The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
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    Mitt Romney to Tony Soprano: Eat your heart out, pal. I'm the bust out master!

    By jollyroger on Wed, 01/11/2012 - 8:06pm |

    Romney takes umbrage at the idea that under him Bain  Capital took the money and ran, so to speak.

    His pearl-clutching conveniently ellides the many ways in which leveraged buy outs and mob bust outs are similar business models.

    Take, for instance, Ampad, where by borrowing against the assets of a  to be acquired property (herein the "leverege" part of a levereged buyout), Bain took 100 million in fees and equity out of a company while restructuring and taking it public.

    5 years later Ampad was liquidated in bankruptcy,  leaving vendors, employees, landlords and creditors holding the bag.   

    Similarly, Dade Behring brought Bain an 800% return on its investment, on its way to Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and 1000 jobs eliminated forever.

    What makes these transactions structurally like bust outs will be apparant if you will venture with me down memory lane to the second season of the Sopranos.

    Poker missteps of a childhood friend brought Tony a "silent partnership" in his sporting goods store--Tony's business model was to create value by acquiring goods on credit, turning them into cash at distressed prices, and after several months, or whenever the collection lawsuits began piling up, leaving vendors, employees, landlords and creditors holding the bag.

    The precise mechanics may be seen at 9:58

    The parallels turn upon the stripping out of assets intended to be part of the ongoing business, by using the credit of the target to shift risks onto vendors and lenders who think they are dealing with an ongoing operation, while siphoning off the value of the assets into laundered repositories, in Bain's case huge fees for management services at figures reflecting unabashed self-dealing on the part of the new managers.

    Four out of 10 of Bain's biggest acquisitions ended in bankrupcy, with Bain booking 500 million from those 4 "bad bets"

    Eat your heart out, Tony--you ain't shit. Ramsey Outdoor Stores was chicken feed. *(I oughtta' know...)

     

     

    *(Purely) by way of eerie coincidence, I myself was once the beneficiary of a receivership imposed on Ramsey Outdoor Stores, and was well paid via my mother's law firm for showing up each day, planting my ass in a chair near the register of the very store pictured in the Sopranos, and staying till closing. My brother-in-law got a similar sinecure.  Not quite a  "no show" job, but certainly "no effort".  I don't know if poker losses  preceeded the receivership.

    Comments

    Wowsa!  What a great read.  Concise and to the point.  Down and dirty just like 'Myth' and Tony.  

    The beauty of this is that even the 'politically challenged' can understand and 'get it'. Factual and entertaining.

    I sure hope you posted this far and wide!  I'm copying it and sending it out via email to many, hopefully it will be forwarded multiple times.  Just wish I knew someone in South Carolina.

    Greatly appreciate.


    by Aunt Sam on Wed, 01/11/2012 - 10:08pm

    That 500 million figure out of 4 deals  which  ended in bankruptcy caught my eye...even these days when we have come to think any denomination under a fraction of a trillion is a rounding error.

    These are, after all, not governments but individuals of whom we speak...

    Now that I think of it, 500 mill is about the Solyndra beef.  Smallworld.


    by jollyroger on Wed, 01/11/2012 - 11:06pm

    I blush--I'm not the first person, I'm sure, to see the bust out behind the buy out, (tho the Ramsey Outdoor Store connection has me doing twilight zone head tunes...)

    While you are over this way, could I get someone to read Slut walk, Cairo, which was way to subtle  seein' how it's about this 20 yr. old Egyptian feminist who posted herself naked on facebook...and oddly, no one seems interested...

    Christ, Aunt Sam, I think you even figure in one of the secondary posts, where I officially apologize for being rude about you watching Charlie Rose, which, actually, I do all the time mysfelf.


    by jollyroger on Wed, 01/11/2012 - 10:53pm

    I thought Slut walk, Cairo was excellent.  I don't remember even seeing it when I perused the posts that day.  Thanks for the heads up.

    I don't think it is too subtle, perhaps too 'deep' for some (not a bad thing, I so enjoy the posts that are wise and clever without being cute).  It's a very timely and needed update on the region's culture.  A reminder for all and worth delving into even more.  Makes me want to read about more women of that ilk and nation who are brave and 'in your face' so to speak.

    Hey, followed the link to our old home and I still feel the same about Rose, he interrupts too much and is a bit too pompous to some and to ingratiating with others,  Geez, I miss that cafe.

    I emailed out your post to several.  (Some may not find it as entertaining as I did, 'cuz they are part of the problem, not the solution as they say. But, it may make them at least more aware of the truth as it is - not as they believe,)


    by Aunt Sam on Wed, 01/11/2012 - 11:17pm


    Well, by "subtle" I mean you have to click the link to find out it's about naked girls, which usually, you know, sells itself. In fact, let's try an experiment.

