Robert Reich: When we give up on democracy, the 1 percent ‘run everything and they get everything’
Former United States Secretary of Labor Robert Reich produced a short “2014 Year in Review” video in which he reminded...
Category: Richest One Percent
Congress Spreads Joy to the 1 Percent
Towards the end of 2014, Americans averted yet another government shutdown. Congress passed, and Obama signed, a 1.1 trillion dollar...
New Report: We’re Subsidizing the Forbes 400
In its latest listing of America’s wealthiest individuals, Forbes magazine for the first time ranks the members of the top...
How Newt Gingrich’s Language Guru Helped Rebrand the Kochs’ Message
For the Koch brothers’ donor network, the 2012 elections were a keen disappointment. Not only did they lose what Charles...
The Koch Wall Street Crusade To Rob Pensions Is Underway
If anyone in America was unsure what unmitigated greed entails, or to what extent the Koch brothers and Wall Street...
Why Our Lives Feel Squeezed: 400 Reasons
We don’t know who exactly filed the tax returns with America’s 400 largest incomes in 2010. The IRS won’t reveal...
Koch-linked organization uses ‘dark money’ to fight political disclosure
As the Internal Revenue Service contemplates new rules to illuminate “dark money” in politics, a little-known nonprofit group is fighting...
The Long, Dark Shadows of Plutocracy
Some people say inequality doesn’t matter. They are wrong. All we have to do to see its effects is to...
Robert Reich: The 1 percent is gutting America’s middle class
The richest Americans hold more of the nation’s wealth than they have in almost a century. What do they spend...
Bernie Sanders to Colbert: “Frightening the Billionaire Class” Should be Goal of Grassroots Movement
Appearing on Monday night’s Colbert Report on Comedy Central, Sen. Bernie Sanders told the show’s host that he’s still contemplating...
Paul Krugman: Plutocrats Against Democracy
It’s always good when leaders tell the truth, especially if that wasn’t their intention. So we should be grateful to...
The Walmart Way of Business: When Profits Go Up, Cut Health Care for 30,000 Employees
Walmart is a wildly successful company. Its “corporate fact sheet” online boasts that for “the fiscal year ended January 31,...
Report Documents Walmart Heirs’ Efforts to Destroy Rooftop Solar Revolution
The Walton family—who, as heirs to the Walmart fortune, have more wealth than 42 percent of American families combined—are impeding...
Rolling Stone Report Rocks Koch Industries
A recent Rolling Stone article documenting Koch Industries’ “lucrative blend of pollution, speculation, law-bending and self-righteousness” over the last few...
America’s Ridiculously Rich: the 2014 Edition
Imagine yourself part of the typical American family. Your household would have, the Federal Reserve reported last month, a net...
Mitt Romney’s Latest Excuse for His 47 Percent Remarks Is a Doozy
Mitt Romney explains his 47 percent remark, Take 23. During a recent sit-down with the New York Times’ Mark Leibovich,...
Top Billionaire Campaign Donors Favor Republicans In 2014
WASHINGTON — The wealthiest Americans are playing a larger role in politics these days, thanks to campaign finance laws loosened...
Big Gains for the 1 Percent of the 1 Percent
We’ll be posting a new chart on the current state of income inequality every day for the next couple of...
5 Signs the Dark-Money Apocalypse Is Upon Us
It’s the home stretch of the 2014 election season. No single theme or issue has dominated the midterms, but 2014...
How the Koch Brothers and Other Right Wing Tycoons Are Ruining America
George Baer was a railroad and coal mining magnate at the turn of the twentieth century. Amid a violent and...
Casino Mogal Sheldon Adelson Spends $10 Million in an Attempt to Buy the 2014 Elections for Republicans
Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson has donated $10 million to a Karl Rove-backed outfit boosting Republican Senate candidates and...
Charles Koch Personally Founded a Group Protecting Oil Industry Handouts
“Lifestyles of the Rich Environmentalists,” produced by a group called the Institute for Energy Research, is a slick web video...
McConnell Promises Billionaire Donors He Won’t Waste Time On ‘Gosh Darn’ Minimum Wage Increases
At a Koch Brothers-hosted secret strategy conference of right-wing millionaire and billionaire political activists in June, Senate Minority Leader Mitch...
The True Story Of How One Man Shut Down American Commerce To Avoid Paying His Workers A Fair Wage
In 1894, Chicago was the Midwest’s gateway to the rest of the United States. Twenty-four different railroad lines centered or...
