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===[[Cash for Comments Economists Network]]==={{C4C Explanation}}
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{{#Show badges: | tobaccowiki}}
'''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:
* He also ran his own private consultancy, '''RB Ekelund and Associates''' in Blake Street, Auburn which was also used to launder tobacco industry payments.
* He provided services to many libertarian think-tanks in the [[Atlas Group]] network. (Hoover, Heartland, Heritage, Independent Institute)
* He ran his own sub-network for tobacco, using a half-dozen other professors at Auburn University: [[Richard Ault]], [[David Saurman]], [[John Jackson]], [[Robert F Hebert]], [[J. Keith Watson]], and [[Mark ThontonThornton]].
Ekelund's CVs tell us that he was:
* 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".
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<b>1989 Jan 11</b> The tobacco Institute's list of the working members of the [[Cash for Comments Economists Network]] with addresses and phone numbers. He is the only economist now being listed in Alabama -- despite the fact that hew was still writing with [[Mark Thornton]]. All contacts with Alabama/Auburn Economists must have been channeled through Ekelund. [http://industrydocuments.library.ucsf.edu/tobacco/docs/ttcp0026]We are advised in <hr><b>1990 Aug 23</b> [[Richard Ault]] and Ekeland have made a proposal to critque the write-off Healthy and Human Services (HHS) report titled "National Status Report on Smoking and Health" (1990). They haven't yet evaluated this report, but they know that the authorsthey can attack it. [http: Robert B//industrydocuments.library.ucsf. edu/tobacco/docs/qsky0032]<hr><b>1990 Nov 28</b> Ekelund Jr. has sent a report to [[James Savarese]] about a session at the <U>Southern Economics Association</u> meeting on "Economics and Mark Thornton teach economics Smoking" at New Orleans. [[John Jackson]] of Auburn University Uni appears to have presented a paper attacking Surgeon-General Koop. He forecasted "Tax Revenue Losses in a Smokeless Society". Ekeland is [http://industrydocuments.library.ucsf.edu/tobacco/docs/gfcl0039]<hr><b>1991 Apr 8</b> Ekelund has sent a report to [[James Savarese]] about a session at the <u>Edward L. and Catherine K. Lowder Eminent ScholarSouthwest Social Science Association</u>meeting on "The Political Economy of Dedicated Taxes" (San Antonio, Texas) [[Robert Tollison]] appears to have been the main speaker, withe C4C economists, Ault, Watson, while Thornton is only and Jackson contributing to the discussion. [http://industrydocuments.library.ucsf.edu/tobacco/docs/nzlb0038]<Ufont color=green>O: He must have been on a retainer to oversee such meetings and write the reports.P. Alford III Assistant Professor of Economics</ufont>.
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<b>1993 May 19</b> '''Punitive Taxes on Cigarettes Are Both Ineffective, Unfair.'''
by [[Robert Ekelund]] and [[Mark Thornton]]. ''Atlanta Journal/Constitution'' op/ed. [http://industrydocuments.library.ucsf.edu/tobacco/docs/xxjc0145] We are advised in the write-off that the authors: Robert B. Ekelund Jr. and Mark Thornton teach economics at Auburn University . Ekeland is the <u>Edward L. and Catherine K. Lowder Eminent Scholar</u>, while Thornton is only the <U>O.P. Alford III Assistant Professor of Economics</u>.<font color=green>: Of course if they cigarette taxes were ineffective, then the tobacco industry wouldn't have paid this pretentious pair a $1000+ to write this op-ed.</font>
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<b>1993 Jun 13</b> The ''Greensboro News & Record'' carries another piece: '''Cigarette Tax Is Based on Shaky Numbers''' also by [[Robert Ekelund]] and [[Mark Thornton]]. Their arguments are quite extraordinary in concept, and decidedly novel in their convoluted claims:<blockquote><i>
We cannot blame rising health care costs on tobacco because health care costs have risen fastest over a period in which fewer people smoke and when more smokers have increasingly chosen low-tar cigarettes.
Mandated health insurance for all will only escalate costs further and make people less responsible for maintaining their own health.
[http://industrydocuments.library.ucsf.edu/tobacco/docs/jxjc0145]</I></blockquote>
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<b>1994 Aug</b> A [[Alexis de Tocqueville]] report '''"The EPA and the Science of ETS"''' has been funded by the Tobacco Institute. The author was Adjunct Scholar [[Kent Jeffreys]], and the senior reviewer was [[S. Fred Singer]], a Professor of Environmental Science (on leave from the University of Virginia) and a Senior Fellow at the Institute. The final report was scheduled to be complete mid-June and it would be entitled '''"Science and Environmentalism"'''.
