Romney, the 2012 GOP nominee, makes an interesting comparison to Trump. Both are successful businessmen at the highest levels, and as such are hard-nosed, sure of what they want, and relentless opportunists. But they have very different business personalities. To borrow from Dr. D’s delicious phrase, you won’t see Romney wearing anything, metaphorically or not, that could be said to resemble a lampshade.
Trump is a classic real estate developer who is very good at marketing (or shameless self-promotion, if you prefer). He actually builds things, like buildings, and creates brands, and he has managed businesses, in the trenches. But if you do business with him, keep your hand on your wallet. Jerry Jones of the Cowboys, after concluding an oil & gas deal very one-side in his favor, was reputed to have said, well, I could have gotten more, but I always like to leave a few feathers on the chicken. I don’t think Trump likes leaving any feathers.
Romney is a classic investment banker/leveraged buyout-private equity pirate who rode the lending-bubbles/regulatory/free trade waves that began in the 1980’s. He never built a business or managed one (his financial firm excepted). He used investment capital not his own plus debt on which he was never personally liable to acquire businesses, bleed them for as much cash as possible as quickly as possible, and get out. Matt Taibbi wrote an interesting article on Romney and his career at Bain Capital for Rolling Stone in 2012. The link is here: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/greed-and-debt-the-true-story-of-mitt-romney-and-bain-capital-20120829
Even if you discount Taibbi’s often vulgar, slash-to-the-bone style, the facts of his career show Romney was never about creating or saving American jobs or building companies. He was basically a parasite who extracted his profits without regard to the long-term health of his host. An economic term for this is a rent-seeker.
I don’t think of him as amoral or a criminal – everything he did was perfectly legal and in fact encouraged by tax rules and the investment regulatory climate (a shameful thing, really, but that is another topic). I do find it somewhat disingenuous of him to wrap himself in the flag of good old American capitalism – that gives truth to the old saw that patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.
So which business background would make for a better president? Between these two, Trump in a heartbeat. But of course, that is not the choice facing us in this election. I was hoping for someone a wee bit more inspirational that we could rally behind. Well, maybe next time.