One of the most damning things about Romney’s refusal to tell the truth about Bain and to release his tax returns is that it just demonstrates to Americans that Romney doesn’t want to play by the rules that everyone else has to. Sullivan’s been doing a great job pointing this out:
More to the point, these attacks are not merely personal. When the Obama campaign says that Screen shot 2012-07-14 at 3.38.15 PMRomney is not the solution, but the problem, they are arguing that the extremes to which our economy and culture have gone in the last two decades – e.g. the money-grubbing, tax-evading and reckless financial sector – will not be tackled by a man who made a fortune by engaging in it. And this is not over the top. Bain is at the center of Romney’s own argument for his candidacy. And the attacks on Romney’s foreign bank accounts are much less incendiary than arguing that Obama does not understand his own country or apologized for it.
Mitt thinks of himself like these Galtian Masters of the Universe, who need not play by the rules:
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York learned in April 2008, as the financial crisis was brewing, that at least one bank was reporting false interest rates.
At the time, a Barclays employee told a New York Fed official that “we know that we’re not posting um, an honest” rate, according to documents released by the regulator on Friday. The employee indicated that other big banks made similarly bogus reports, saying that the British institution wanted to “fit in with the rest of the crowd.”
Although the New York Fed conferred with Britain and American regulators about the problems and recommended reforms, it failed to stop the illegal activity, which persisted through 2009.
Even after authorities have beefed up oversight and lawmakers have enacted new rules, blowups on Wall Street continue to occur with some regularity. Amid the rate-manipulation scandal, regulators are also dealing with the fallout from the multibillion-dollar trading losses at JP Morgan Chase and the collapse of a second brokerage firm, just months after the failure of MF Global.
“I wish I could say I’m shocked, because it is shocking,” said Frank Partnoy, the George E. Barrett professor of law and finance at the University of San Diego School of Law. “But regulators have not been particularly effective or aggressive in the past two decades of finance.”
They simply do not feel the obligation to follow any rules. Those are for little people. And you know what, they are right, because the only thing that has happened so far in this scandal is a paltry 400 million dollar fine for Barclays. Here we have a scandal involving multiple banks and the interest rate set on hundreds of trillions of loans, and other than Matt Taibbi screaming, a couple blogposts on Dealbook and the Business Insider, and a piece or two on NPR, no one seems to give a shit.
owlbear1
Not so much doesn’t give a shit, as just can’t really think of any fixes that don’t require multiple felonies.
jl
Don’t know if it has been linked to yet, but TPM has a good explanation of the significance of Mitt’s long goodbye to Bain.
TPM2012
Why The Timing Of Mitt Romney’s Bain Exit Matters
http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/07/why-the-timing-of-mitt-romneys-bain-exit-matters-a-guide.php
Jay in Oregon
That’s because the government has yet to demonstrate the three “In”s:
Investigations,
Indictments,
and incarcerations
d0n camillo
Gutless Drunk had an amazing collection of links pointing out their many acts of malfeasance in a thread yesterday.
ed_finnerty
one word
Corzine
Out and out theft and no implications except a mild public shaming
JPL
I’m watching Obama on CSPAN and I am falling in love with this guy all over again.
Villago Delenda Est
Since these people seem to believe that the rules do not apply to them, then I suggest that they be rounded up and summarily executed, no due process at all.
The rules, after all, DO NOT APPLY TO THEM.
d0n camillo
@Jay in Oregon: These guys were so confident they were untouchable, they even used their company email accounts to commit the LIBOR fraud even though they must have known they could potentially be subpoenaed. Until some of these people start doing perp walks and wearing orange jumpsuits, I don’t think they’ll learn anything. They’re like children who are also legally adults.
jl
For me the gut level intuitive truth behind Mitt’s long goodbye is that, morally, ethically, in this universe, and any conceivable alternative universe with anything like human life as we recognize it, it does not make a lick of difference whether Mitt is lying or not.
Because corporations do not go sociopath over night. Even if Mitt were telling the truth to people, the fact is, it was Mitt’s culture, Mitt’s people, and the evolution of Mitt’s technique that within one or two years, produced free market crony capitalist crud that he now wants expunged from his record.
Hey, Mitt, how’d that happen, big guy? It is so sad, what they did to YOUR company. Maybe you can explain it to us?
That is the real truth behind the flap over ‘quirks in the law’ and standard rich white man flim flam. Ain’t gonna work this time. Sad day for them.
The fact that Miitt’s line will be shown to be a corrupt lie, and corrupt lie that he did and will continue to try to profit enormously from, is just gravy and frosting (mixed metaphor alert!).
