Pollutocrat Koch Brothers Now Worth $50 Billion, Poised to Become Richest Men in America

[bananas]

http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2011/09/22/325612/denier-koch-brothers-worth-50-billion-richest-americans/

Denier Cash Machine Swells: Pollutocrat Koch Brothers Now Worth $50 Billion, Poised to Become Richest Men in America
By Joe Romm on Sep 22, 2011 at 6:01 pm



The two brothers who bankroll climate denial and the Tea Party extremists keep getting richer. Forbes estimates that pollutocrats Charles and David Koch have a fortune of $25 billion each, making them the fourth (and fifth) richest Americans.

As TP Green notes:

Buoyed by aggressive speculative trading on volatile energy markets, the Koch brothers accumulated $15 billion in wealth since March 2010, a 43 percent increase.

Like many folks who run oil companies, the Kochs love high oil prices. And the Kochs essentially invented oil derivatives — and led the way to deregulate the market — so they could profit even more.

The only three richer Americans are:
3. Larry Ellison (Oracle) – $33 billion
2. Warren Buffett – $39 billion
1. Bill Gates – $59 billion

Gates and Buffett are an interesting contrast to the Kochs. Gates and Buffett devote more and more of their money to helping the developing world deal with ever-worsening impacts of climate change (though Buffett profits from pollution, too). The Kochs work tirelessly to enrich themselves while destroying the climate. Guess which pair is going to win?

Let’s look closer at why the Kochs are poised to become the richest Americans.

<snip>

[valerief]

1. Pollutocrats. Perfect. nt

[pscot]

2. Maybe they will at last begin to get

the attention they deserve. Their pictures should be put up in every post office in the country.

[The Backlash Cometh]

3. And I'm sure there's no correlations with their involvement in politics. None whatsoever.