Koch brothers: wealth grew from $7.5 billion to $50 billion in last seven years

[Lanyap]

Looks like George Soros is right behind them with $22B (the Koch brothers are $25B each). He made a fortune in his hedge fund but cashed out recently when the Dodd-Frank law came out.

Soros = good / Koch = bad.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kerenbl...ionaire-george-soros-cracks-into-the-top-ten/

http://www.forbes.com/forbes-400/

 

[LegendKiller]

So why don't you join them, you're obviously in the position to do so to better yourself, or so you portray.

Unlike you, I am not an amoral person. You'd slobber on their knob for a chance to squeeze a dollar out of them and you know it. It's why you play both sides of the political coin, cheerleading socialism through your wife and hating it through your politics.

 

[her209]

Now THAT'S what I call an American success story! This is an example of the progressives worst nightmare - somebody succeeding in America.

One would ask, would the Koch Bros make just as much money if they lived in another country?

 

[LegendKiller]

Looks like George Soros is right behind them with $22B (the Koch brothers are $25B each). He made a fortune in his hedge fund but cashed out recently when the Dodd-Frank law came out.

Soros = good / Koch = bad.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kerenbl...ionaire-george-soros-cracks-into-the-top-ten/

http://www.forbes.com/forbes-400/

He's experienced a 600% gain in the last 6 years?

http://www.forbes.com/finance/lists...ssYear=2004&passListType=Person&uniqueId=L9II

Not quite as well, but whoever said one was better than the other?

 

[spidey07]

Unlike you, I am not an amoral person. You'd slobber on their knob for a chance to squeeze a dollar out of them and you know it. It's why you play both sides of the political coin, cheerleading socialism through your wife and hating it through your politics.

Yes. I learned how to play the game. You're smart enough to do the same. My wife is the gravy, and I'm the bread. I LOVE my life. You see liberal, I have it all figured out and you're fine with just bitching and not taking advantage. This is AMERICA liberal, the land of opportunity, and I AM going to get every opportunity afforded to me.

If you don't do the same out of some altruistic feelings, well, not my fucking problem liberal, not my problem. Life isn't fair.

Capitalism, live it, learn it, love it, embrace it, better your life through it. If you don't? That's your problem, not mine.

 

[Craig234]

If speculators bid up gas prices beyond what actual supply & demand say they should be they get hosed if they're wrong when prices go back down. You can't just bid up prices to gain profits arbitrarily.

Thanks for the sixth-grader ideology position. Wrong, but neat and simple, as they say.

Look at the graph. Did their big profits disappear? Are they made from thin air?

 

[alkemyst]

I has nothing to do with Obama...the idiot bleeding hearts decided to give bail outs to those that really didn't need them. Our richest people saw their net worths increase by one fucking trillion dollars. Just that alone of artificial growth was enough to fuck us all.

 

[K1052]

Yes. I learned how to play the game. You're smart enough to do the same. My wife is the gravy, and I'm the bread. I LOVE my life. You see liberal, I have it all figured out and you're fine with just bitching and not taking advantage. This is AMERICA liberal, the land of opportunity, and I AM going to get every opportunity afforded to me.

If you don't do the same out of some altruistic feelings, well, not my fucking problem liberal, not my problem. Life isn't fair.

Capitalism, live it, learn it, love it, embrace it, better your life through it. If you don't? That's your problem, not mine.

Yes, this is why people who are already worth billions would knowingly damage the economy and other people for yet more billions with no real purpose. Of course this is only the most base human nature and the people who perpetrate it only know guilt in the most rationalized terms if at all.....the idea that if you can do something that means you should reigns supreme. It knows no party affiliation or religious creed.

 

[Craig234]

I'm shocked you are talking about your kind this way.

Why?

Why are you shocked?

Legendkiller has long been an informed Wall Street person supporting reforms.

In fact, insider accounts say (not referring to LK here) a lot of the worst Wall Street staffers understand the harm they cause, and feel bad about it, and wandt to 'take a big payout and then leave the position'. They face some conflict between the harm they're doing - plenty of rationalization available - and the enormous rewards.

People like Nomi Prins - former Goldman Sachs Director - have gone further, as she is an author who has become an advocate for fighting the problems on Wall Street.

George Soros - the person the right is so ignorant, paranoid and obsessed about - similarly has a nasty background in currency manipulation but is a philanthropist.

You can't get much more Wall Street than Michael Bloomberg - h makes the machines nearly all the traders use, and runs major Wall Street media - and was elected to be mayor over the city with Wall Street - and yet he just was talking about how we need to redistribute wealth better, 'before there are riots'.

Some Wall Street figures are 'liberals' who want to reform, and mitigate the harm.

