Facing up to financial reality | May Letter of the Month

Victims of ‘vulture capitalism’

Describing Mitt Romney as a good businessman in the Letter of the Month is a travesty. Newt Gingrich created a YouTube in which he called Romney venal and coined the term “vulture capitalism” for Romney’s ruinous business tactics.

I know, because my own business was a victim. Kay Bee Toys, headquartered in the bucolic Berkshire Mountains in Massachusetts, had been in business 106 years, operating profitably, with 8,000 employees and 1,300 stores doing $1.1 billion in sales. KB Toys was socially conscious and refused to sell toy guns for children. Romney’s Bain Capital bought KB Toys, immediately took on $120 million in debt, and used it to buy back its own stock and to pay Romney an $86 million bonus. The business was soon shut down, dumping thousands out of work. Romney needed a cover story for the disaster he imposed on local lives. He said that he was not personally involved and that he was only doing the employees a favor by “harvesting” the business.

My service business depended on KB as its main customer. It is gone now, too, along with 70 workers.

KB Toys, and my business, were just more lambs ready for slaughter in Romney’s view.

Allan Ardis, Wesley Chapel

https://www.tampabay.com/opinion/letters/saturdays-letters-victims-of-vulture-capitalism/2281139/

Old Socialist