Koch Industries: Challenge Process

Here is a video I dug up from YouTube from Koch Industries that discusses the challenge process that occurs at the company. Charles Koch is in the video as well and basically explains how Koch Industries became so successful in less than 2 and 1/2 minutes. I did blog about Market-Based Management in a book that Charles Koch wrote here.

John Allison on Financial Crisis and Market Purity

John Allison recently spoke to AEI on December 6, 2012. I have a lot of respect for John Allison who actually was a CEO of a bank during the financial crisis which gives him more credibility to discuss the topic rather than someone who believes what should have happened. Allison did a great interview for the Kaizen where he discussed his career at BB&T and explains how he grew the company. Dr. Walter E. Williams also wrote a column about the recent book John Allison published called "The Financial Crisis and the Free Market Cure . I read the book myself and really had no idea how much the banking industry was regulated or how government policies really were one of the main causes of the financial crisis in 2008. Allison was not to long ago was named the President and CEO of the CATO Institute. Cheers for Mr. Allison and bringing some sanity in a world of insanity!

Case for 24/7 Stock Market

So recently I have been thinking about markets and how they operate. One thing that seems strange is why the stock market is not open 24 hours a day, 7 days per week, 365 days per day. You might think this is odd however in the financial industry many people are at work a little before the market opens 8:30 A.M. and are done by 3:30 P.M. Of course there is other work that has to be done by trading can only be done in these hours. This is odd considering currency markets are open 24 hours a day 6 days per week (has been going on since 1995 too). I found this article from 1985 that talked about 24 hour trading (commissions back then were over $100 and a far cry from the $4 now paid by investors). Also since 1985 trading hours have been from 9:30 A.M. to 4 P.M. Eastern Time. However despite this after-hours trading can go on between 4-8 P.M.

Simple economics should suggest that a 24 hour stock market is a no brainer  If we had a 24 hour market then we would have less volatility because we would have more transactions. For some odd reason I believe people might get worried about the market taking a tumble at 3 A.M... However, nearly every other market is open 24 hours per day. Wal-Mart, McDonalds, and IHOP, are a few that are open 24 hours a day. People buy goods online all day and night. So it is really strange how anyone would argue against a 24 hour market. As long as there is a willing buying and seller we should have there always will be a deal to be made. 

Surgery Center of Oklahoma: First and Only Free Market Hospital in America

I saw this recent video about the Surgery Center of Oklahoma which may be in fact the only free market hospital in America if not the world. I blogged about the hospital in this post.  What is interesting is that the hospital actually posts prices for surgeries. What I found interesting was the hospital also published infection rates which I don’t see regular hospitals do. In the investment industry fund managers post data like risk, return, and other important data. Why don’t hospitals, physicians and surgeons do the same? As long as the insurance company is picking up the bill do patients really have that much incentive to care? By the way the Surgery Center of Oklahoma has a lower infection rate of a mere .001% which is much lower than the national average of 2.6%. Hospitals hire administers which can be in the six figure range and really just handle paperwork. I am amazed when I go to a doctor why they ask me the same questions (even after I have been to the same doctor for years). Never mind the fact that there is a staff just talking to insurance companies and filling out paperwork. Is this really making us better off? I would say no. Healthcare is not run like a business. What we need is more hospitals like Surgery Center of Oklahoma which don’t take insurance and inform patients of what the prices are. If you had more hospitals like this they would have to compete not only on price but also quality as well. This would be great for patients and lead to some advancements as doctors would try new things to improve care and reduce the risk for the patient. I notice we don’t need an Affordable Food Care Act, Affordable Computer Care Act, or Affordable Video Game Act. Food, computers, and video games operate in a free market where competition increases quality and lowers prices. Healthcare is not a free market by any means. Can you think of any think the government provides that is of higher quality and cheaper than the private sector? Economist Dr. Walter E. Williams summed it up with his own Williams’ law which states: whenever the profit incentive is missing, the probability that people’s wants can be safely ignored is the greatest.

H/T- Carpe Diem

Bill Koch Counterfeit Wine, Sailing, and Book

Bill Koch apparently keeps himself in the news. On Friday November 9, 2012 Inside Edition aired a story that actually featured Koch discussing counterfeit wine as I mentioned in this post. Koch told Inside Edition that he has spent over $4.6 million on fake wine. Even Koch admits that there will not be much sympathy for a billionaire.

In other news Bill Koch has also contributed $500,000 for a sailing exhibition at San Diego Halls of Champions in San Diego (it has been around 20 years since this happened). The exhibition will be available to the public. I have actually started a book about Bill Koch called “To The Third Power”. I have started the book and learned even more about Bill Koch then I did before. For instance Bill Koch graduated in the top 10% at M.I.T.. The book is really about how Koch guided his team to win the American Cup in 1992. I would point out that it was not a cheap one but it seems so far there are some lessons to be learned from a management perspective. I continue to learn more about Bill Koch and find him a very interesting character.

Newsmax: David Koch Speaks

I saw a preview of a profile David Koch did for the November 2012 edition of Newsmax magazine. As you know I have extensively probably more than any other blogger out there covered David Koch has given up to August 2012 $305 million to charity, how he endorses gay marriage, an analysis of David and Charles Koch net worth from 1984-2012 here, and even covered his dating here. Regardless of what your political affiliation is David Koch is truly an interesting person.

The article itself offers a pretty good interview with David Koch. I have read so much about David Koch and the Koch family nothing really is that new (however I did learn even in this article). The first is David Koch denies starting the tea party which is true since it was actually started by Rick Santelli after this famous rant here on CNBC. He also points out that inflation will soon come as the Treasury department with their quantitative easing program (QEinifity). What I probably found most interesting was the work life of David Koch. He wakes up at 7:30 A.M. eating his cereal and yogurt, then makes sure his kids get off to school and is taken to work and is in by 9 A.M.  Many people may believe David Koch doesn’t work hard however he stays until 7 P.M. before leaving to go home to see his wife and 3 kids (David Jr. Mary, Julia, and John Mark) and has a personal chef cook. Speaking of food Koch tips 15% when he goes out to eat which contradicts this foolish article from Bloomberg claiming he was the worst tipper at 740 Park Avenue. Although, he did give all the door men a $50 Christmas bonus (Park Avenue: Money, Power, and the American Dream is unfortunately  airing on November 12 on PBS and I have a feeling I am forecasting nausea in the near distant future after simply looking at the trailer).

