Note: Analysis of Bain Capital Profit Sharing Plan in Separate Post A leading reporter recently asked me to take a look at Mitt Romney's 502 page tax return. What resulted was a fascinating journey that will hopefully initiate a common sense dialogue on needed tax reforms. Newt Gingrich's return was also analyzed, yet revealed no substantive tax policy issues. To be clear, I am a strong critic of large private equity and hedge fund "buyout" firms. To me they are clearly no more than sophisticated tax deduction pyramid schemes. Others might argue they are the very definition of crony capitalism and via "club deals" are creating abusive monopolies that are destroying open markets. That said, it is also true that these large private equity firms pay very close attention to my work and jokingly refer to me as Sherlock's Sherlock when it comes to financial analysis. So here we go.