    I will add the words :"Naked Pix" to the title, and then stand by.


    by jollyroger on Wed, 01/11/2012 - 11:21pm

    Now if you had posted like, 'NUDE WOMAN PIX HERE' you probably would have gotten mush more attention.  sigh.  


    by Aunt Sam on Wed, 01/11/2012 - 11:22pm

    It's not like I'm shy on the topic--I used to "bark" for some of the strip joints in North Beach, and if a couple of guys walked by and my usual discussion of the treats they could expect inside failed to move them, I would sometimes be so exasperated that I would yell down the hill after them "Hey, man...These girls are shaved!"


    by jollyroger on Wed, 01/11/2012 - 11:35pm

    You are funny, what a story.

    When I was inside one of those joints I thought it would be hilarious not to order a real drink and kept telling the waitress, in Andy Griffith style, "Jes bring me a bag orange drink". I got thrown out on my ass by a very big bouncer. 


    by Oxy Mora on Thu, 01/12/2012 - 11:53am

    Yo can have any drink you want, as long as it's a fifteeen dollar drink...OJ will do.. in fact,unless you wish to limit yourself to topless emporia, you will be denied alcohol in California or New York, the solons of which states, after careful reflection, have concluded that the bringing together in the same room of pussy, testosterone and alcohol may lead to explosive chemical interactions.


    by jollyroger on Thu, 01/12/2012 - 1:54pm

    You need a less confusing headline, and it has to provide a good enough political reason to justify clicking on it.

    Try "Slut walk, Cairo: feminist facebooks the naked truth about life under the new/old regime."


    by erica20 on Wed, 01/11/2012 - 11:45pm

    ok  thanks,


    by jollyroger on Thu, 01/12/2012 - 12:21am

    None of these people care about human beings.

    Never did, never will.

    This post is important because people must be reminded of the Mitts in this world, the Newts in this world, the Perrys in this world, the Santorums in this world...

    These are extremely evil people.


    by Richard Day on Wed, 01/11/2012 - 10:12pm

    What would be a hoot would be if Gandolfini would do a thirty second riff about how his dick won't get hard anymore since he realized what a chump change bust out artist he is compared to Bain.

    He might have to go back into therapy.

    Actually,a few back silouhetted stills from the readily available youtube library and some overdubbing might give a viral spot.


    by jollyroger on Wed, 01/11/2012 - 10:58pm

    Brilliant piece.  Seriously.  I loved the Sopranos and remember that story line so vividly that a day or two ago I was remembering when Robert Patrick met his brother-in-law (played by Joe Penny) and Patrick confessed to gambling away his (Patrick's) son's college fund.

    And you make the parallels stark, clear and convincing.  It's time this country thought about how much deference these hyper-capitalists like Romney should be given.  and you lay it out in a way that an ordinary person can understand.  Nice job.


    by Ethanator on Wed, 01/11/2012 - 11:13pm

    Thanks.  I'm gonna poke around at a spoof therapy session, where Tony deconstructs this a little further.  If I ever manage something coherent, I'll post it on Youtube and link here,


    by jollyroger on Wed, 01/11/2012 - 11:23pm

    WSJ, the Doll company, nepotism/crony capitalism, Rmoney's personal venture that also failed:

    Mr. Romney introduced a brother-in-law of his, Rodney Davies, to Lifelike officials. Lifelike hired him, though Mr. Thiess said Mr. Romney didn't pressure it to. Mr. Davies eventually became a vice president at a $100,000 salary, court documents show.

    Yeah, the guy that gives you millions provides his brother-in-law for a 6 figure position, and no pressure is applied to hire him? That is merit based free enterprise, GOP style!


    by NCD on Wed, 01/11/2012 - 11:38pm

     

    See that's what I mean...

    Tony gets his nephew Christopher a lousy two thousand dollar a week no show job where he still has to sign in and out each day, and it's no wonder he gets no respect from the kid...


    by jollyroger on Wed, 01/11/2012 - 11:41pm

    Great story about your sinecure at Ramsay Outdoor Stores.

    I finally got it as to why these phony money laundering companies work so well. The stupid government is never looking at the Revenue side of the balance sheet. In other words, you can have a crap load of phony sales receipts and deposits---hey, that's free enterprise. But what the auditors always look at is your Expenses, always out to prove that you're trying to get away with something, deduct your expenses to Las Vegas or something like that. Meanwhile you can have all kinds of legitimate expenses to yourself, including salary, whatever. Good idea to throw them a bone, like deducting too much for lunch---not too much penalty involved and throws them off track. 

    Great post.


    by Oxy Mora on Thu, 01/12/2012 - 12:04pm

    As I have reflected overnight, I'm becoming more and more suspicicious that the appearance in the Sopranos plot of Ramsey Outdoor was no mere coincidence--after all, the appointment of  receiver is a fairly dramatic equitable remedy, which implies that money is coming in the front door and leaving through the back without stopping first and checking in at the register,.


    by jollyroger on Thu, 01/12/2012 - 1:59pm

    Gregory  Mankiw, Romney Family Consigilere, ​speaks in praise of the bust-out ethic:

    "it would be irrational for savings and loans [CEOs] not to loot.”


    by jollyroger on Tue, 04/17/2012 - 2:03am