Gregory Fossedal

Gregory A. Fossedal is the chairman of the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution (AdTI), the executive committee chairman of the Ernest Martin Hopkins Institute, president of Emerging Markets Group, and a member of the board of directors of the Democracy Foundation.

Background

Fossedal was as a student at Dartmouth College also an editor of the official campus newspaper, The Daily Dartmouth. In 1980 he declined to print an editorial unfavorable to the conservative Dr. John Steel and the editorial page editor refused Fossedal's pro-Steel piece. As a result Gregory Fossedal, Gordon Haff, Benjamin Hart, and Keeney Jones founded the Dartmouth Review. [1]. Fossedal graduated from Dartmouth College in 1981 Magna Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa. From 1986 to 1991, Fossedal was a research fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. From 1983 to 1986, he was an editorial writer for the Wall Street Journal.

Fossedal's mother, (Dr. Ruth Smith, was involved in AdTI from approximately 1996 with AdTI's Teacher Choice which was founded by Mr. Fossedal.

Fossedal and Open-Source software

Gregory Fossedal sometimes writes "THe [sic] Bottom Line" articles for United Press International (UPI). These articles are also published in The Washington Times and other papers. (Both UPI and the Washington Times are indirectly owned by Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church).

The footer of these articles used to start with "Gregory Fossedal is chief investment officer of the Democratic Century Fund, managed by the Emerging Markets Group." [2] More recent bio notes state that "Fossedal manages international investement [sic] research for Emerging Markets Group in Washington, DC." [3]

Several of Fossedal's articles are pro-Microsoft including opposing the Justice Department anti-trust action against Microsoft, [4], surveying members of the Congressional Black Caucus on technology issues including the anti-trust case [5] and opposing a court-mandated break=up of Microsoft but suggesting a fine instead. [6]

AdTI, which is part-funded by Microsoft, has produced several reports which were pro-Microsoft and against open source software. (see also AdTI-Funding)

Documents & Timeline

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1994 Aug 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:

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." [7]

"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."

[8]

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 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. 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 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 Wagner Professor of Economics and Chairman Department of Economics George Mason University

Senior Staff and Contributing Associates
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 [9]
• 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. [10]
• The final report was called Science, Economics, and Environmental Policy: A Critical Examination.' It had the approval of the Cash for Comments Economists Network. [11]

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1998-2000 Fossedal has been ADTI Chairman/Director between 1998 and 2000 and a paid consultant between 1998 and 2000.See also AdTI-Funding

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1998 Fossedal was paid $42,000, plus $153,000 in this year;

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1999: Fossedal only made $102,000 from the AdTI this year;

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2000: His earnings from the AdTI are in decline -- only $60,000, plus $60,000;

Books

• Daniel O. Graham, Gregory A. Fossedal, "A Defense That Defends; Blocking Nuclear Attack," Devin-Adair, February 1, 1984, ISBN 0815953178
• Daniel O. Graham, Gregory Fossedal, "Can Space Weapons Reduce the Risk of Nuclear War?," Greenhaven Press, June 1985, ISBN 9996815277
• Dinesh D'Souza, Gregory Fossedal, "My Dear Alex: Letters from the KGB," Regnery Publishing, June 1, 1987, ISBN 0895265761
• Gregory A. Fossedal, "The Democratic Imperative: Exporting the American Revolution," Perseus Books Group, April 1, 1989, ISBN 0465098010
• Gregory A. Fossedal, "Our Finest Hour: Will Clayton, the Marshall Plan, and the Triumph of Democracy" Hoover Institution Press, March 1, 1993, ISBN 0817992014
• Gregory A. Fossedal, "Direct Democracy in Switzerland," Transaction Publishers, March 1, 2002, ISBN 0765800780
• Gregory A. Fossedal, William Proxmire, Tommy Thompson, "Kohler: A Political Biography of Walter J. Kohler, Jr," Transaction Publishers, August 1, 2003, ISBN 0765801922

Other SourceWatch resources

• Alexis de Tocqueville Institution, Microsoft and Open Source Software

External links

Articles by Fossedal

• Gregory Fossedal, "Keeping America's High-Tech Edge", Investors Business Daily, August 9, 1999.
• Gregory Fossedal, "Pause the Microsoft Case and Examine U.S. Anti-trust Policy", Press Release, January 14, 2000.
• Gregory Fossedal, "Technology and The Congressional Black Caucus", East St. Louis Monitor, March 9, 2000.
• Gregory Fossedal, "Fine Microsoft, use funds for new competition", Shenandoah Valley-Herald, July 5, 2000.

Articles About Fossedal

• "Gregory A. Fossedal, Biography and background", Internet Archive copy of November 1999.
• "Gregory Fossedal, Member of the Board of Directors", The Democracy Foundation, 2002.