How did Mitt Romney end up with one of the biggest IRAs in the history of IRAs? Was it even a good idea? Would he do it again if he had the chance?

he put stock from when he started Bain Capital, likely at par value and when it was otherwise worthless, into his IRA... smart move... worth emulating.

IRAs exist to help individuals save for their retirement.

It seems unfair to exploit a loophole that most people could never make use of.

Worse, it seems like a violation of the spirit of why IRAs were created.

Folks here in the Valley have put a portion of their par-value founder's shares in 'self-directed' Roth IRAs... and so in outsized-return situations, could find themselves in a similar position. So I'm not impressed with Steve Rattner's declared surprise here, if founders far less wealthy and politically-connected than him are aware of a technique for getting that sort of return in an IRA account.

Most people in the country would never even consider such an exploitation of the rules.

The fact that only a handful of people can take advantage of this says to me that this use of IRAs is ridiculously unfair.