It's funny, the right is like a mindless hate machine who doesn't know why it hates, it just hates those who oppose evil, while thinking they're opposing evil.

Instead of cheering a Soros who does well at the game they cheer, because he tries to do some good for people too, they view him as an enemy. They're nuts.

As an industry, though, the interests stomp all over the 'liberal people', and it's a menace to society; reform cannot come from in the community.

 

[Craig234]

I has nothing to do with Obama...the idiot bleeding hearts decided to give bail outs to those that really didn't need them. Our richest people saw their net worths increase by one fucking trillion dollars. Just that alone of artificial growth was enough to fuck us all.

No, the bleeding hearts picked the guy who claimed he was a progressive over the McCain/Palin utterly corrupt, incompetent, pro-corpotocracy Bush continuation.

The fact the alternative to McCain/Palin was the biggest recipient of Wall Street funds isn't why they picked him, but it helped him get elected paying for a campaign.

If they supported any bailouts, it was only to prevent 'disaster'. They're the ones who most strongly support Wall Street reform - not Republicans, not Obama.

That's the question for you wannabe opponents of the class warfare by the top: what policies will help reverse that, and who backs them?

Hint: the answer isn't 'getting rid of the fed', which was largely created in response to the rich bankers manipulating the system, which they'd continue to do.

Progressives and the tea party might actually find some common ground on Wall Street reform, though. But they're not a majority.

And thank goodness the tea party isn't bigger, given the rest of their agenda.

What are Republicans doing on it? Trying to gut the already weak Dodd-Frank reform bill as a high priority.

 

[LegendKiller]

Yes. I learned how to play the game. You're smart enough to do the same. My wife is the gravy, and I'm the bread. I LOVE my life. You see liberal, I have it all figured out and you're fine with just bitching and not taking advantage. This is AMERICA liberal, the land of opportunity, and I AM going to get every opportunity afforded to me.

If you don't do the same out of some altruistic feelings, well, not my fucking problem liberal, not my problem. Life isn't fair.

Capitalism, live it, learn it, love it, embrace it, better your life through it. If you don't? That's your problem, not mine.

What's hilarious is that you can't even see how big of a fucking hypocrite you are. You're more than willing to advocate the theft of wealth by the top from the bottom but when the bottom does it, you deride it. Further, when you do it yourself, you think it's "gravy", not theft, the same theft you rail against with "liberals" is the one you love as a "conservative".

In reality, you're a fucking hypocrite loser and a poster child for the "me me me me" mentality that pervades the kleptocracy. You are this country's worst nightmare.

 

[alkemyst]

The only way to fix this mess is to cut out all the tax supported infrastructure. When you have workerbees making more than the president that's an issue. Also the coffer should not be one common government pool.

 

[Craig234]

The only way to fix this mess is to cut out all the tax supported infrastructure. When you have workerbees making more than the president that's an issue. Also the coffer should not be one common government pool.

Deluded, useless post that I can't say even really qualifies as bad ideology.

There are very good reasons for SOME to make those salaries; not all.

 

[JD50]

Watch out lefties, there's a Koch under your bed!

 

[umbrella39]

What's hilarious is that you can't even see how big of a fucking hypocrite you are. You're more than willing to advocate the theft of wealth by the top from the bottom but when the bottom does it, you deride it. Further, when you do it yourself, you think it's "gravy", not theft, the same theft you rail against with "liberals" is the one you love as a "conservative".

In reality, you're a fucking hypocrite loser and a poster child for the "me me me me" mentality that pervades the kleptocracy. You are this country's worst nightmare.

He is funny to watch though! You have to give him that. He has invented this "life" he has outside of the 55 THOUSAND posts he has made 24 hours, 7 days a week where he is part of some weird sandwich made of nothing more than bread and butter! It's a fucking HOOT! The fucked up part is he really sounds like he is starting to believe his bullshit... he'll be posting from his padded cell or jail cell before 2020 if he lives that long. Bet on it. We the people have spoken.

 

[alkemyst]

Deluded, useless post that I can't say even really qualifies as bad ideology.

There are very good reasons for SOME to make those salaries; not all.

I never said ALL. Capeche?

 

[Phokus]

What's hilarious is that you can't even see how big of a fucking hypocrite you are. You're more than willing to advocate the theft of wealth by the top from the bottom but when the bottom does it, you deride it. Further, when you do it yourself, you think it's "gravy", not theft, the same theft you rail against with "liberals" is the one you love as a "conservative".

In reality, you're a fucking hypocrite loser and a poster child for the "me me me me" mentality that pervades the kleptocracy. You are this country's worst nightmare.