The only time I think Biden says something he does not believe to be true in his speeches, is when he takes a moment to say that Mitt is a good man, and honorable man, and he means to do Mitt no wrong, for he is an honorable man, but only a deeply mistaken man.
I would like to see an accurate Pinnochio count on that whopper.
Valdivia
@jl:
your eloquent comment somehow crystallized in my mind that Romney and his ‘I am not responsible’ sounds like the guy who cheats on his wife and in spite of being found out in flagrante says ‘wasn’t me!’ Offended, yelling, calling the woman crazy etc. It’s the exact same behaviour. All women who have had this experience (sorry to say I did and lucky me because I got rid of an idiot in my life that way) will instantly recognize it.
General Stuck
That was beautiful. It had a touch of pool room elegance of simplicity, yet deployed as a political dagger to the heart. And that takes precision accuracy for someone like Mitt Romney.
burnspbesq
I’d like to see some enterprising journalist submit a FOIA request for Mitt’s FBARs. The response will probably come back “they’re exempt from disclosure,” and that’s fine. But imagine the shit-storm that would erupt if the response was “there are no responsive documents.”
Cain
@Valdivia:
Sadly, that happened to me once but I as accused of cheating when I wasn’t. The story and evidence was so preposterous that I was happy when she broke things up since clearly I was dealing with someone who was not truthful. It’s good in both ways! On the other hand, she did try to tell all my friends and relatives that I was a cheating bastard.. luckily that stuff didn’t stick.
JPL
@jl: I want Kessler to start awarding himself some Pinnochios. It won’t happen because he has sold his soul to ALEC and believes in standing his ground no matter how much it sinks around him.
Zach
Just skimmed Romney’s return earlier today; his foreign investment tax deduction jumped in 2005 (90k to 350k or something similar to that). What changed in 2005, you ask? Well, that’s the year of the last foreign-income repatriation holiday. The corporate income tax was dropped from 35% to 5.25% on a one-time basis (plus a lot of permanent changes that also benefit people offshoring their investments). So, since you have a lot of leeway when it comes to how you realize your profits in funds like those run by Bain folks, it would’ve been quite profitable to realize income as corporate income rather than carried interest that year.
This wouldn’t be such a big deal, except another repatriation holiday (this time to 0%) is a big part of Mitt’s economic plans. He’ll follow up by permanently dropping all taxes on foreign income. There’s certainly an argument to be made for this, policy-wise, but it won’t be too great for Romney when people find out that he’d personally benefit to the tune of millions of dollars a year if his preferred tax policies became law.
WereBear
Richard Pryor said it that way.
And yes, they will challenge your reality, because they don’t really have one; just a constantly updated virtual world to be manipulated.
What we have been dealing with the past few decades is an institutionalized system of creating shadow authorities; a simultaneously running duplicate system of science, learning, religion, and media designed to make the right wing thinking supported by actual reality.
But it’s a sham to let the country be ripped off.
Very meta of them, I must admit. But evil and insidious, all the same.
RaflW
So far, the bankers know they won’t do jail time. Heck, it’s a rare big deal that JP Morgan is going to claw back the bonuses of a handful of traders.
Until several CEOs are summarily fired with no severance, assistance or time to pack up their family photos, followed by a few prosecutions, there will be two sets of rules in America: one for the 1%, and one for the rest of us.
Romney is clearly banking on that as he continues to run away from and yet on his record.
JPL
@Zach: Fox news will ask him about that. He won’t appear again on network news.
slag
@Valdivia: I believe this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFvujknrBuE&feature=fvwrel is the type of argument to which you were referring. It’s the voice I always hear in my head in these kinds of circumstances. And JC has referenced it more than a few times here, I believe.
NonyNony
@burnspbesq:
Can you explain what this means. Cause I can use teh Google to figure out what an FBAR (Foreign Bank Account Report) is, but I don’t know what “there are no responsive documents” means even with that context.
Valdivia
@Cain:
sorry you got wrongly accused, that’s horrible. I was lucky because the guy was truly poisonous and he made it easy for me to leave, I just happened to walk in on it. Like finding signed filed paperwork with the SEC :)
jl
@JPL: Brilliant!
Balloon Juice should officially submit the most egregious and BS factchecker turds to the very same factchecker that produced it. And then ask why they are not on it on the tweeter machines.
Keith
The thing that keeps sticking in my head is how similar Romney’s explanation of the responsibilities of his title are so similar to those of Rupert Murdoch’s when he got called to the mat for stuff his company did. Romney’s is ever crazier because one of his titles was “Managing Director”, yet he claimed not to be managing or directing the company.
rikyrah
my guesses about the tax returns:
1. not only did he pay a low tax rate, he paid NO TAXES for MANY YEARS.
