Voice For Liberty

Growth of Wichita’s Koch Industries profiled

Bob Weeks

in

Two recent Wichita Eagle articles profiled Wichita-based Koch Industries and its recent growth.

In Wichita, Koch employs about 2,300 workers, and about 50,000 across the U.S. in nearly all the states. When standard economic multipliers are used, these Koch jobs support about 203,000 total jobs.

While Koch’s headquarters are in Wichita, Kansas ranks seventh among the states in the number of Koch employees, with Georgia, Texas, Arkansas, Wisconsin, Alabama, and South Carolina having more Koch employees.

Of note in the article Koch cautious in acquiring other businesses:

  • Koch has been cautious in its acquisitions, looking for acquisitions that provide a “long-term, sustainable advantage.”
  • A fit with Koch’s culture is necessary. That culture is described in Charles Koch’s 2007 book The Science of Success: How Market-Based Management Built the World’s Largest Private Company. More information on this book, including excerpts, is available at The Science of Success.
  • Besides the costs of acquisition, Koch has spent $10 billion on capital improvements since 2003.
  • Nationwide Koch has 1,500 job openings, including need for workers in accounting, finance, and information technology in Wichita.

A report created by Harrah Analytics of Koch’s economic impact in the U.S. is available at Koch Companies Creating Jobs Nationwide.

The second article, Fertilizer helps Koch grow describes a Koch anhydrous ammonia plant near Enid, Oklahoma. This plant produces 3,000 tons per day, described as 10 percent of the country’s production. The article describes Koch’s efforts to comply with emissions regulations.

Also, the article describes how a partially Koch-owned plant in Venezuela was seized by Hugo Chavez as that country moved away from a market economy to a socialized economy.

Comments

One response to “Growth of Wichita’s Koch Industries profiled”

  1. Wichitator

    If the federal government had not tried to “stimulate” the economy with the help of the Federal Reserve’s monetary “stimulus” we would be seeing a lot more economic recovery due to market forces. This has not occurred due largely to the actions of the federal government in the last two years.

    In addition, the massive uncertainty related to Obamacare’s health takeover when combined with the visible new costs and mandates coming from this new federal mandate onto the private sector is keeping the private sector on the business sidelines. Koch Industries situation fits well into this type of business problem. Government uncertainty in some areas, more taxes, more mandates in others, more proposals for new government mandates are on the table (tighter EPA, transportation, financial regulations, and employment expenses just to name a few) for most or all American businesses.

    Overseas, the recovery is occurring. S. Korea’s unemployment is just over 3 percent. That’s lower than the US figures before the housing collapse. Our real unemployment does not need to be in double digit percentages (U6 is over 15%, while U1 the press uses is just under 10%). Here, the housing collapse continues like a beached whale shining and stinking across the entire economy.

    The Marxist and his loony toon lefties in the federal executive branch dodged the tax hike bullet that threatened to eliminate a big chunk of uncertainty with a major, recession expanding, tax hike this month. However, spending and debt is the key. Foreign Affairs Magazine, an east coast establishment voice that is certainly hostile to conservatives, featured in their November issue an extended discussion about the debt bomb that is facing this country now that we’ve added $5 trillion in debt during the Obama regime that is on top of the $9 trillion his 43 predecessors had accumulated (this is a bit unfair to the founders–the federal debt was actually paid off prior to the Civil War–so it is unfair to lump our first dozen or so presidents with partial responsibility for our current financial debt predicament) cannot continue indefinitely. At some point the bond market will say, “No More,” and shut off federal debt and then some very nasty things will begin to happen with interest rates and probably the Federal Reserve’s printing presses. The federal elected officials in office when this sad day occurs will have financial problems that today’s congress and its idiot leadership has not contemplated during the last four years of leftist leadership.

    Since Harry Reid will remain senate majority leader for at least two more years, there will still be plenty of opportunities for economically debilitating legislative actions coming out of the US Senate. His ability to convince moronic lame-duck Republican rhinos to vote with him since Reid and Co. were throughly repudiated by most of the country in November is amazing to me. The lamestream presses ability to provide media cover for this left wing congress is equally amazing as bills that have not been through the legislative process are rammed through since the election. The country seem soporific in responding to multiple outrages flowing out of Capitol Hill this week.

    The next two years we’ll see more regulations coming out of the bureaucracy now that congress will be split between the political parties. So, the uncertainty for business will move out of the halls of congress for the most part and pile up in the massive bureaucratic edifices that surround Capitol Hill and the White House in Washington, D.C. and its suburbs.

    Benjamin Franklin warned us, “Madam, its a republic, if you can keep it,” almost 225 years ago. His warning is as timely today as it was in Philadelphia at that time.

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