A Defense of Private Equity, and of Romney’s Years at Bain

As the race for the presidency heats up, President Obama’s reelection team continues to attack Mitt Romney’s career at Bain Capital, while questioning private equity’s role in the American economy. In a speech at Keene State College yesterday, Vice President Joe Biden said that Romney’s work at Bain “no more qualifies him to be President than being a plumber.”
Earlier in the week, at the NATO Summit in Chicago, President Obama told reporters, “When you’re President — as opposed to the head of a private equity firm — then your job is not simply to maximize profits. Your job is to figure out how everybody in the country has a fair shot.”
Edward Conard, former managing director at Bain Capital and author of “Unintended Consequences: Why Everything You’ve Been Told about the Economy is Wrong,” worked with Mitt Romney throughout the Republican candidate’s years in private equity. Conard explains why he believes Romney’s experience in private equity will prove essential should the Republican candidate take the White House this fall.