Industrialist Charles Koch, who recently acknowledged he hasn’t backed a candidate in the GOP primary, expressed general disappointment with the GOP field in a rare public appearance at EY’s Strategic Growth Forum.
Koch was at the event talking about his new book “Good Profit” and his approach to what he called “market-based management.” When asked whether he was hearing support for his free-market views from the GOP candidates, he replied “not nearly enough.”
“They talk about a tax credit for this, a credit for that. That’s just more market manipulation,” Koch said. While he didn’t mention any candidates by name, Senator Marco Rubio has made a new, partially-refundable child tax credit a centerpiece of his tax reform proposal.
Koch also had sharp criticism for the Federal Reserve’s policy of keeping interest rates low. “It’s terrible,” he said. “Every time they pump the money supply, it won’t necessarily create general inflation, but they create inflation in certain areas… I don’t know where this is going.”
Asked where he is investing his money these days, Koch cited two areas: biotechnology, and “smart” products and processes.
Koch and his brother, David, are among the nation’s largest funders of conservative causes.