A confidential memo by the president of the [[Tobacco Institute]], [[Samuel D. Chilcote, Jr.]], described how this secret tobacco-funded report was being used in legislative lobbying: <blockquote><I>This morning Reps. Peter Geren (D-TX) and John Mica (R-FL) held a press conference announcing the release of a study by the [[Alexis de Tocqueville Institution]] that evaluates the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) scientific principles used to justify policy decisions. Geren and Mica were joined by [[Cesar Conda]], executive director of the de Tocqueville Institution and coauthors Dr. [[S. Fred Singer]] and [[Kent Jeffreys]]." [http://tobaccodocuments.org/ti/TIMN0044655-4656.html?pattern=ALEXIS+DE+TOCQUEVILLE+INSTITUTION&?pattern=ALEXIS+DE+TOCQUEVILLE+INSTITUTION#images]
"Press coverage included States News Service, Stephens Publishing and Cable Congress. Several congressional staffers also attended, copies of the Geren/Mica "Dear Colleague" letter, press release and the study are enclosed."
[http://tobaccodocuments.org/ti/TIMN0044655-4656.html?pattern=ALEXIS+DE+TOCQUEVILLE+INSTITUTION&?pattern=ALEXIS+DE+TOCQUEVILLE+INSTITUTION#images]</i></blockquote>
This report is part of a larger coordinated effort to blindside the EPA. A "panel of experts" was assembled to "peer-review" the report. Naturally the majority were people with identified links to tobacco-funded institutes and think tanks, and some who share the same small set of funders.
'''Academic Advisory Board:'''
* Dr. [[Gary M. Anderson|Gary Anderson]], Professor of '''Economics''', California State University-Northridge
* Dr. [[Nancy Bord]] Visiting Scholar The [[Hoover Institution]] Stanford University
* Dr. [[Gordon L. Brady]] Associate Professor and Director Environmental Studies Sweet Briar College
* Dr. [[Jeff Ray Clark|Jeffrey Clark]] Professor of '''Economics''' University of Tennessee-Chattanoogna
* Dr. [[Michael Darby]] Professor of '''Economics''' and Director [[John M. Olin Center for Policy]] University of California, Los Angeles
* Dr. [[Robert Ekelund]] Lowder Eminent Scholar Auburn University
* Dr. [[Michael Gough]] Project Director Congressional Office of Technology Assessment
* Dr. [[William Hazeltine]] Environmental Consultant
* Dr. [[Thomas Hopkins]] Gosnell Professor of '''Economics''' Rochester Institute of Technology
* Dr. [[Dwight R. Lee]] Ramsey Professor of '''Economics''' University of Georgia
* Dr. [[Michael Marlow]], Professor of '''Economics''', California State Polytechnic University-San Luis Obispo
* Dr. [[Thomas Gale Moore]] Senior Fellow The Hoover Institution Stanford University
* Dr. [[Malcolm Ross]] Research Mineralogist U.S. Geological Survey
* Dr. [[S. Fred Singer]] Professor Emeritus of Environmental Sciences University of Virginia and President [[Science and Environmental Policy Project]]
* Dr. [[Gerhard Stohrer|Gerhard Stöhrer]] Director of Chemical Risk Program Science and Environmental Policy Project and former Department Head Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research
* Dr. [[Mark Thornton]] Professor of '''Economics''' Auburn University
* Dr. [[Robert D. Tollison]] Duncan Black Professor of '''Economics''' and Director [[Center for the Study of Public Choice]] [[George Mason University]]
* Dr. [[Richard Vedder]] Professor of '''Economics''' University of Ohio
* Dr. [[Richard E. Wagner|Richard Wagner]] Professor of '''Economics''' and Chairman Department of '''Economics''' [[George Mason University]]
'''Senior Staff and Contributing Associates'''<br>
[[Rachael Applegate]], [[Bruce Bartlett]], [[Merrick Carey]], [[Cesar Conda]], [[Gregory Fossedal]], [[Dave Juday]], [[Felix Rouse]], [[Aaron Stevens]]
Ten of the 19 names of the Academic Advisory Board are members of the [[Cash for Comments Economists Network]]. At this time [[S. Fred Singer]] was a Senior Fellow at the Alexis de Tocqueville Institute, but they chose not to credit him with such close links.
These attempt to link the tobacco industry's problems to arguments about climate change were part funded by the [[Olin Foundation]], [[Koch Family Foundations]] and [[Scaife Foundations]].
* 20 page Draft document sent to the Tobacco Institute [http://industrydocuments.library.ucsf.edu/tobacco/docs/nycb0047]
* The release about the final report (August 11 1994) It is now an attack on "environmental regulation" -- ETS, radon, pesticides and agricultural regulation, and the Superfund toxic waste cleanup program ... and based, supposedly, on the quality of the science used by the EPA. [https://www.industrydocumentslibrary.ucsf.edu/tobacco/docs/jmjc0037]
* The final report was called ''Science, Economics, and Environmental Policy: A Critical Examination.''' It had the approval of the [[Cash for Comments Economists Network]]. [http://industrydocuments.library.ucsf.edu/tobacco/docs/fpgg0124]
==References==
