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===[[Cash for Comments Economists Network]]==={{C4C Explanation}}
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'''Robert Burton Ekelund Jr.''', was not your normal [[Cash for Comments Economists Network]] lacky for the tobacco industry: he insisted on the title of <b><u>Lowder Professor of Economics</u> at Auburn University</b>, Alabama. He was recruited to help maintain the tobacco industry's profits by [[Robert Tollison]] an economist at [[George Mason University]]. Tollison worked with [[James Savarese]], a lobbyist with [[Ogilvy and Mather]] in the early 1990s -- who later set up his own lobbying company and went into partnership with Tollison.
There are 1206 documents in the tobacco archives with his name, which professes something about his Ekelund's value to the tobacco industry in retaining their constitutional rights to kill their customers, and irritate the hell out of nearby non-smokers.
Ekelund didn't just work as a university professor:
* an 'adjunct faculty member of the [[Mises Institute]]
Overall, Tollison and Savarese recruited (in total) between 120 and 130 professors of economics (usually Libertarian - Public Choice zealots at State Universities). Some stayed for the duration while others washing temporarily through this lobbying scam. Most of the recruits were members of Tollison's [[Public Choice Society]] which had the public-choice libertarian economics guru [[James Buchanan]] at its head.
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<b>1983</b> He has been elevated to the lofty chair of "'Lowder Professor of Economics at Auburn University."'
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<b>1984</b>He lists in his 1984 C/V as <I><u> 'Present'</u> "Consulting for Ogilvy & Mather, PR, Washington DC" </i><font color=green>
{{1985-96PackwoodC4C}}
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<b>1985 Dec 12</b> At the annual meeting of the Tobacco Institute the PR Report included a paragraph which noted the contribution to retaining smoking by Ekelund: <blockquote><I> Professor Robert Ekelund (Auburn University) wrote an op-ed
article on tax reform that appeared in the ''Huntsville Times'' on March 3 (newspaper in home district of Ways & Means Member Flippo). Copies were sent to Flippo.</i>[http://industrydocuments.library.ucsf.edu/tobacco/docs/phdl0004]</blockquote>
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<b>1988</b> He now adds to his credentials "Lowder Eminent Scholar at Auburn University".
