Are there BAD capitalists?

Listen to Dave’s Commentary: Are there BAD capitalists?

Are there good capitalists and bad capitalists, and which one is Mitt Romney?

For that we turn to CBS Money Watch’s Jill Schlesinger, former investment advisor, who knows venture capitalism is a blood sport.

“I don’t begrudge companies that make investments and buy companies and strip them out. Maybe they were going to fail anyway.”

But she thinks we should at least understand how some of these venture capitalists really work.

“I begrudge these guys who make an investment in a company. This is how a lot of venture capitalists work: they invest in a company, then you borrow money to do it (that’s great), then what you do is encourage that company to borrow more money to pay dividends out to you. So you get your money off the table, now the company is strapped with a bunch of debt. That’s private equity in the modern era. It’s disgusting, it contributes zero to the economy.”

She doesn’t put Mitt Romney in this category, but she DOES thing the way he handled the release of his tax returns was a blown opportunity.

“It would have been cool if Mitt Romney were to come out months ago and say ‘I’m releasing my tax returns and you know how the president is talking about tax reform, I’m going to tell you why we need tax reform. Look at my tax returns, that’s why we need tax reform.’ And he would have been an amazing example of someone who is like the contra-indication.”

Just as it took Nixon the anti-communist to open up China, and feel your pain Bill Clinton to sign off on Welfare Reform, Mitt Romney could have been the ruthless Capitalist…who reforms capitalism.