Spidey is the perfect representation of the Tea Party. Over 60% of those fuckers are for entitlement programs. They only hate 'socialism' when they don't directly benefit from it (but love it when they do). And they way underestimate how much they benefit from the government.

 

[Engineer]

What's hilarious is that you can't even see how big of a fucking hypocrite you are. You're more than willing to advocate the theft of wealth by the top from the bottom but when the bottom does it, you deride it. Further, when you do it yourself, you think it's "gravy", not theft, the same theft you rail against with "liberals" is the one you love as a "conservative".

In reality, you're a fucking hypocrite loser and a poster child for the "me me me me" mentality that pervades the kleptocracy. You are this country's worst nightmare.

*bravo*...well said sir.

 

[trenchfoot]

Watch out lefties, there's a Koch under your bed!

I wouldn't mind at all if I found them under my bed. They'd be invading my home and I'd be free to defend my home in a way that would satisfy both my sense of justice and peace of mind.

And besides, I'd rather have them under my bed than digging into my pockets for every penny they can pry off of me.

And as of the end of this October, I'm going to be Koch-proof anyway.

 

[blackangst1]

Spidey is the perfect representation of the Tea Party. Over 60% of those fuckers are for entitlement programs. They only hate 'socialism' when they don't directly benefit from it (but love it when they do). And they way underestimate how much they benefit from the government.

Im not sure why you would target the tea party with that comment. I think it pretty much represents 95% of everyone.

 

[senseamp]

It's never enough for "job creators."

 

[matt0611]

Thanks for the sixth-grader ideology position. Wrong, but neat and simple, as they say.

Look at the graph. Did their big profits disappear? Are they made from thin air?

Koch industries provides energy, I never said their profits would dissapear.

 

[the DRIZZLE]

So, these are the guys complaining about and fighting 'socialist' Obama. It'd be one thing if his policies had been for the people, reversing the concentration of wealth.

That's not the case, as the picture shows. So their complaint really, is that the economic shift bad for most Americans but great for them simply isn't enough.

When you see the growth above - which contrasts to the record debt of average Americans - you can see how easy it is to 'buy government' with pocket change.


And there you have the formula they've followed - buy state elections nationally, with record Republican wins; have those statehouses pass radical policies favoring 'their side', from reducing union rights and strength to lower Americans' wealth and power, to voter suppression to help them win even more elections. And in at least one 'swing state', Pennsylvania, so far, they've arranged for the win of Obama of 21 electoral votes to only give him 1 electoral vote in 2012, if repeated.

One of the most parasitic and harmful economic activities has been 'commodity speculation', which has skyrocketed prices from oil to food globally.

The Koch brothers have been doing that - the picture above showing their growing their wealth over 500% with tens of billions, shows the wealth Americans are losing.

That's not the Koch brothers 'inventing a great new energy technology benefiting society and profiting from it' - that'd be fair, though of course, they wouldn't invent it, they'd just luckily have the money to pay for its invention. No, that's inventing a new way to be parasites.

For more reading on the oil speculation they've been doing:

http://thinkprogress.org/report/koch-oil-speculation/

Their simple political formula of having a contest of candidates to get voters to fall for any line they offer, but support policies that benefit them, has been working.

Will it continue to, or will Americans realize how they're being harmed by these few at the top?

It'd be one thing if this were a story of 'Kock brothers up, others down', but *as a class*, the top 0.01%, the top 400, look a lot like the chart above.

As a class, they have been 'waging class warfare on America' and winning. And that's related to their growing a lot at the same time most have a 'bad economy'.

This is some weak sauce analysis. They are own an oil business in a period where the price went up dramatically so of course their wealth increased, I'm not following what's wrong with that. How much of that their wealth increase is from derivatives trading? For all you know they have lost money doing it. You are implying that they have driven the price up through the derivatives market, but you don't even know what positions they've taken.

 

[Phokus]

Im not sure why you would target the tea party with that comment. I think it pretty much represents 95% of everyone.

*rubs eyes* Seriously?

Oh i don't know, maybe it's because they're the loudest cocksuckers about 'small government'?

 

[Jhhnn]

What it really comes down to is that the super rich have transcended the need for more money, at least in terms the rest of us use wrt money. Having a net worth of $7B or $50B makes no difference in terms of lifestyle.

It's about power, about the power to influence the world around them in a myriad of ways, to shape society. The real question is are we willing to let that happen, to allow a very few to set the course of the nation to benefit themselves, even if it's at the expense of the rest of us. At critical junctures in the past we've found it necessary to limit that power as a means of self defense, as during the progressive era 100 years ago and again in the 1930's. Today is no different, even if we haven't figured it out quite yet.