Will Romney's work at Bain cost him? RE: Bain. I've worked with Mitt as a colleague at both the Boston Consulting Group and Bain Consulting, before Bain Capital was founded, going back over thirty years. We had breakfast a couple of years ago in Beijing (where I worked at the time) when he came over to see first-hand what was happening in China. I've also worked in the private equity industry. First, Mitt is a thoughtful, analytical, thoroughly decent man. Private equity is mostly about finding companies in trouble, investing in to take control, fixing them up wherever possible, and eventually selling. The primary objective is to save the company -- dead companies aren't worth much. The second is to make it more valuable; value is a combination of growth and profitability. That means making the companies more competitive so it will grow and more profitable. That, in turn, requires innovation and competitive prices. When this is successful, jobs are created. Sometimes, however, it becomes necessary to amputate a limb to save the patient. On Jobs: In the United States, people don't generally create companies and invest money with the fundamental objective of creating jobs. They invest to make a return on their investment, jobs are a happy by-product. Jobs are created when companies need more people; they need more people when they grow and innovate. Both require investment. The primary source of investment is corporate earnings -- profit. You want jobs, grow and innovate. You want growth and innovation, invest in the private sector. You want investment in the private sector, set the playing field so investment is attractive, and investment here in the US is more attractive than investment elsewhere. How to create investment: reduce taxes, reduce regulatory burdens, allow capital to flow to where it can generate the best returns ... which is where there is growth and innovation, which is where jobs are created. This is capitalism in a free-market economy. Adam Smith described how it works in 1776, the year we declared independence. Countries that have adopted socialist models have generally not been competitive. China started to grow only when it threw off its socialist planned economy model and adopted a capitalist, regulated free market model. I know, I've lived there through for most of the past 29 years. In a capitalist system, there must be capitalists -- SOMEBODY other than the State has got to own the productive assets -- whether it's individuals or your pension fund. Taxing the rich means taxing capital; it means diverting money that was investment in productive enterprise to the government, creating government jobs, which increases the budget and reduces the tax base, a fatal spiral. "Tax breaks for the wealthy" are demonized by the left ... who would have us believe that tax policy is somehow merely subsidizing conspicuous consumption by the super rich; a better understanding is that it is reducing taxes on capital, stimulating investment-- which leads to jobs. Of all the candidates vying for the presidency, Mitt Romney understands the best how this works. Investment -- in growth and innovation -- creates jobs. I would expect the socialist-leaning Left to pile on Mitt's Bain experience, but coming from the far right? nuff said.