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CREATED 4/3/2013

WARNING: This site deals only with the corporate corruption of science, and makes no inference about the motives or activities of individuals involved.
    There are many reasons why individuals become embroiled in corporate corruption activities - from political zealotry to over-enthusiastic activism; from gullibility to greed.
    Please read the OVERVIEW carefully, and make up your own mind.




TOBACCO INDUSTRY EXPLANATORY

ABBREVIATIONS
JARGON
SPIN-MEISTERS
INITIALS
FIRST & NICKNAMES
Misc.RESEARCH HELP
Smoking-Gun docs.

RELEVANT LINKS
Cash-for-comment economists' network
General TI networks
George Berman
James Savarese
Ctr.Study Pub.Choice
James Buchanan
Robert Tollison
Anna Tollison
Richard Wagner
James C Miller III
Carol M Robert
Elizabeth A Masaitis
Committee on Tax & Economic Growth
Harold Hochman
Fred McChesney
Thomas Borcherding
Delores T Martin
Dennis Dyer
George Minshew
William Prendergast
Bill Orzechowski
CASH-FOR-COMMENT
NETWORK MEMBERS

Dominick Armentano
Burton A Abrams
Lee Alston
Ryan C Amacher
Gary Anderson
Lee Anderson
William Anderson
Terry Anderson
Roger Arnold
Richard W Ault
Michael Babcock
Joe A Bell
Bruce L Benson
Jean J Boddewyn
Peter Boettke
Thomas Borcherding
William J Boyes
Charles Breeden
Lawrence Brunner
Henry N Butler
Bill Bryan
Cecil Bohanon
Morris Coates
Roger Congleton
Jeffrey R Clark
Michael Crew
Allan Dalton
John David
Michael Davis
Arthur T Denzau
Clifford Dobitz
John Dobra
Randall Eberts
Robert B Ekelund
Roger L Faith
David Fand
Susan Feigenbaum
Clifford Fry
Lowell Gallaway
Celeste Gaspari
David ER Gay
Kenneth V Greene
Kevin B Grier
Brian Goff
Sherman Hanna
Anne Harper-Fender
Kathy Hayes
Dennis Hein
James Heins
Robert Higgs
F Steb Hipple
Harold M Hochman
George E Hoffer
John Howe
William Hunter
Stephen Huxley
John D Jackson
Joseph M Jadlow
Cecil Johnson
Samson Kimenyi
David Klingaman
Michael Kurth
David Laband
Suuner Lacroix
Dwight R Lee
Dennis Logue
C. Matt Lindsay
Donald P Lyden
Craig MacPhee
Mike Maloney
Delores Martin
Chuck Mason
Charles Maurice
Fred McChesney
James E McClure
William McEachern
Richard McKenzie
Robert McMahon
Arthur Mead
Paul L Menchik
John F Militello
William C Mitchell
Greg Neihaus
Allen Parkman
Mark Pauly
William Peterson
Harlan Platt
Michael D Pratt
Thomas Pogue
Barry W Poulson
Edward Price
Robert Pulsinelli
Raymond Raab
Roger Riefler
Terry Ridgeway
Mario Rizzo
Morgan Reynolds
Simon Rottenberg
Randy Rucker
Richard Saba
Todd Sandler
David Saurman
Mark Schmitz
Robert Sexton
William Shughart
Robert J Staaf
Thomas Stimson
Wendell Sweetser
Mark Thornton
Mark Toma
David G Tuerck
Richard Vedder
Bruce Vermeullen
Richard Wagner
J Keith Watson
Burton Weisbrod
Walter E Williams
Thomas L Wyrick
Bruce Yandle
Boon Yoon
Richard O Zerbe

 

 

OPINION ONLY

Jeffrey Ray ('Jeff' or 'Jeff-Ray') Clark     [ Prof]    

(also JR Clark & Associates)

— An economist who both provided witness and op-ed services for the tobacco industry. He commuted between his paid university post in Tennessee, and his private business in New Jersey. —  


Professor Jeff Ray Clark was a middle-sized cog in an extensive wheel of conspiracy organised by lobbyist James Savarese and Professor Robert Tollison of George Mason University (GMU) on behalf of the tobacco industry.