Some other cool things about David Koch is that he charters a yacht on the French Riviera and some Greek Islands. Koch enjoys reading about the Founding Fathers and watching sports and documentaries. Another interesting fact I learned is that he doesn’t use the internet. From a Market-Based Management prospective I wonder if he could add value by having e-mail? Growing up David along with his other brothers had to do ranch work. Hard to believe now but David did actually work on a farm ranch driving bulldozers, operating hay bailers, fixed farm equipment, and dug ditches. When he asked his father for a quarter to buy a candy bar his father Fred Koch said he wanted his sons to “appreciate what money meant”, meaning the Koch brothers had to actually work for it.

David Koch runs an interesting group at Koch Industries known as the Koch Membrane Systems group. I blogged about Koch Membrane here.  Basically the company can turn salt water into drinkable water or water used for commercial purposes. The technology seems pretty cool and David has been interested in the technology since his days at MIT. Just about every week Koch flies to Boston and spends two days working at Koch Membrane. David finds the technology interesting and many opportunities available in the industry.

David Koch is also for same-sex marriages (people forget he did run as a libertarian candidate). On Obama Koch calls him, “charming” yet rightfully criticizes the President for attacking businesses who actually do create jobs. Koch would like to bring spending down to 19% (from 25% at present day). What is interesting is that Koch supports a tax increase if it is necessary to win support from Democrats to vote Republican however, Koch would want spending cuts to be five times greater than any tax increase.

The article is interesting and good for someone who does not know much about David Koch. I have said many times on this blog he is an interesting, caring, and generous individual. I really wish he would publish an autobiography since he is truly fascinating no matter what side of the political spectrum you are on.

David Koch 2011 Hope Funds Fundraiser for Cancer Research

People forget in the 1990's David Koch suffered from prostate cancer and still deals with it to this day. He has raised hundreds of millions of dollars to support places like M.D. Anderson Center in Houston, John Hopkins, and a $100 million facility at MIT to promote cancer research. Too bad you will never see this kind of video on MSNBC...

TCU Acceptance Rate 1979-2012

I updated the data from the TCU Fact Book for 2012. Looks like TCU is still being selective (which is a good thing. The acceptance rate went up slightly from 2011 but still near all time lows at just less than 41% of students that apply get into TCU. When I was a freshman I can still remember TCU beating OU in 2005 who was then ranked 5th in the country if I remember correctly. Since then TCU I believe has become more popular. However, I would rather TCU be a strong academic power then just "popular". Maybe soon TCU will be the Northwestern of Texas (same school colors)

William I. Koch vs. Koch Industries The Family Lawsuit

I found an interesting find in the William I. Koch vs. Koch Industries trial that I covered in a previous three part series (part1, part2, part3). The document I found was 112 pages (much of it talks about historical court cases). What is even more interesting that the court case had 10,000 pages of exhibits (which would be twelve feet in a library).

William and Fred Koch along with other plaintiff dissents) owned 47.8% of Koch Industries stock. Fred Koch (father of all Koch brothers) set up trusts in 1966 and 1967 which gave all of his shares to his sons except for Frederick (some speculate it was because Frederick stole petty cash from the family). The trusts were actually interesting because the income of the trusts was paid to charity for 20 years and t he principal would be paid either to the Koch brothers or to some beneficiaries. Today, these are known as Charitable Remainder Annuity Trusts (CRAT trust) which is creative today and must have been innovative back then. According to the court case Charles began working at Koch in 1961 and became an officer one year later and was elected president in 1966. David came on board in 1970 with William joining in 1974 (three years after he completed his PhD from M.I.T.) William rose to become head of Koch Carbon in 1976 and was elected vice president of corporate development for Koch Industries in 1979.

In March 1980 William wanted more liquidity and cash flow for Koch Industries. Charles came up with an estate planning and liquidity program while Don Cordes and Tom Carey of Koch Industries talked to the plaintiffs to help them with any issues or concerns they had.  In the mean time William Koch didn’t like how Charles was running the company and talked to the plaintiffs. William talked to the plaintiffs to try to change the board of directors to do what they wanted.  The deal breaker would be J. Howard Marshall III who would help William, Frederick, and the other plaintiffs to gain a majority interest (over 50%).  Marshall III owned 4%. William however knew he had a problem because he didn’t have the number of shares he needed to elect a new board of directors. To fix this William called the First National Bank of Wichita and wanted to add two new directors. Charles hopped on a plane to see Marshall II to see if anything could be done. According to J. Howard Marshall II autobiography “Done In Oil” Charles went to visit Marshall II and Charles asked “What do we do now?” J. Howard Marshall II who himself was a business man after spending many years in government agencies suggested that he would offer his son $8 million $203 per share for the Koch stock that would change the board. Marshall tried to make it more of an emotional offer and his son took it. William got wind of this and increased the offer price to J. Howard III.

At a December 5, 1980 meeting Stuart Varner who was a board member of Koch Industries suggested that William Koch be asked to resign. William didn’t want to however the board thought it was time for him to go. In 1981 William hired Davis, Polk, and Wardwell to represent him and Morgan Stanley and Lehman Brothers were also brought on to determine what if Koch Industries should be publicly traded to fix the problem of liquidity and cash flow that William had been complaining about.  In a May 18, 1981 meeting the estimates from Morgan Stanley and Lehman said Koch Industries could sell between $140-$170 per share. Charles thought some of these figures were high because they did not take into account working capital. Both Morgan Stanley and Lehman said Koch Industries should not go public unless it needed to.

In 1982 Goldman Sachs was brought in and examined 100 pages of evidence from Koch Industries analyzing historical earnings balance sheets from 1977-1982. Goldman came up with a value of $1.6-$2.2 billion and valued the stock between $110 and $140 per share. William did not like this number and questioned Goldman Sachs about whether they were doing analyzing their discounted cash flows models correctly (used to figure out value). William then brought in Bain & Co. (keep bringing in advisors until you get the number you want right?).  Lehman revalued the shares in July 1982 and came up with an average of $175 per share.  On July 26, 1982 this profile came out in Fortune that discussed part of the battle that had been going on at Koch Industries. By October 1982 the case was even affecting mother Mary Koch who called Don Cordes and was upset that the Koch brothers were not able to solve their issues in court. By November  of 1982 Bain had come up with $187 per share while William and Bain wanted to make a counter-offer of $240 per share or a 28% premium. The plaintiffs all got together and met with Goldman Sachs and Bain & Co and agreed on the $240 per share counter offer. Koch Industries however did not think $240 per share made any sense after Lehman said it was really worth $140 per share. Koch countered with $167 per share ($95 in cash and $72 over a 15 year period at 10% interest). The plaintiffs did not want this because when you calculate a present value it was very low compared to what they thought they could get. William thought the stock was worth $212-$245 per share. In May 1983 William gathered up the plaintiffs to discuss what they all thought a fair price was. William of course wanted more than everyone else and the group also had to determine the cost of waiting out the ligation.

