Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich has an excellent piece in the Christian Science Monitor today dispelling the myth that big money was beaten for good in the last election.

I keep hearing that the billionaires and big corporations that poured all that money into the 2012 election learned their lesson. They lost their shirts and won’t do it again.

Don’t believe that for an instant…

… if you think these losses mean the end of high-stakes political investing, you don’t know how these people work.

You see, if and when they eventually win, these billionaires will clean up. Their taxes will plummet, many of laws constraining their profits (such environmental laws preventing the Koch brothers from more depredations, and the anti-bribery Foreign Corrupt Practices Act that Adelson is being investigated for violating) will disappear, and what’s left of labor unions will no longer intrude on their bottom lines.

And they have enough dough to keep betting until they eventually win. That’s what it means to be a billionaire political investor: You’re able to keep playing the odds until you get the golden ring.

Looking ahead, Adelson tells the Wall Street Journal he’s ready to double his 2012 investment next time around. “I happen to be in a unique business where winning and losing is the basis of the entire business,” he says, “so I don’t cry when I lose. There’s always a new hand coming up.” He isn’t looking back at his losses. “I know in the long run we’re going to win.”

The entire article is available here.