This network of compliant economists operated by using the facilities and staff of GMU's Center for the Study of Policy Choice [supposedly an independent study center within the university], and it extensively utilised the Center's membership list of extreme-libertarian professors of economics — most of who had tenured positions at State universities.

These professors were contracted on a pay-for-service basis to react to requests circulated by the tobacco industry for help in defeating either excise tax measures, or smoking ordinances.

They were especially required to expoit the public trust inherent in their academic status — almost always a Professor at their local university — and not to reveal that the tobacco industry paid them for services rendered. In fact, many were encouraged to say they were 'non-smokers' — and use this claim to enhanse their credibility.

They were paid ($300 to $1000 per time) to:

  • Write op-ed articles for their main local newspapers. [chosen by the tobacco industry]
  • Write to their local Senators and Representatives. [designated by the tobacco industry]
  • Appear at local ordinance hearings and object to potential passive smoking bans.
  • Appear before local Assemblies or at Congressional hearings.
  • Lecture at economic meetings or conferences
  • Occasionally appear on broadcast or print media.
The propaganda they generated rarely had cigarettes or tobacco at its center — the messages were more obtuse and often cloaked in academic obfuscation. However it always had had a number of focusses important to promoting cigarettes:

  • Excise taxes were harmful to all American workers and businesses.
  • Excise taxes especially impacted the low-paid because of its 'regressive nature'. [They paid proportionally more disposable income to satisfy their nicotine addiction.]
  • Smoking bans of any kind were an infringement on Constitutional liberties — and once the government banned smoking, they would move to ban other personal pleasures.
  • Like any business, the tobacco industry had the Constitutional right to advertise its lethal products.
  • Personal freedom of choice was paramount. Smokers — including those addicted — were free to choose whether to smoke or not to smoke cigarettes.
For each network project, an op-ed article or report would be sent by the Professor, through James Savarese to the Tobacco Institute for their lawyers and PR people to check, correct and "improve" it. The doctored article was then returned to the Professor for transmission to the designated newspaper. Clippings, and copies of letters to Congressmen, were then returned to the Tobacco Institute as "proof of service rendered."

While the members of this network were ideologically aligned to ultra-free-market economics, they were also knowingly part of a conspiracy to promote corporate-funded ideas without acknowlegement of the funding source. This was a conspiratorial deception perpetrated by a trusted academic on the citizens who ultimately paid his/her salary.

The particpants were involved for no other reason than personal greed. And they were recruited despite knowing that the ultimate consequence of their actions was to promote an industry which resulted in the premature deaths and debilitation of millions of people around the world.

It is difficult to know how effective this operation was, but the Tobacco Institute supported this group of 50 to 100 Professors of Economics for a couple of decades, so they obviously felt they were getting value for money. Over the years new members joined and others left the group — but generally Savarese and Tollison recruited one or two economists for each State.

The Professors themselves, of course, justified and rationalised taking money from the tobacco institute on 'ideological grounds' — and never questioned the fact that they were exploiting and undermining the reputation of academics in general, or the indepenent standing of their own university by acting as secret lobbyists for the tobacco industry.

Jeffrey Clark acted wth Robert Tollison, Richard Wager, Dwight Lee and Robert Ekelund (the leading promoters of cash-for-comment economists) in providing advisory services to the tobacco industry, so he was not an innoscent caught up in their web.

He also provided valued servies to them in both New Jersey and Tennessee.

DISAMBIGUATION

  • There is also a Jeffrey N Clark who did biomedical tobacco research.
  • T Jeffrey Clark also did smoke research with the Liggett Group, then RJ Reynolds.
  • Also another who worked for Post-Keyes-Gardner Advertising
  • Jeffrey Clark, special assistant to the assistant administrator for air and radiation at the EPA
  • Jeffrey Clark an Milwaukee attorney who conducted seminars on indoor air quality. He practiced with Reinhart, Boerner, Van Deuren, Norris & Riesel
  • Jeffrey H Clark was at MIT

Some key documents

• He was the Hendrix Professor of Economics, University of Tennessee-Chattanooga — and at the Fairleigh Dickson University, and he ran his own consulting business on the side — JR Clark & Associates.