Finally at midnight on June 4, 1983 the final draft had been approved by both sides with the deal closed only six days later.  The plaintiffs were paid $200 per share on June 10, 1983 (the legal cost for “experts” was over $1.5 million). Charles, David, and William at the time each around 20% of the common stock (Fredrick owned 14%). The Simmons family (Mariorie Simmons Gray, Ann Alspaugh, and others) owned 13% and J. Howard Marshall II owned 8% (the one who married Anna-Nicole Smith). Koch employees and other people owned just 4%.  

Not only did the plaintiffs get a $200 share price but they got part of an offshore exploration property. This was however short lived as Bill Koch believed that brothers Charles and David Koch had cheated them out of money.  On December 31, 1982 the book value of Koch Industries was $1.54 billion (meaning what the worth of just its assets). The company in 1982 earned after tax earned $309 million. The company had a book value of just $133 per share.

This whole share price war reminds me of the classic book “Barbarians at the Gate” which discusses the merger between Nabisco and R.J. Reynolds with investment bankers coming up with higher and higher offers but made crazy assumptions. The Koch trial seems to be similar. Koch Industries told William Koch what the company was worth but William wanted a higher price. He kept hiring advisors to tell him his higher number was right. However, in the end I think William Koch made out pretty well.  When the whole thing was said and done Bill walked away with a $500 million check. William is now worth $4 billion. Not too shabby if you ask me. 

Charles Koch Relentless Goals: Being a Billionaire, Death Threats, and Giving Back

Source: Wichita Eagle

Apparently, the Wichita Eagle gave me an early Christmas present with this recent profile of Charles Koch. In 1998, Bob Cox of the Wichita Eagle did an in depth profile similar to this one.  The Koch family seems like one interesting family with David, Charles, and Bill. This profile shed light on who Charles Koch really is.

In the article it discusses how Charles Koch gets his hair cut from his wife (even though he is worth $31 billion and historical net worth 1984-2012 here) because he doesn't have time to go to the barber. Koch also use to be an avid skier until his knees gave out and has had both knees replaced and his right shoulder. This was after years of playing tennis, squash, golf, and polo.  These days he works out for an hour and a half doing weighting lifting, Pilates, and aerobics and follows a strict diet. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1999. Koch is very competitive. When he played tennis with his friends and wife he hit the ball so hard that it hit the woman in the lip causing his wife Liz to curse him out.

His wife Liz has been at his side for their 44 years of marriage (which seems rare these days). She claims she is only one in the relationship that let her hair grow out.What is funny though is that when Liz first met Charles he wore a strip shirt and madras (picnic shorts). Liz also put up with Charles having books all over their apartment when they were first married when Charles was teaching himself about different subjects (economics, psychology, history) in the 1960's that Liz didn't even have a closet for her clothes. Even brother David Koch admits Charles reads "like a demon".

Charles was also competitive in the business world as well. Right before he joined his father’s company it had $70 million in annual revenue in 1960. In 2012, this number increased to $116 billion. Koch is a hard working man who is always working. His father Fred yelled at him when he was trying to save money for estate taxes (estate taxes have to be paid 9 months after death which makes it hard if your assets are all tied up in company stock). Charles bought two trucker companies (instead of one) and his father was furious with him. I personally think Koch is a workaholic however I think one of the side effects is becoming a billionaire. He also doesn’t like wasting time as he listens to audio books in his car because why waste 10 minutes of time. He doesn’t seem to work for money.  Charles Koch wakes up every morning to do what he loves doing: running a business. He doesn’t plan to retire and probably will work until he dies.

Growing up in the Koch family wasn’t easy either. The tennis gene must of rubbed off on his son Chase Koch because he appeared in Sports Illustrated under “Faces in the Crowd” in 1996 for a stellar tennis record. Just three years earlier Chase hit and killed someone in an accident. People make mistakes no question and growing up with Charles Koch probably wasn't easy as at 13 years old Chase had to go out and do work on the cattle feedlot in western Kansas. Charles said he thought his son believed he would have a full time job and be able to go out with his friends as night in Kansas. Chase worked 12 to 13 hour days 7 days a week as well. Charles when he first started work at Koch worked 7 days a week too. Charles preached family values and economics to his kids. Every Sunday afternoon Charles would teach his kids about economics. Chase would go to sleep while daughter Elizabeth would act interested. Chase who is not 35 now Vice President of Koch Agronomics Services. Elizabeth graduated from Princeton in 1999 is 36 years old with a degree in English literature and an MFA from Syracuse in 2011 and now works at Black Balloon Publishing in New York. The Koch kids seem to be good people or done anything crazy that has got in the press.

What truly is crazy is that the Koch family gets hundreds of death threats from wackos all the time. Not only this but Koch Industries has received cyber threats, bomb threats, and employees have also been threatened to. The family has a result has to hire security guards around the clock to protect themselves (tax increase I would point out). This seems pretty crazy for guys that just want to spread the good word of liberty, limited government, and prosperity. Speaking of prosperity Charles points out that "even those who live in poverty, have more money and opportunity for jobs if they live in a free-market economy rather than one controlled by dictators".

I consider Charles Koch to be a great American. Greatly expanding a business his father started into a $115 billion per year is not easy. In addition to creating jobs, improving the economic condition of his own 60,000 employees he is trying to spread the message that free markets actually do improve the life of everyone (even  poor people). I personally don't think Charles Koch is motivated by money. He is motivated to do the right thing by explaining not only how he was successful but how other people can be successful. In addition to all of this, he and his brother David have given $46 million to local Kansas charities and $1 billion in the last 12 years to various causes. If after reading this you don't have any respect for Mr. Koch you probably don't have any decency. 

Kochs’ Quest To Save America

Source: Wichita Eagle

It seems as if more information came out about the Koch brothers over the weekend. The Wichita Eagle published this article on October 11, 2012. On the Wichita Eagle website (Kansas.com) it said that this was an exclusive and only part 1 of an extensive interview. I am hoping for more articles out of this of course. As you may know I have been interesting in the Koch family for quite some time and did a historical net worth of Charles and David here, a Koch family history, the $1.3 billion lawsuit between all the Koch brothers,  growth in the 1990’s,  as well as current growth, even David Koch dating.