Koch Brothers’ Top Strategist: Minimum Wage Will Turn USA Into Nazi Germany
In a newly released audio recording, obtained by The Undercurrent, a man identified as a top Koch strategist warned that...
A Kentucky Objection to McConnell’s Pandering to Millionaires and Billionaires
When the political mercenaries of American oligarchy jet off to consort with their electoral paymasters, they never imagine that the...
A Koch Brother Tries Damage Control as the American People Reject Their Agenda
The AP interviewed one of the lesser known Koch brothers, William, in what seems to be an attempt to soften...
Paul Ryan’s convinced: time to cut taxes on the wealthy
There are some congressional Republicans who believe the party’s commitment to supply-side, trickle-down tax policy is in need of an...
Interior Dept Blows Off Koch Stranglehold On Offshore Wind Power
The good news for US Atlantic coast offshore wind power just keeps rolling along. Earlier this year, renewable energy fans...
Super-Rich Rekindle Love Affair with High-Sea Luxury
The world’s super-rich are returning to the high seas, with the number of luxury yacht sales hitting their highest level...
Tax Dodger Running for Governor in Illinois
If you are not in the Chicago media market, you might not know much about Bruce Rauner, the Mitt Romney-like...
Democracy or Oligarchy?
We are at a pivotal moment in American history. The major issue of our time is whether the United States...
ALEC Agenda: Medicaid, Schools, and Exporting Our Gas
ALEC holds its 41st annual meeting in Dallas, Texas starting on Wednesday, July 30, 2014. At this largest of its...
Koch Political Universe Vaster Than Previously Known
Newly-obtained documents show that the billionaire Koch brothers’ political giving is much more expansive than has previously been known. In...
Senate Democrats Dare GOPers to Block Their Dark-Money Disclosure Bill
The 2014 elections are awash in dark money—and it’s only getting worse. The Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity alone plans to...
Who Are The Protectors of Privilege? – A Congressional Report Card
Do you wonder which members of Congress routinely side with the richest 1 percent and Wall Street? Which lawmakers consistently...
How Much Wealth Are Our Wealthiest Hiding?
How much are the mega rich hiding offshore? Independent analysts have been working to pin that figure down. The most...
Why the Koch Brothers May Be Good for Solar
Koch Industries is a multinational conglomerate involved in the industries of manufacturing, refining and distribution of petroleum, chemicals, and energy....
Impunity and the Crimes of Finance Oligarchs
In the global discussion of human rights, impunity refers to de facto immunity from punishment enjoyed by dictators, oligarchs, and...
Exclusive: Inside the Koch Brothers’ Secret Billionaire Summit
This is what happens when Marco Rubio, Mitch McConnell, Tom Cotton, Cory Gardner and a gang of the world’s richest...
Millions in Poverty Get Less Coverage Than 482 Billionaires
Poverty continues to be a pressing social problem– but it’s hardly mentioned on the network newscasts, according to a new...
Fearing Backlash, Rich Hoard Cash
(Reuters) – As tension over inequality simmers, persistent cash hoarding by multinationals and the super-rich may be one measure of...
Koch-Funded Group Won’t Back Kansas Republicans Who Support Clean Energy
A Republican state legislator in Kansas is being targeted by a new Koch-funded effort to oust those who want to...
A New Spin from the Inequality Denialist Set
The go-to intellectual guardians of our corporate order — those conservative analysts whose op-eds appear regularly in the Wall Street...
Koch Brothers Plan $300 Million Spending Spree In 2014
The billionaire Koch brothers and their political network are planning to spend almost $300 million during the 2014 election cycle,...
How the Koch Brothers Stole Ohio
Renewable energy took a major hit in Ohio last week. Republican Gov. John Kasich signed into law Senate Bill 310,...
The 37 Senators Who Voted for Millionaires Over Students
On Wednesday, June 11, Senate Republicans sided with 22,000 millionaires over 40 million Americans with student debt by blocking the...
The Right’s Despicable Class War on the Poor
The old adage about sticks and stones may finally apply more soundly to the rich than the poor. According to...
The Walton Family Shows Little Interest in Charity
Four members of the Walton family, heirs to the Walmart fortune, have a combined wealth of close to $140 billion....
Is David Koch Getting a Tax Writeoff for Dropping $900K on the Walker Race?
The “charitable” wing of David Koch’s Americans for Prosperity has dropped nearly $900,000 on ads to boost Wisconsin Governor Scott...