• Born Waynesboro Virginia. Attended University of Richmond.


1970: BS in Economics from Virginia Commonwealth University.


1974: PhD in Economics from Virginia Polytechnic Institute.


1974–80: with the Joint Council on Economic Education in New York.



1980: Appointed Professor of Economics at Fairleigh Dickinson University



1986 June: /E A Tobacco Institute list of "Schedule of Payments - Excise Tax Op-Ed project." (for the period April-May 1986) This lists the academic economists on their cash-for-comments network who have already planted an article on a local newspaper, and the amount they are to be paid.

    They appear to have been paid $900 for each article, and $1025 if they had also made contact with their local Congressman. However a number of the cash-for-comments network members still have not completed their commission.

    The George Mason (Uni) production staff of Bob Tollison, Bill Shughart, and Gary Anderson were paid for "rewrites, editing and research, 18 articles", and Carol Robert for the "production of final product. " This is a total of $18,000 + $1067 expenses
[This appears to be an addition $1000 per article to check the op-eds and make them into publishable propaganda for each of the local newspapers]

  • Jeff Clarke in New Jersey has been given the target of planting his op-ed article on the Paterson News and was due for payment of $1800.00.
    [This was the highest amount paid to any of the academic economists.]

  • The GMU production staff were also being paid another $9,500 for rewrites, editing and research on 9 additional articles.
  • Savarese himself seems to be charging $5,800 + $235 in expenses for recruiting replacement economists in California, Montana, New York, Ohio and Tennessee.

Tobacco Institute Accounts
Note: There are no Tobacco Institute accountancy payment details (checks or ledger records) for Clark or his company JR Clark & Associate.

    This is unusual with Tobacco Institute consultants — so it is evident that his payments were laundered through Ogilvy & Mather, James Savarese & Associates, or Tollison's Center for the Study of Public Choice.


1987 Feb 6: James Savarese has finalised his list of compliant economists, and sends them to Susan Stuntz at the Tobacco Institute. It lists all the familiar cash-for-comment economists. [See hotlinks on left]

Now well-established network economists:
Lee Anderson, Terry Anderson, Dom Armentano, Cecil Bohanon, Thomas Borcherding, Henry Butler, JR Clark, John David, Allan Dalton, Arthur Denzau, Clifford Dobitz, Robert Ekelund, David Gay, Anne Harper-Fender, Dennis Hein, John Howe, William Hunter, Joe Jadlow, Michael Kurth, Suuner LaCroix, Dwight Lee, C Matt Lindsay, Dennis Logue, Chuck Mason [Masen], Charles Maurice, Fred McChesney, Robert McMahon, Arthur Mead, Wm Mitchell, Allen Parkman, William Peterson, Thomas Pogue, Barry Poulson, Raymond Raab, Simon Rottenberg, Mark Schmitz, Richard Vedder, Richard Wagner
plus four new ones.
  • Greg Neihaus, [aka Neuhaus] University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
  • Mario Rizzo, New York University NY
  • Roger Riefler, Uni of Nebraska, Lincoln
  • Boon Yoon, State Uni of New York, Binghamton, NY



1987 Apr 5: A news report in the Sunday Star-Ledger promotes Clark's pro-tobacco ideas. "FDU prof says smoking crackdown courts trouble for state economy."
[FDU = Fairleigh Dickinson University]

JR Clark, chairman of the economics and finance department at FDU's Samuel J Silberman College of Business Administration, argues that higher taxes and smoking bans in office buildings and public places in some cities would accelerate the downfall of of tobacco industry, causing unemployment and adding thousands to the welfare rolls.
Rather than seeing this as an enormous benefit to New Jersey, he suggests that it would trigger serious problems right across the 'Garden State'.
As people abruptly stop smoking in the face of prohibitive costs and government regulation, virtually all of tobacco-associated workers, including the 60,500 whose jobs depend on the industry workers spending, would be out ot jobs, according to Clark.

