In a real free market, you shouldn't make money by failing

(Bain Capital/Boston Globe)

The reason why Mitt Romney and his defenders in the press do not want to talk about Bain Capital's brand of "business" is because it strikes at the very heart of Mitt Romney's central justification for being president. They both defend what Mitt Romney did as "capitalism" and "free enterprise." In their elite world, it is perfectly legitimate business to make money when companies fail. Therefore, Mitt Romney as president will also see to it that this style of "business" is legitimized and encouraged by the federal government when Mitt Romney is president.

But Mitt Romney isn't a businessman in the way the average American understands business. Mitt Romney didn't invest in that steel mill, turn it around for a profit and walk away with perfectly justified earnings. Nor did he invest that money and lose his investment through mismanagement or bad luck, which would also be perfectly fair.

The central problem with Mitt Romney's style of "business" is that he doubled his investment even though he drove that steel mill into bankruptcy. This is no different from golden parachute CEO's who run companies into the ground and still walk away with a huge severance package. This is no different from what Bernie Madoff did. This is no different from racketeering. Mitt Romney's "business" is no different from what Wall Street did, running the national economy into the ground and walking away with record profits. While one could very cynically call loansharking "business," nobody believes it is in any way a healthy and free market enterprise.

The American people understand business shouldn't be like this. There should be rules against it. There should be ethical standards preventing people from even thinking of doing it. Not only is it immoral, it strikes at the heart of what a truly free and fair market should be all about: creating and building, competition on a level playing field, and comeuppance when there is failure. If you or I start a flower shop and it fails, we lose our savings. If Mitt Romney does the same thing, he doubles his investment. That's not a free market. That's a perversion of what free enterprise is all about. Mitt Romney's brand of "business" should not be held up as a model. He should be decried as the poster child of what is wrong with this country's elite in the media and on Wall Street. Mitt Romney's "business" experience wouldn't be any better for America than Madoff's.

Mitt Romney's experience at Bain is exactly what disqualifies him for the office of president.

To make a long story short, Mitt Romney isn't a businessman. He's a Wall Street racketeer. Any business that rewards failure is not a market, and certainly not a free and fair one. That's called a racket. Even the Tea Party understands that, even if the elite media do not.