The Power of a Multi-Billionaire: Charles Koch Gets TIME to Change a Headline

Lefty TIME Magazine ran with the above pic and headline last week. It was very misleading and dishonest.

Charles Koch, the billionaire funder of all things beltarian, was actually trying to convey a point about government "goods" and GDP, a  perspective on GDP he most certainly learned from the great economist Murray Rothbard.

Rothbard held the view that no government goods or services should be counted as a positive addition to GDP.

Koch didn't go that far in a speech reported on by TIME:

“I think we can have growth rates in excess of 4%. When I’m talking about growth rates, I’m not talking about that GDP, which counts poison gas the same as it counts penicillin,” the 79-year-old industrialist said, veering off his prepared remarks. “What a monstrous measure this is. If we make more bombs, the GDP goes up — particularly if we explode them.”

His audience laughed, clearly getting the joke.

“Maybe we make more bombs,” he said, trailing off. “I’m just kidding. I won't go there."

It was a watered down version of Rothbard. He never mentioned Rothbard by name (The name is banished in the Koch sphere since a split between the Koch brothers and Rothbard in the early 1980s)) and he did not go full Rothbard by advancing the notion that all government provided "goods and services" should not be added to GDP.

Nevertheless, the TIME headline gave the impression that Koch was in favor of bombs and bombing to boost GDP, when in fact he was questioning the value of GDP as a measure of growth because of such things as bombs being added to GDP

Fortunately for Charles, when you are a multi-billionaire, you can clean up a mess like this. And it is not because you are the manufacturer of Quilted Northern, ultra soft, ultra strong, toilet paper.

No doubt, Charles keeps on his payroll private sector GDP boosting high-priced lawyers and PR agents just sitting around for moments like this to deal with these type of mainstream media outfits that get out of line. The headline has been changed to this, which sounds as though it was dictated directly from a Kochoctopus ground zero bunker:

Charles Koch Mocks Common Measure of Prosperity

And this is now added at the bottom of the piece:

Note: The headline on this story has been updated to more accurately reflect the content of the article.

  -RW