    Their unemployment would put a strain on the state and federal welfare programs.

[Like all Hayekian economists he only ever considers one side of the accounting ledger. These losses would be eventually balanced against the relief of strain on New Jersey's welfare and medical systems. But that would also put people in hospitals and homes for the terminal ill out of work. New Jersey needs more emphysemia, lung cancer, crime, gunshot wounds, alcholism and random assorted violence to keep people employed.]



1987 Apr 12: Jeff Clark has an article in the Daily Record (Morristown) newspaper: "Economy may get bombed by anti-smoking crusade." He is now predicting that the anti-smoking crusaders will win and that smoking will be banned.

    He uses the same doomsaying argument as before: all those thousands of tobacco industry workers in New Jersey will suddenly lose their jobs overnight... and then the multiplier effect will then come into play, putting 60,500 workers in dependent industries out on the streets. This will devastate the State economy.

[It is hard to credit that such an intellectual pygmy could go on to become a tenured Professor in two universities in Tennesee and then become the President of the Mont Pelerin Society — but he did. They must celebrate inate stupidity.]


1987 June 9: The Tobacco Institute's Phase II - Excise Tax Op-Ed project involved an article-writing campaign to oppose health care reform on the basis that the governments would be tempted to boost health-care budgets by taxing products like cigarettes — which caused so much of the ill-health.

    At this time cash-for-comment economists project was controlled by Jeff Rose [under the direction of Peter Sparber] and it focussed on defeating cigarette excise tax increases — and especially the threat of such taxes being 'earmarked' to bolster health care budgets.

    The partnership of Saverese and Tollison was supported by wife Anna Tollison, who was employed by James Savarese & Associates to keep the records of articles generated by their large contingent of academic economists and to organise the payments. She reported that...

"In sum, 41 economists were solicited to write editorials. We have publications in 20 states, 14 articles have been written and submitted, and 7 articles are still outstanding." [Others were in the offing]
She listed the economists who wrote the articles, the newspapers in which they were published together with circulation figures [eg. the potential number of readers they may have influenced] and the publication date. Jeff Clark is featured on her list.
NEW JERSEY,
Clark, Newark Star Ledger , [circ.] 600,000 , [pub date] 4/5/87
[also published in the Daily Record, circulation 70,000 on the 4/12/87]



1987 June 22: The Tobacco Institute has been sent by Savarese a "Schedule of Payments — Excise Tax Op-Ed Project." It details the name of the cash-for-comment economist, the State, the targetted newspaper, and both past and current payments — with a separate column labled "Total Earned to Date".

In NEW JERSEY
Clark for Patterson News —Owed $1800 — Total to date $1800



1987 June 23: Savarese writes to Jeff Ross at the Tobacco Institute sending along a list of Democrat members of the House Ways and Means Committee...

... along with the economists we use in those areas. Nine of these are good, solid hits which we should be able to count on to do the job and get a publication. I have *ed these on the attached list. The remaining 6 are all people we have used in the past, but who have not been consistently successful.

    Since I'm under a new financial arrangement with the Tobacco Institute and I need to get these costs cleared in advance, I'll make my best effort here to budget this proposed project.

    If all 15 would get published, which is highly unlikely, the cost of Phase II Excise Tax Op-ed Project would run $45,000.

    More than likely we'll get 8-10 placements and 3 to 4 others who won't get placed, but will still send letters to their members on the Ways and Means Committee. In that case, the cost will be $37,000.
[This proves, beyond doubt, that under their arrangement with the network economists, they were only paid if their op-eds were published in local newspapers, and if they actually sent letters to their Congressmen.]