2. He paid more in TITHES TO THE MORMON CHURCH than he did in TAXES to the country he wants to be elected President of
3. Remember when the Obama Administration gave a ’ grace period’ to tax cheaters that had their money overseas – I bet he’s on that list.
remember this above all else:
4. John McCain saw 23 years of tax returns…AND CHOSE PALIN
there’s a genius in the tax return thing. it’s so simple. just keep asking over and over
WHAT ARE YOU HIDING IN THE TAX RETURNS, WILLARD?
the lowest of the lowest information voters can grasp that.
Valdivia
@WereBear:
exactly, but when you try to have it as a meta argument people don’t feel it or see it. when you talk about personal stuff it resonates. I think the “I wasn’t in charge thing” will break the camels back on this whole simulacra.
@slag:
ha! though Romney doesn’t have the affability of Belushi.
Litlebritdifrnt
Even if Romney can bare faced lie and say he left Bain in 1999, I think the Obama campaign has the flesh in their teeth now, and I think they can pivot to say “even if he wasn’t involved he has been collecting profits from Bain since 1999 until as recently as 2009 so Romney profited from everything Bain did.” Which is absolutely and utterly true and I would dare any “factchecker” to refute it. Or as Sully has been pounding on Romney has been profiting off the disposal of aborted babies whether he was at Bain or not. I agree that should never be used in an ad by anyone remotely close to Obama, but the word needs to get out there.
jl
@Valdivia:
@Cain:
Sorry to hear you folks had to go through that in your personal lives. Having to deal with that kind of thing in work and the civic sphere is bad enough.
I have spent time in the Bainful sphere of working life. Abusive situations are common, but center around money and power, but it messes up the heads of the people caught by that life.
Litlebritdifrnt
@rikyrah:
Gibbs started the “The McCain campaign looked at 23 years of Romney’s tax returns and CHOSE PALIN what does that tell you” the other morning on MJ. I saw it repeated by someone (can’t remember who) yesterday and this morning on UP Carville repeated it. I think this is now going to be the major talking point when it comes to the tax returns. Someone posted a link the other day to Steve Schmidt talking about Mitt’s tax returns (which he has obviously seen) and he said (paraphrasing) “he should not release something that is going to be devastating to his campaign”. The tax returns are TOXIC, we know it, and more importantly Mitt knows it.
Mnemosyne
I am probably one of the few people who remembers this movie from the 1980s called Head Office. Not a very good movie, but it had some great lines, good cameos (Michael O’Donoghue and Danny DiVito in the same movie) and is still pretty accurate about corporate America.
Romney reminds me of Howard Gross (Rick Moranis): “I didn’t make that decision, I approved that decision!”
Zach
@Litlebritdifrnt: “The tax returns are TOXIC, we know it, and more importantly Mitt knows it.”
I also suspect you’ll find several years of him claiming New Hampshire residency. He just happened to build his vacation home in a zero percent income-tax state. Sure.
burnspbesq
@NonyNony:
If you were to submit a FOIA request to the IRS (which administers the Bank Secrecy Act provisions requiring the filing of FBARs) for Mitt’s FBARs, and their response were “there are no responsive documents,” there are only two logical inferences. Either (1) the IRS lost them or (2) Mitt never filed them. I leave it to you to decide which one of those things is more likely.
Comrade Mary
Latest Obama ad: Mitt Romney: Asking for Apologies While Launching Attacks
Its count is currently paused at the magic 301 (the count YouTube uses while they assess and verify the raw counts they get on any new video), but you should see that number ratchet up soon. It’s not the smackdown that “Firms” is, but it has some swagger.
J.D. Rhoades
The tax returns are TOXIC, we know it, and more importantly Mitt knows it.
After three years of “Where’s the Birth Certificate!?” I want to see some signs at rallies saying “Where Are The Tax Returns!?” And I want them now.
Valdivia
@jl:
I was lucky never to experience that at work. But I must confess when it happened to me in my personal life it didn’t feel like abuse. More like–are you this stupid? How can you keep denying it? And a relief to be able to walk away. Also too. So long ago it feels like another lifetime.
slag
I’m just glad that, for a change, the first link I see in my Google News is: “No Apologies: Obama Campaign Continues Attacks on Romney” from the NYT. Yes please.
Zach
@Comrade Mary: I’m waiting for the ad that cuts Mitt Romney’s speeches and TV appearances with 8-year-olds running around saying “I know you are but what am I?” His main campaign tactic w/r/t messaging has been reacting to whatever Obama says by saying “Well. Obama’s the REAL [insert bad thing here]!” So far, we have:
– the REAL one with a war on women!
– the REAL Harvard-educated elitist!
– the REAL liar in this campaign!
– the REAL outsourcer-in-chief!