There was not only the original article that came out but also some photo galleries that can be seen here and here. Some separate articles are quotes from Charles Koch, David Koch, and Dr. Richard Fink (executive Vice President of Koch Industries). Growing up the Koch family had a strict dinner policy. At 6:30 a big bell would ring and they had to come into the house and sit down with parents. David admits he was scared when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer in the 1990’s. He actually believed he wouldn't be around very long. His prostate cancer is under control and David has generously funded causes to help find a cure for prostate cancer as he donated $25 million to M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. As part of his legacy David wants people to know he tried his best to make the world a better place and improve the lives of others.

What we learn in all this recent news is how the Koch brothers have been personally targeted by the Obama administration for using their first amendment rights to speak out against the administration. Wichita Eagle mentioned the death threats in this article. Not only has Charles and David Koch (David said he got 100 creditable death threats) been getting death threats but employees as well. Of course these death threats are from deranged people who don’t actually have all the facts and watch MSNBC all day, read Media Matters online, and listen to fools like Ed Schultz on the radio. I haven’t even heard of President Obama getting death threats and you would think that would be likely with all these so called “racists” out there. At any rate, the death threats on the Koch family have caused them to hire more security for them and their family (tax increase of course).  The article mentions how Austan Goolsbee (Obama’s chief economic adviser claimed Koch Industries was not paying their taxes (which is actually a crime under federal law to disclose confidential tax information). Stephanie Cutter Obama’s chief campaign manager claimed she “was going to call their BS”. Apparently, Ms. Cutter has not seen a video where Koch Industries calls Cutter on her BS here. This video talks about the falsehoods associated in a Bloomberg article that discussed the dealing Koch had in Iran. In May 2012 David Axelrod called the Koch brothers “contract killers”.

Also it is learned that Dr. Richard Fink told the Koch brothers in January 2009 around the same time when President Barack Obama was sworn into office that there would be a price to pay for taking on the president. One of the risks might be to put Koch Industries at risk as well as the family legacy. The government does have the power to do much harm to Koch Industries as it can “randomly” audit the company, refuse permits, or treat them in a way that would not be business friendly. David Koch talks about how we will have inflation by buying bonds to finance debt.  This has forced interest rates to very low rates and as Charles points out really doesn't help the people who save money (Koch praised John Allison’s new book on the financial crisis which I am currently reading). Fink points out that the interest alone due to China by 2025 will be enough money to fund China’s military budget.

Another interesting point that people forget is that Charles and David Koch are more libertarians than anyone thinks. Charles even admits that if Democrats supported free markets and limited government they would donate to them (it just so happens that the people who endorse free markets are Republicans). They support people who want limited government, strong property rights, and people who want everyone to prosper. Both Republicans and Democrats have failed this test and Charles points out that even under Romney the country will just decline as a slower rate compared to Obama.  Although people claim that the Koch brothers want more deregulation to make more money this is a foolish statement. If markets are deregulated allowing more competitors into the same businesses as Koch how does that benefit them if they would face even greater competition? It is actually against their self interests to want more competitive markets. However, the Koch brothers rise to higher morals and want a system that makes the world a better place for everyone.

Dr. Richard Fink was looking to fund a free-market organization and went to Koch (after buying a $1,200 plane ticket to Wichita). Fink wore a polyester based suit and made a presentation to Charles in 1977 in search of seed funding of $150,000. Charles admits the fact that Fink wore a polyester suit helped (petroleum based which Koch has businesses in). Then there were the invitation only economic seminars which the first one in Chicago with only 17 people having nonstop lectures (people couldn't even taken bathroom breaks).

Clearly, the Koch brothers have benefited society through their charities (they donate to the arts, medical institutions, and schools). In addition creating a business that now has 60,000 employees they create products that people use every day (toilet paper, Dixie paper cups, along with blended gasoline). David Koch’s technology group is even making water cleaner to drink. I really admire them for their success in not only running a business but promoting an economic system that really would lift people out of poverty and increase the standard of living for everyone. To the Koch brothers I tip my hat to both of you. 

Bill Koch Holds Kirby Martensen (Oxbow Employee) Captive?

Today, I just learned of this bizarre news story from Oxbow Energy (especially for a Friday afternoon). Oxbow says it began a year long initiation beginning in March of 2011 to investigate whether a certain executive was trying to defraud the company of $40 million. Oxbow claimed an employee named Kirby Martensen was getting kick backs.  Martensen who worked for Oxbow Corporation for 16 years relieved millions in compensation and bonuses. As you may know I have covered Bill Koch in numerous places in his profile here, his school days, and the $1.3 billion family lawsuit with Charles and David Koch.

In this news story it is alleged that Kirby Martensen who was an executive for Oxbow Energy was held captive by Bill Koch. Martensen was promoted to be the senior vice president of Asia. Interestingly more than 75% of Oxbow's fuel grade petroleum exports profits come from just the Asia operations. Martensen is claiming that Oxbow was trying to relocate part of the company in order to evade $200 million in taxes.What is interesting however and maybe something Bill Koch can use in his defense is the fact that Martensen himself was alleged to self dealing, stealing, and breaching a fiduciary duty. Koch did a review of thousands and found Martensen was worried about if Oxbow was actually doing things that were legal.

Martensen claims that Koch tried to discredit him and used "false pretenses". The story gets a little stranger when Koch drove Martensen to Bear Ranch for the night and had breakfast the following morning. Koch showed Martensen around his private city. Martensen was then interviewed for his peer review and which lasted several hours and seems was a meeting to tell him he was going to be terminated. After this he was escorted to pack up his stuff and a sheriff wasthere to escort him out. After this the story gets bizarre as Martensen claims he was kidnapped and taken to the Denver airport for a 2 in the morning flight on March 23, 2012 on a private plan that went from Denver to Oakland, California. Martensen then basically left refusing to go to the Marriot Courtyard Hotel. In this whole process Martensen claims he suffered from anxiety, fear, humiliation, and distress.The official charges are false imprisonment and civil conspiracy. Martensen has already hired John Houston Scott (because three names just makes you sound smart) from San Francisco to defend him.

