The inside story of the Koch Empire

>>> cut the hell out of spending and balance the budget and reduce regulations and support business.

>> that was david koch , one half of the koch brothers, whom forbes magazine describe as among the 50 most powerful people on the planet. that interview was recorded two years ago, so we have to assume that neither brother is entirely happy that his preferred party is about to cave on taxes. however, "forbes" is out with a lengthy cover story , an interview with he and his brother, charls, which suggests that the koch brothers didn't get where they are today by backing down. joining us is the editor of "for "forbes." in the piece it says charles used to give his children sunday afternoon economics lectures. what do you think the lecture will be now that it appears speaker boehner and others may be forced to accept a tax hike on the rich?

>> well, charles , when he lectured his children, he fancied himself more of a sucratic lecturer. if you look at the koch brothers, they are playing a game that's not measured in days or weeks or months or election cycles. they're playing a multidecade game. whatever is happening this week with the fiscal cliff, it's just one little blip in a multidecade goal to reshape how america looks politically, business. they are very philosophically focused and very, very disciplined, and very, very wealthy.

>> the piece is to mark his 77th birthday, so he has been at it for some time. here is another interesting passage from your article. charles ' many critics owe on the left, including the president of the united states , accuse him of accumulating too much power and using it to promote his own economic interests through a network of secretive organizations they call the kochtopus. what is it and how far does it stretch?

>> on the left the idea is that they are funding many if not most, certainly many, of the leading right wing think tanks . if you think about it, this is how they play the game . they're talking about long-term investments. a lot of people are focused on how much money was spent by super pacs and donors in this election cycle. what the kochs have always done is said we're going to look at this and say how can we lay the seeds? they know their message, this individualist kind of very, you know, based on the ideas of -- these are kind of deep economic thoughts, are not going to be the kind of thing you're going to pass in a populist kind of way, so they have to change the debate over time . that's why they fund think tankings. so it's kind of what the super pac idea -- it really isn't where their action is. they are playing a long game and if you look at what they have done with koch industries where charles koch took it over in 1967 when it was worth, i don't know, $10 million, $20 million, somewhere in that neighborhood. both kochs are closing in on $100 billion, each of them are worth $31 billion. so you don't get that kind of wealth and it's a private company, so they didn't get some bang from being public. they slowly built, they're disciplined. the story goes into great detail on how they built their business and how that can then be applied to how they think politically.

>> i am assuming randall, final question, that notwithstanding the fact that mitt romney was emphatically defeated, they are looking forward to 2014 and 2016 .

>> they are looking forward to 2040 . david said in our story, we are going to do this until we stop breathing, until our last breath. everyone who thought, 2012 , they put a lot of money in, they're going to go away. david koch said we're not going to play dead . they aren't going anywhere.

>> intonations of immortality. randall lane, thank you so much. stay