– the REAL politician who doesn’t care about the Black community!
Etc. Swift Boating worked because it preempted any attempt by Kerry to ding Bush for not serving (and also because Kerry’s response was terrible). If this is going to be Romney’s strategy it’s amazing that he didn’t have the foresight to beat Obama to the punch on this stuff.
smintheus
This from a few days ago is pretty relevant. A survey of Wall St. executives found that a quarter of them think it’s “necessary” to cheat if you want to get ahead. They also say it’s common.
That is Mitt Romney’s world, it’s not the world most Americans live in.
Cain
@Valdivia:
Ooh.. that sucks. I would hate to be in that situation..
slag
@jl:
Indeed. I’ve known quite a few who have escaped this kind of abusive relationship (and that’s always been the most accurate characterization). It’s not until you’re out of that scheming, backslapping/stabbing environment that you can see how much it messed with your head.
Part of the problem is that we Americans tend to be far too invested in our work. It narrows our worldviews. And without long vacations, we never get much chance to expand our perspectives again. So, it’s a vicious cycle.
wrb
@rikyrah:
But you could clear up all these questions, Willard, by showing us the tax returns.
Why don’t you?
What are you hiding?
Jay in Oregon
@rikyrah:
There’s your bumpersticker/Twitter-friendly talking point right there.
“How damning are Mitt Romney’s finances? John McCain saw 23 years’ worth of his tax returns & picked Sarah Palin for VP instead.”
JS
When it comes to Romney being-in-charge/not-really-being-in-charge of Bain between 1999-2002..
Where was the Mitt Romney who said “I can’t have illegals working on my landscaping crew, I’m running for President for God’s sake!”?
Where was this guy when Bain was sending American jobs all over the globe – when he was on the line as CEO/sole owner/single shareholder/grand poobah/master of the universe of those subsidiaries?
demz taters
I wonder what Jane Swift is thinking these days.
PeakVT
Hopefully this doesn’t blow up and give the media a counter-scandal (both sides do it!).
Ivan Ivanovich Renko
@jl:
A corporation, by definition, is a sociopath. A corporation exists for exactly one thing- to make money. That’s it, period, full stop. All you can do is ride herd on them, to minimize the collateral damage… that is regulate ’em.
Kilgore Trout
@rikyrah:
Newt was all over this back in January:
Pillsy
@Mnemosyne:
Head Office was great. Well, ok, actually it wasn’t great, but it was fitfully hilarious.
“¡Totalitarianismo, no! ¡Autoritarianismo, sí!”
Msskwesq
@Jay in Oregon: exactly right. I have been calling for ‘Perp Walks’ for these bankers since 2008. That is one thing I fault the Obama Administration and Congress for– no prosecution of the bankers and Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld (for crimes against humanity).
CW in LA
@J.D. Rhoades: The most This.
burnspbesq
@Msskwesq:
Just out of idle curiosity, which provision in Title 18 prohibits “crimes against humanity?”
runt
I fear we are living in a Yes, Prime Minister episode which has escaped into the real world:
[discussing a financial scandal]
Sir Desmond Glazebrook: They’ve broken the rules.
Sir Humphrey: What, you mean the insider trading regulations?
Sir Desmond Glazebrook: No.
Sir Humphrey: Oh. Well, that’s one relief.
Sir Desmond Glazebrook: I mean of course they’ve broken those, but they’ve broken the basic, the basic rule of the City.
Sir Humphrey: I didn’t know there were any.
Sir Desmond Glazebrook: Just the one. If you’re incompetent you have to be honest, and if you’re crooked you have to be clever. See, if you’re honest, then when you make a pig’s breakfast of things the chaps rally round and help you out.
Sir Humphrey: If you’re crooked?
Sir Desmond Glazebrook: Well, if you’re making good profits for them, chaps don’t start asking questions; they’re not stupid. Well, not that stupid.
Sir Humphrey: So the ideal is a firm which is honest and clever.
Sir Desmond Glazebrook: Yes. Let me know if you ever come across one, won’t you.
bob h
Speaking of Libor, I believe Mitt is on his way to London for a fundraiser hosted by Bob Diamond, the former Barclays chair.
Since bankers aren’t giving to him, Obama should make them a new issue in the campaign, and hang it all around Mitt’s neck.
Frank
The American media feels like it “did” the whole banking scandal thing a couple of years ago. So..big yawn. Then there’s the concern that they would be seen as piling on Wall St, something that only Biased Liberals would do. At this point the bankers could sacrifice puppies to bronze statues of Reagan and Thatcher and not garner much negative press here in the States.
Rome Again
@Valdivia:
It’s called Gaslighting. Mitt Romney is GASLIGHTING the American electorate.