Friday, April 8, 2011

The Center for Public Integrity has just released an in-depth investigative report on the sprawling, worldwide business operations of the Koch family, patrons of far-right groups descending from the John Birch Society. Ironically, brothers David and Charles Koch are happy to take government subsidies and spend millions to lobby for special tax breaks and protection from competitors, while defending their right to produce poorly-regulated poisons. Probably their best known subsidiary is Georgia Pacific, the paper and timber products company. The Koch empire is extra hard to hold accountable because the stock is not publicly traded. Importantly, in a case involving Home Depot, the Securities and Exchange Commission has just ruled that stockholders do have the right to place resolutions about corporate political spending on the agenda for a vote. That decision could open the door for more shareholders to demand oversight of post-Citizens United corporate politicking – but the Koch family need only ask themselves what’s best for the world.