    The attached list showed who was considered reliable or unreliable:

DEMOCRAT WAYS & MEANS COMMITTEE PROJECT
STATEDemocrat CongressmenEconomist Reliability
IllinoisDan Rosenkowski
Marty Russo
Fred McChesney Unreliable
FloridaSam Gibbons Richard Wagner Unreliable
Texas J. J. Pickle
Michael A. Andrews
Charles Maurice RELIABLE
California Fortney H. (Pete) Stark
Robert T. Matsui
Gary Anderson RELIABLE
IndianaAndrew Jacobs Cecil Bohanon RELIABLE
Tennessee Harold E. Ford Brian Goff
(in Kentuxky)
RELIABLE
Georgia Ed Jenkins Dwight Lee RELIABLE
Missouri Richard A. Gephardt Tom Wyrick Unreliable
New Jersey Frank J. Guarini JR Clark RELIABLE
Arkansas Beryl Anthony, Jr David ER Gay Unreliable
Alabama Ronnie Flippo Robert Ekelund RELIABLE
North Dakota Byron Dorgan Cliff Dobitz RELIABLE
Connecticut Barbara Kennelly Dominick Amento Unreliable
Pennsylvania William J. Coyne Ann Harper-Fender Unreliable
Wisconsin Jim Moody William Hunter RELIABLE



1987 July: a selected group of the economists have been commissioned to write op-eds about cutting the deficit — and to de-emphasise the value of excise taxes. Generally they follow the line of listing four possibilities approaches

  • a general consumption tax (efficient but regressive)
  • increased excise taxes (inefficient and regressive)
  • a national lottery (regressive and competitive with State lotteries)
  • increased income taxes (unpopular)
In this bundle are very similar articles planted on their local newspaper in the March-April period by
  • Dwight Lee (2 of),
  • Dominick Armentano (3 of),
  • John Howe,
  • Joseph Jadlow,
  • S Charles Maurice (2 of),
  • Thomas Pogue,
  • Cecil Bohanon (2 of),
  • Chuck Mason,
  • JR Clark (2 of),
  • Allen Parkman.
  • Robert Ekelund Jr. (2 of),
  • William Mitchell,
  • Cliff Dobitz (2 of),
  • Barry Poulson,
  • William Hunter,
  • Michael Kurth,
  • John David,
  • David Gay,
  • Lee Anderson,
  • Robert McMahon,
  • Craig McPhee,
  • Brian Goff (2 of),
  • Dennis Logue,
  • Thomas Wyrick,
  • Arthur Mead,
  • Richard Wagner.

[This was one of their most successful projects. Professor Dominick Armentano writes to Anna Tollison [wife of Robert] that "... the article went national"]

1987 Aug 21: Jeff Ross at the Tobacco Institute has prepared a consolidated summary of "Field Staff Evaluation of Economists" for his superiors, William Kloepfer and Peter Sparber. The State and Regional Directors of the IT have been asked to look at 34 of these academics and provide an outline of their recent achievements.

NEW JERSEY
J.R. Clark
Farleigh Dickinson University Clifton, NJ
  • Excise Tax Op Eds: Newark Star Ledger — 04/05/87 & Daily Record — 04/12/87
  • Economic Witness/Testimony: (nil)
  • Field Staff Contact: None.
  • Field Staff Evaluation: None,
    [Clark was treated as an exception in New Jersey]



1987 Aug 23: A list of 26 quotes excerpted from major newspaper editorials and op-eds from the TI's cash-for-comments economists about the Packwood tax plan.

Daily Record, Morristown, N.J. August 23, 1987
"While tax reform has had noble goals, the proposed increases in excise taxes could easily wipe out any real progress toward those goals."

J.R. Clark, professor of economics, Farleigh Dickinson University




1987 Aug 23: Clark's article "Excise taxes could negate tax reform" printed in the Daily Record has been sent along to the Tobacco Institute as "proof of service."

    It is another rehash of his 'New Jersey economy will collapse' line. But here he adds the pitch that "Cigarette taxes are regressive" — with the implication that the authorities are trying to rip off the poor by unfairly imposing excise taxes on products they buy.


