Those who plan on voting for Mitt Romney believing that he is a great businessman who knows how to turn around the economy should read the great article in the Newsweek dated Oct. 22, 2012, by David Stockman, Ronald Reagan's budget director. In part he writes:"Mitt Romney was not a businessman: he was a master financial speculator who bought, sold, flipped, and stripped businesses. He did not build enterprises the old-fashioned way -- out of inspiration, perspiration, and a long slog in the free market fostering a new product, service, or process of production. Instead he spent his 15 years raising debt in prodigious amounts on Wall Street so that Bain could purchase the pots and pans and castoffs of corporate America, leverage them to the hilt, gussy them up as reborn ‘roll ups,' and then deliver them back to Wall Street for resale -- the faster the better."

Referring to one of Romney's business dealings as a "scam," Stockman goes on to write, "Romney's record is actually all about the utter unfairness of windfall riches obtained under our anti-free-market regime of bubble finance."

I know what Stockman is referring to when he said "building businesses the old-fashioned way." I was one of those who started a business from scratch, slogged day and night to develop it, and served thousands of clients with integrity. Even during the most difficult times I did not lay off my staff to save myself a few bucks. Can Romney say that truthfully?

K.P.S. KAMATH, Cape Girardeau