Bill Koch has a history of losing court cases. He lost the $1.3 billion case against his brothers. He lost the case against the wine he claimed was counterfeit wine. Last year he was in a lawsuit for real estate having to do with his private school. I haven't even touched the numerous lawsuits he has got into with his love life. In general Koch is on the wrong side of the lawsuit however the accusations made seem like something out of a John Grisham novel and the truth remains to be seen. A book could probably just be written on Bill Koch's court decisions. No question though Bill Koch is an interesting man and which is why I continue to blog about him.

William Koch: Culver, MIT, and Other School Days

After making the comment that William Koch had learned nothing after 13 years and getting three degrees from MIT including a PhD in chemical engineering I did some research to learn more about his school days.  I found this profile from his high school Culver Military Academy where he graduated in 1958. It should be pointed out that Charles Koch also went to Culver Military Academy but was expelled after drinking on a train. Even though students go to places like Culver before college it has more of a college schedule with Wednesday being the busiest day with activities from 8:20 a.m. to 11 p.m. There is no surprise that 99% of the graduates matriculate into colleges.  It is interesting the classes are ranked by how much time it takes students on homework. So for example a Level A class will take less than 30 minutes in homework per class while a Level E class will take more than 90 minutes per class of homework.

William seemed pretty busy when he as at Culver. He was on cross country, basketball, track, football, baseball, boxing, volleyball, softball, and graduated cum laude. According to the June 1994 edition of Vanity Fair from an article called Wild Bill Koch’s Grand Desires by Bryan Burrough, William as a kid was “nerdy, awkward kid”. He also like to start mischief when he was six he swallowed a hog ring which lead to a hospital visit where they had to pump it out. He was also competitive and didn’t like to lose. The Koch family had a pool growing up and William got upset pretty easily and sometimes would go crazy. In one instance his twin brother David Koch was hit with a polo mallet and David fought back. In a very dangerous fight William got a butcher knife but finally put it down after he realized he could kill his own twin brother. During middle school at the age of 13 Bill almost failed out (interesting for someone who later got a PhD in chemical engineering) and says he was clinically depressed. William went to M.I.T. like his older brother Charles and all joined Beta Theta Phi, where William was the house “humorist”. William was also a pretty decent athlete making the basketball team at M.I.T. his freshman year. Twins David and Bill both got their master’s degrees in chemical engineering by 1963 however they both took different paths. David went to go out in the real work and work while William spent the next eight years at M.I.T. getting his PhD. David claims his twin brother William had a country club attitude when it came to school, and just “lazy years, full of days tinkering in university labs, playing rugby, and chasing women”. Perhaps spending a total of 13 years in school was a way for William to avoid having to work in the real world which makes his comment about never really learning anything even more interesting.

As people say it really isn’t where you start out in life it where you end up. William Koch seems like he has gone through many different things in his life time (depression, various lawsuits, and marriages). However, today he is waking up everyday going to work in charge of Oxbow Corporation and worth $4 billion. If you read he was on the verge of flunking out of middle school you might not have guessed he would have been a billionaire or ever got a PhD. 

Genome Sequencing Cost 2001-2012

Interesting the genome has gone down dramatically since 2001 and most likely will continue to go down. The  big decrease seemed to come after 2008 and I suspect will be very affordable within the next 10 years and perhaps just another test that the doctor does. As more genomes are sequenced we can compare them, look at them over time, and see how they change to get cancer, diseases, and other illnesses along how they repair. It is amazing how the free market works when people get greedy and want to serve their fellow man.

Patrick Soon-Shiong: Billionaire Taking Genome From 8 Weeks to 1.47 Seconds

Since I am always interested in new technology I thought it was pretty cool when I saw this story about Patrick Soon-Shiong who is a billionaire are selling companies he started. Currently, he is worth $7.3 billion and is chairman for Nanthealth.

What Patrick wants to do is launch a genomic supercomputing platform that would reduce the time needed to sequence a cancer genome from currently 8-10 weeks to just 47 seconds. Soon-Shiong just presented some data that showed that after collecting 6,017 cancer genomes from 3,022 patients (having over 19 different types of cancer) they were able to be analyzed in 69 hours which is very quick. This was also a lot of data coming in at over 96,000 gigabytes of data. The idea is to provide real-time information to doctors and patients to help them make better decisions when it comes to health. Nanthealth who worked with oncologist (cancer doctors) saw incorrect recommendations drop from 32% to basically 0%.  

I have always wondered why supercomputers where modeling climate change, weather, or the earth’s crust. Putting a supercomputer to use for things like helping patients is a much better use of taxpayer money if it can lead to timely information that can be used by patients. As the number of people on the network grows, doctors will gain more information, meaning they will be able to help more people.  In 2012 it is estimated 1.8 billion people will get cancer and the supercomputer will be able to analyze about this amount (5,000 patients per day). The cost of the genome has dropped dramatically and will continue to drop as the quality increases (one thing I worry about right now is how accurate the genomes are however this should prove over time).

 I discussed in this post the failure of the war on cancer from the government. This has the potential to also help sequence other types of diseases that could give doctors and patients again more data. Trial and error will give quick feedback to what really works and what doesn’t work. This is how a market system works. I suspect however privacy groups will be up in arms about sharing any type of information as they always are. One question I always ask if they are so concerned about privacy why do they post about their bowel movements on Twitter or Facebook?

William Koch: Wine Lawsuit, Chamber of Commerce Meeting, and Not Learning A Damn Thing At M.I.T.

As you may know I have covered William Koch many times before in a profile, the $1.3 billion lawsuit, and his own private town. In recent news it was decided in court today that Koch waited too long to file a lawsuit against Christie's after Koch had purchased a wine was supposedly belonged to Thomas Jefferson. Judge John G. Koetl wrote a 38 page opinion (I guess he had a lot to say about it). There is what is known as statue of limitations that basically say if you are harmed you have a limited period of time before you can come forward and after that you can’t really do anything about it. I taught in my business law classes it was 3 years but in this case it was 4 years starting in 2000 and Koch waited until 2005 to file the lawsuit. The bottle was bought in 1988 for $100,000 and relied on Christie’s for representation. Koch filed the lawsuit after he sent samples to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution to carbon date it and they said it had less of than a 5% chance of being from the period it was claim to be from.

