David Brooks Explains Why America Needs A President With Private Equity Experience

David Brooks argues that the US was in decline and losing ground to foreign competitors like the Japanese.  Private equity managers, along with financiers, stepped into the breach and restored our economic leadership.  Government today is like corporations were before they were rescued by private equity.  It is bloated and inefficient.  We have to make a choice between someone who can transform government like he transformed many inefficient businesses, or someone who is only able to repeat ancient Democratic Party nostrums.  It seems like David Brooks is "leaning" towards casting his vote for Romney.

I don't want to get into the debate about whether private equity is good or bad for our economy, or for job creation.  On the other hand, I don't think that many business historians would agree with the version of history that was just invented by David Brooks. The US share of global exports has decreased by 3.5% since the 1980's. The US share of global GDP has also fallen. This may not signal a decline in US competitiveness, but is is clearly not a sign of business revival.  Moreover, private equity plays a minor role in the US economy.  The output from firms "rescued" by private equity is a negligible percent of GDP.  David Brooks will vote for Romney, but it is more likely he will do so because he always votes Republican.  He knows that he just made up the history that he reported.  After all, he majored in history at the University of Chicago.  He would have received an F on this version of history even at Chicago.