The industry is dominated by entrenched players who run aged facilities at near-full capacity, reaping profits that are among the highest in the world. The entire economy depends on refined oil, but no one has built a new oil refinery in the United States since 1977. To take just one example: Koch derives much of its profits from oil refineries. It is revealing that Koch Industries expands, almost exclusively, into businesses that are uncompetitive, dominated by monopolistic firms, and deeply intertwined with government subsidies and regulation. A similarly large group of market analysts and traders navigate the fractured and byzantine markets of energy products. Koch Industries employs an army of legal experts to navigate the extensive legal intrusion of the state. More than anything, it favors companies that can master complexity-the complexity of interconnected and global marketplaces, and the complexity of wide-reaching, intrusive regulatory regimes.Ĭharles Koch frequently derides the current political era as one of "crony capitalism," but the company he built is perfectly suited to thrive in this environment. As the argument between these visions drags on in a stalemate, the modern American economy is one that favors giant companies over the small, and the politically connected over the independent.
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