In other news, William Koch made an appearance recently at a Chamber Commerce of Breakfast that was held 7:45 a.m. on October 2, 2012 at the Palm Beach Chamber of Commerce. Tickets were only $30-$50 for non members or guests. I found this  article from the Palm Beach daily News that actually talked about the event. Apparently there was an audience of 570 people which is pretty good for 7:45 in the morning. William introduced himself as “just a hick from Kansas”. He claims that he was a nerd while at M.I.T. and couldn't compete with the Harvard men when it came to getting girls. William is married to Bridget Rooney who has a family that owns the Pittsburgh Steelers (mother in law refers to Bill as poor Koch brother even though he is worth $4 billion). My favorite part is that even though he got three degrees from M.I.T. (including a PhD in chemical engineering) he claims he didn't learn “a damn thing”. During he said that he learned from trial and error (mostly error he says). He also lost $200 million over is careers in bad business deals (one of them was Checker cab and an onion pill to lower cholesterol while he was at Koch Industries).  On management Koch believes that you have to find great people and motivate them through bonuses and money to entice them.

William Koch is a truly interesting person. He seems like the type of guy you would want to have lunch or dinner with and hear his life story of the good, the bad, the ugly, and interesting. In this recent article Koch revealed his literary side in front of presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Romney was at Koch’s home and Romney had mentioned the book “Men to Match My Mountains” and Koch said, “You know, the title of that book comes from a poem” and then Koch recited the whole poem from memory.  I hope Bill Koch writes an autobiography one day so we can all learn about his interesting story. 

Larry Ellison and Billionaire Spending

As someone in the financial industry personal finance is something that is always interesting. If you are really interested in how even the rich can go poor I suggested Robert Frank’s “High Beta Rich” which has great stories of how even the top .01% can become the bottom 99% or even in some cases bankrupt. When I saw this story about Larry Ellison increasing his line of credit to $4.5 billion I began to wonder why he even has a line of credit.  Basically Ellison was using Oracle stock (company he founded) as collateral in order to pay for things he shouldn’t be buying (an island for example). According to Bloomberg Billionaires Index Ellison is worth around $38 billion. Larry Ellison is one of the highest paid CEO’s. For the past fiscal year Ellison made $96 million ($90.7 was due to stock option awards which few people actually know take years to get since they are actually restricted stock where an executive may have to wait 3 to 7 years even before they can cash out the options). Essentially 95% of the stock price is tied not the short term performance of Oracle but the long-term (3-7 year period) after the shares are awarded that matter. People forget the options Oracle gave Ellison could be worth less than the $90.7 quoted in the future if Oracle were to tank or not create shareholder wealth. According to this WSJ article Ellison between 2001 and 2010 made roughly $1.84 billion being the CEO of Oracle. If I do a performance chart of ORCL (Oracle) over the same period of time the stock was down close to 16%. Is Mr. Ellison overpaid?

It seems though that even though Larry Ellison is raking in the dough he is also spending a lot of it as well.  Usually people never change (even if they say they have). I found this great article published in 2006 from the SF Gate detailing Ellison’s ridicioulous spending  (even by billionaire standards). Phillip Simon who was Ellison’s accountant in 2002 told Ellison “I’m worried, Larry…I think it’s imperative that we start to budget and plan”. Apparently Ellison was living the really good life. He was spending $20 million on his “lifestyle”, $75 million on interest, $25 million on a villa in Japan, $194 million on a new yacht, $80 million on the American Cup and a random $12 million on UAD (which no one seems to know what it is).  He did build an insane $200 million Japanese style house. He is also charitable and wanted to increase the funding from $35 million to $100 million per year. This is all of course excluding the money he spent on Gulfstream and Cessna jets, cars (McLaren F1 car), Armani suits, and financing all these purchases by borrowing against his Oracle stock. I just hope Larry doesn’t one day face a margin call. Keep in mind at the time Ellison was worth closer to $17 billion. Not only was Ellison spending a lot but breaking one of the first rules of personal finance which is diversification. No one should have their net worth tied to one stock no matter how high quality it is since you never know what can happen in the future. Larry’s financial advisor was trying to diversify him out of Oracle stock however Ellison was increasing his ownership interest. 

Ellison started his company with only a dozen employees and had software that was being used by credit card companies, hotels, and airlines to process transactions. Now Oracle’s s software is used by over 70,000 government and commercial customers and has 115,000 employees.  Ellison was no whiz kid in school either. He left the University of Illinois during finals and ended up not taking them. He in fact remembers one exam where he just sat for an hour because he knew he had to spend 3 hours answering the questions. Larry did end up taking some physics classes at the University of Chicago which seem to interest him and lead him to actually lead him to computer programming. More of Larry’s story is told in the book “Softwar”.

Ellison basically came from nothing to build a business that earns billions of dollars per year. I admire this since he wasn’t given a business or just an inheritance to build it. Although, Ellison has built a successful business there are still laws of financial planning he has to follow like diversifying his stock, trying not to use Oracle stock as collateral, and not spend so much. I just hope that Ellison doesn’t end like other CEOs who financed themselves so much that they lost everything. 

The 47% Getting Government Benefits

This chart shows how the percentage of households in the United States has been increasing since the 1980's. What is interesting is that the percentage dropped in the late 1990's only to then increase. The problem with this statistic is that benefits like Social Security are included which people can't opt out of (I wish they could). When people get something from the government why wouldn't they vote for a party that promises to give them even more of those same benefits?

Food Stamps Increases as Labor Force Decreases

Interesting chart here showing how as the food stamps have been increasing the labor participating labor force rate has been decreasing. The unemployment percentage is somewhat bogus since people keep leaving the work force to collect benefits which means they are not counted. The labor participation labor force rate is a better measure because it looks at how many people are actually working. Seems from this chart that incentives do actually matter. 

H/T- Fidelity

Julie Hayek and David Koch Dating

Since I started following Charles, David, and William Koch in different posts I found this one interesting talking about Julie Hayek (Miss USA 1983). This is interesting because his wife’s name is Julia and when I saw Hayek I thought they were referring ton the free market economist Frederick Hayek (economist). Julie Hayek now plans to write a tell-all book about her life dating high profile men. She apparently has a lot of information on David Koch from her diary.  She was apparently with Koch for a few years in the 1990’s before David got married to his current wife. However, Julie gave up on David because he couldn’t commit to one woman (David Koch at times had 3 dates in one day).  She apparently has dated some other high profile men like Larry Ellison, Richard Cohen, Mitch Kupchak, and Monaco’s Prince Albert II.  Whether or not any of this is true is pure speculation. It would make sense to come out with a tell-all book now since more people know who David Koch is then who knew who he was in the 1990's. 

