it
NASDAQ—700 to 5,000—-all of it’s history to get to 700 and Clinton zooms it
VALUES INDEXES—almost all bad went down—good went up in zoom zoom zoom
FOREIGN AFFAIRS—Peace on Earth good will toward each other—-Mark of a true Christian—what has Bush done to Peace on Earth?
POPULARITY—-highest poll ratings in history during peacetime in AFRICA, ASIA AND EUROPE even 98.5% in Moscow—left office with highest gallup rating since it was started in 1920’s.
STAND UP FOR JUSTICE—evil conservatives spent $110,000,000 on hearings and investigations and caught—- ONE—- very evil man who took a few plane rides to events.
BOW YOUR HEADS—Thank you God for sending us a man of Bill Clinton’s character, intelligence, knowledge of governance, ability to face up to crises without whimpering and a great leader of the world.
THANK YOU GOD FOR THE GOOD TIMES THE CLINTON YEARS.
Shahislam
Aug. 5, 2012, 3:23 a.m.
Thanks swinney,
And Mr. Clinton’s good job was forgotten by the ungrateful narrow minded folks only because he liked young females or their lips etc.
My website: http://WWW.shahislam.com talks about not Racism but human’s negativity - the envy, especially when young girls are involved.
Jeff Schultz
Aug. 9, 2012, 3:58 a.m.
Thanks for shedding some sunlight on a little understood but important area. Given the way PE firms operate - by offering participating partners a carried interest in every deal they are active in closing in and by putting each deal to a vote by an Investment Committee before closing - there are 2 simple questions that would reveal whether or not Romney was involved between Bain deals between 1999 and 2002: 1) Did Romney have a carried interest in any of the deals in question? 2) Did Romney sit/vote on the Bain Investment Committee after Feb 1999? If the answer to either question is affirmative Romney must be considered very involved in these deals. You might find the answers to these deals in public documents; if not you should put them to the Romney organization (or get the Obama people to do this).