However, there may be some truth to David’s bachelor attitude. David has an interesting dating history as in this article Cindy Farkas Glanzrock said she had dated David Koch in the 1980’s and claims David always enjoyed having a lot of woman around. What is interesting is that Cindy claims that David wants to raise the bar at everything he does. From this Bloomberg Game Changers episode that profiled David and Charles Koch it is clear what may attract woman to David. John Damgard who was a high school classmate of David Koch claims that David “could afford to pick up the check even in those days he was 6’5, wore pretty good looking suits, and was interesting”.  

David Koch is an extremely generous person donating money to wonderful hospitals, ballets, and other philanthropic endeavors. What people forget is that he is human. Humans do date other humans. However, with billions of dollars it seems as if more people are interested in who he used to date. If Charles came up with Market Based Management (MBM) then David came up with Market Based Dating. 

New York Times Organs Being Discarded = Fewer Transplants = More People Waiting or Dying

I saw this story from the New York Times which made me want to cringe in terms of how inefficient organ donation is. Many people are on waiting lists for organ donation. However, the problem is since there are more people wanting organs than those that donate there is a shortage which results in long wait times.  The reason there is a shortage is because people are not allowed to be compensated for voluntarily selling their organs. I noted in this post how more than 93,400 people are waiting for just a kidney. The chances of getting a kidney have decreased from 50% in 1992 to roughly 20% these days.

The NY Times story talks about how more than 2,600 kidneys are discarded (never transplanted). As a result 5,000 people will die just waiting. I almost fell out of my chair when I read this. This represents 18% of all kidneys (this figure has grown 76% over the past 10 years).  The pancreas has the highest percent chance of being discarded at close to 27% (14% overall for all organs). Part of the problem is the people in charge of the registry for transplants (Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients) uses outdated technology. They claim that if they only redesign their computer system the “could” add 10,000 years of life. The way they match kidneys doesn’t even make any sense. For instance, when matching kidneys the system doesn’t look at how the expected life of the person getting the kidney or how urgent the kidney really is. You would think you would want to transplant kidneys to younger patients (hence longer expected life span) than someone who is old and only has a few years left.

The underground market prices kidneys at $150,000-$200,000. Medical ethicist whackos worry about people murdering each other for body parts. If that were true more murders would occur now as the price if much higher than if it was legalized.  Nobel Laureate Gary Becker estimates at a price of $15,200 there would be enough kidneys to go around.  This would be actual cash people could use to pay down debt, send a kid to college, or buy something they always wanted.  I can’t believe the government can tell individuals what they can and can’t do with their body.  People sell hair, sperm, and even their minds to make money. As more transplants are done surgeons would not only get better at it but find better matches between donors and the recipient.  The current risk of dying from a kidney transplant is 0.1% which obviously would decrease if people were able to be compensated for their organs. Also a positive externality would be people would take better care of themselves. If the market rewards me for having pristine organs the way I can get the most for them is by preserving them in order to make sure I can get the highest price.

Politicians and bureaucrats pay no price for making people wait or die for organs transplants. To these “do-gooders” they are more concerned about making sure things are “fair”. Yet if these same people had a family member or loved one who was in need of an organ what do you think they would do? 

David Koch New York Ballet and Federal Spending

                                                              Source: Bloomberg

David Koch has support the New York Ballet for years (he even gave them $100 million). Last night he was spotted with his wife Julia and Bloomberg in this story caught up with him. I didn’t know that he has been going to the ballet since the 1960’s and seems to really enjoy it. Koch mainly talked about his support for Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney. As you can see in the picture from above Koch was wearing a burgundy colored velvet jacket made by the House of Maurizio (he in some ways looks like a movie usher with $31 billion). I didn't know this but Mr. Koch also likes to drink vodka and tonic and really isn't a champagne drinker. He enjoys very fine wines including red burgundy, red Bordeaux, and white Burgundy.

When talking about political issues David Koch who is really has more libertarian leanings supports Mitt Romney believes Romney has to do well in the debates to have a good shot at winning this election. Currently Intrade has Obama’s chances of winning the election at 72% which has constantly been increasing (especially after Romney made his comment about the 47%). Koch also pointed out that “We know with mathematical certainty that without mass reduction in federal spending we’ll go the way of Greece”. David Koch is absolutely right considering the over $15 trillion in debt the United States currently has and the annual trillion dollar deficits we keep running. Heck even if the government just spent what they brought in we would be much better off. This leads me to a scene in the 1985 movie “Real Genius” with Val Vilmer where Vilmer figures out that using ice is needed to solve a solution. Vilmer proclaims “ice is nice!” We could apply the same analogy to the federal budget and just freeze spending.  At a baseline we should be getting rid of programs that overlap each other. Currently 126 programs are used to fight poverty. Why not reduce this to 1 or 2? The government should have a consulting company like McKinsey or Accenture come in and explain how they can cut costs and improve efficiency. If only the government thought more like business owners we would all be better off. 

Forbes 400 Charles and David Koch Net Worth and Historical Net Worth 1984-Present

Today Forbes released their annual 400 list. Charles and David Koch of course were on that coming in at 4th with $31 billion each (was $25 billion in March). Brother William Koch stood at the same $4 billion level. This graph shows how much they are worth individually. In my original post I pointed out that the Koch brothers have taken on more risk which has explains why they have gotten wealthy so quickly. David and Charles Koch are the type of guys that work seven days a week and I am guessing run on little sleep. When Charles Koch started at Koch Industries he was working 7 days per week and David most likely is working at least 12 hours in the mid 1990's in this post.  Instead of people criticizing Charles and David Koch they should thank them for not only creating jobs, donating hundreds of millions to charity, and helping others understand how prosperity is created. Somehow I have a feeling market-based management at Koch Industries is working (which I talked about here) and increasing the standard of living for all Koch employees.

Retail Clinics Grow

Interesting chart showing how more and more people are using retail clinics. No doubt we need more of these doctors with a future shortage of doctors and with more people to take care of. Don't people realize retail clinics are actually a free-market solution?

H/T-John Goodman

20,000 Visits! My Journey As A Blogger

I would like to thank everyone who has visited my blog. This blog started on October 30, 2009 and has been going on ever since. What interested me in creating my own blog was actually self-interest. Many people write autobiographies and talk about the changes in thinking that took place over time. I wanted to accomplished somewhat of the same thing in the sense of looking back 10 years from now and seeing what I was thinking. I honestly didn't expect to be blogging for so long but it seems I just got in a habit of writing. Usually I will see something on T.V., hear something on the radio, or read about a news article that will catch my interest.

What has been the most surprising thing is how many international people read my blog. According to the stats around 11,000 people have come from the United States, 1,000 from Russia, about 800 from the U.K., over 700 from India, and 700 from Canada. I am glad I can be spreading my thoughts and ideas around the world. It gives real meaning to the term "World Wide Web".

I am proud of all my work. However, there are some articles that stick out and I am really proud of. About two weekends ago I spent a couple of hours reading articles about the Koch brothers which lead to a three part series . Another article I am proud of and did take some pain-stacking research to obtain was the Koch brothers net worth from 1984-2012. Another article that took some time to work on was this post that looked at the acceptance rate for TCU since 1979.  What is really interesting to me is that my post about natural orifice surgery is my most popular post with close to 2,000 hits. My second most popular post is about Sam Walton. The third most popular post is Myriad owning genes.

I hope to continue thinking and writing to spread the knowledge. In general my blog posts are longer than most because often I go in depth into certain subjects and really want to make sure I cover my bases as opposed to just spending a paragraph talking and giving the reader a link to follow. Hopefully, more people will continue to read my blog and I can continue to repeal the frontiers of ignorance!

Charles Koch: Lessons From My Father

Great video of Charles Koch talking about lessons he learned from his father. No doubt hard work and having an attitude towards work makes people not only better off but can make them successful as well (maybe even billionaire!).

Obamcare Coming to a KFC Near You!

I think people often forget about the unintended consequences of legislation. With the Supreme Court recent decision about Obamcare many businesses will be faced with higher costs in 2013. One prime example of this is David Barr who owns 23 stores and has 421 employees (109 full-time). Barr pays 81% of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Policy which equals $129,000 per year. Employees only have to pay $995 per year. Under Obamcare Barr will have to provide health insurance to all 109 employees which will cost $444,444 which is a $315,000 increase. Not paying the insurance will result in a $159,000 fine (which is still $29,000 more than he is currently spending).  As a result Barr will have to lay off people or have the people get onto the “public health exchange” and have them pay a fine. Not only will the law affect fast food places it will affect any company who has more than 50 employees. Basically if you have more than 50 employees have to either sponsor a health plan for everyone (even people who sign up for the exchange) or pay a $750 per worker penalty.  Why would any business person want to grow if the cost of an additional worker will increase automatically $750 if they go over 50 workers? I wonder how many businesses will be kept at 48 or 49 employees. There is no such thing as a free lunch. 

Koch Industries Current Growth

It seems like these past couple of weeks my blog has become the Koch blog making me a Koch addict! I promise to stop as soon as the news about them stops. Today there was interesting article in the Wichita Eagle today explaining how Koch Industries has grown.  I covered the growth of Koch Industries in the 1990’s here.

Last year (2011) Koch Industries had $110 billion in revenue which is a far cry from 1967 when revenues were $200 million with $6 million in profit and 600 employees. The company now has 60,000 employees and the company plans to make more revenue than they did last year. Dave Robertson who is the president and chief operating officer of Koch Industries (has been with the company for 28 years) claims the company may build a 200,000 square foot building to accommodate 600-700 employees.

People also I believe forget how diversified Koch Industries is.  The company has become much more diversified than 2000. Many people claim it is just oil and gas but that clearly is not the case. The company makes paper towels, carpet fibers, pipelines, fertilizer, ranches, has a financial trading company, creates clean water, and even toilet paper. So really Koch is even helping liberals clean up!

Clearly, this company is not just oil and gas but a well diversified company. The company truly believes in making people’s lives better by creating products and services that create value. The company even competes with itself. If someone outside of the company can do a better more efficient job than Koch will outsource that job. Koch Industries is privately held (oh I wish I could be a shareholder!) but they only have three groups of shareholders which allows them to approve something quickly if they want to instead of having it be voted of millions of different shareholders. Also since the company is private it doesn’t have to meet quarterly numbers (which I think is positive).  $1,000 invested in Koch Industries would have been worth $2 million in 2007 (16 times better than the U.S. stock market).This makes sense because why should a quarterly number affect how people view a business in 20-30 years?  Few Fortune 500 companies have a long-term view on things. Charles Koch points out in a lunch interview that if Koch were a public company he would have been fired a long time ago. Speaking of lunch Charles Koch doesn’t mind eating M&Ms (also made by another private company) along with chicken with 40 cloves of garlic.  Apparently the M&M chairman told Charles chocolate was good for him (Charles was being facetious of course). 

Of course Charles Koch is interested in the present value of future cash flows and how to create long term value.  The company also doesn’t like debt and continues to plow back 90% of their earnings into the company giving shareholders a 10% dividend.  According to Dave Robertson buying a future company (similar to what they did when they purposed Georgia Pacific) may be in their future. I have a feeling Koch Industries will only make a deal if it makes sense and as long as it adds long-term growth. 

Koch Links Over the Years

For a while I have been interested in the Koch brothers because of they are truly great gentleman who have not only created businesses, been generous philantropists, but their company despite what some say have actually decreased pollution over the years. Every day I learn a little  not including the ore about them which is always quite interesting. Here are some of the links I have collected over the years. This doesn't include the links I used for my three part series. Enjoy!

THE CURSE ON THE KOCH BROTHERS ONE OF THE BIGGEST FAMILY FEUDS IN BUSINESS HIS
The Other Koch Brother - Page 1 - News - New York - Village Voice
William Ingraham Koch
How Oil Heir and New York Arts Patron David Koch Became the Tea Party's Wallet
Brother Versus Brother; Koch Family's Long Legal Feud Is Headed for a Jury - N
Shopping With Koch
BROTHERS AT ODDS - NYTimes.com
Sports Illustrated William Koch 1992 Article
Palm Beach William Koch’s ‘Super-Wild’ West collection | Palm Beach Entertainm
FAME - SURVIVAL OF THE RICHEST - 906N-000-001
Profile Of Billionaire David Koch - Executives - Portfolio.com
Woman Ascending A Marble Staircase - New York Times
FORTUNE - CORPORATE COLOSSUS - 905Y-000-001
http://www.kansas.com/2010/01/03/1120892/liz-koch-talks-about-foundations.html
Pulling the Wraps Off Koch Industries - New York Times
CATO Battle
Koch Trial
Forbes 1998 Article
Koch Industries, Inc. -- Company History
David Koch intends to cure cancer in his lifetime and remake American politics
Koch Industries, Inc. -- Company History
Forbes 2006 Article