1987 Aug 31: Peter Sparber [Issues Manager] to Bill Kloepfer [PR head] at the Tobacco Institute:

Jeff [Rose] has done a good job of summarizing the economic consultant situation and I am attaching my copy of his report with some marginal notes. I think he should consider sending a collection of all of the published op-ed pieces to each of the consultants for the sake of inspiration.

    In the case of those who have not had an article accepted for publication I would like to know whether they submitted one.
[This memo leaves no room for doubt that these economists knew precisely who they were working for, and why they were being paid a $1000 an article by the tobacco industry.]

    The economists in each university were visited by State and Regional Directors from Tobacco Institute and subject to an evaluation of their work and their prospects for future work. Not all measured up. Jeff Ross reported:
Two general comments from field staff warrant some consideration. Michael Brozak recommended a political orientation to prepare witnesses for potentially politicized hearings.
[He wanted the economists to be trained to appear before State Assembly hearings]

    We agree, and recommend that State Activities [divison] consider advising field staff to conduct such briefings as appropriate.

Richard Scanlan suggested that an economist from the state capital city is much more valuable. We have asked Savarese and Tollison to see if they can identify a candidate.
[Most came from second-rate universities in the more remote campuses.]




1988: Clark now spent a year as a visiting fellow at Princeton University.



1988 Jan 15: Jim Savarese and his personal company were still subcontracted to the tobacco industry via the PR and advertising company, Ogilvy & Mather. He is writing a proposal for the Tobacco Institute.

Nineteen eighty-seven was a banner year for the Tobacco Institute in its fight against excise tax increases at the federal level.

    Through careful coalition building and effective message dissemination, the Institute was able to fight the battle on its own terms and secure a substantial victory.

    In reviewing your 1988 plans, we found many areas where Ogilvy & Mather and Savarese and Associates can continue to provide services. There are also new areas where we have expertise which have not been fully explored.
He then outlines a couple of problem areas before dealing with the "Economists Program."
Our work with the network of forty-two economists should continue into 1988. In 1987, the network was effective in producing op-eds and submitting and presenting testimony. These activities should continue in 1988.
[However no full list for these 42 network economists appears to exist]

    In addition, the economists network can be used for editorial board briefings, presentations at conferences and the placement of articles on this issue with major media outlets.

    In order to make the most of the new opportunities for the economist network, several factors must be taken into consideration:
  • only 7 or 8 of the economists within the network have the potential to make presentations to editorial boards and conferences.
  • those economists selected to make presentations to editorial boards and conferences need a training program. This program may include media training through Michael Sheehan and briefings by Jim Savarese and Bob Tollison.
  • the editorial board program is a limited strategy with applicability mainly at the federal level with some use at the state level.
  • when implementing the editorial board program, Ogilvy & Mather can assist with pitch materials, press kits, and a placement program.
The opportunity exists to place economists on key economic programs, panels, and at national and regional tax policy conferences. As an addendum to this effort, it is possible to have their comments reprinted and distributed.
They also want to commission studies. They suggest:
  • Effects of an excise tax increase on the federal budget (and its fairness)
  • on bootlegging "and come up with some strong conclusions" [predetermined!]
  • In addition, Savarese and Associates can locate a conservative economist to make the argument that there is an acceleration of government spending when taxes are increased. The program will include placement in an economic journal.
They also propose to work with a number of right-wing tax groups, some left-wing labor groups, minority groups, senior citizens, agricultural groups, and advertising companies. They propose to sponsor conferences, and make a video on excise taxes.

    A national Excise Tax Op-ed Program will target various important members of the Congress and big businessmen (e.g. Lee Iaococca) on the National Economic Commission (NEC). The network economists will be required to target specific newspapers, and a few key political figures. The target for this member of the network is:
New Jersey
Targeted paper: Newark Star Ledger
Economist: JR Clark, Farleigh Dickinson University

[Why selected:] Commission members Sen. Patrick Moynihan and Felix Rohatyn are from New York. Because we have great difficulty in getting published in New York, we have decided to target the entire Northeast area.



1988 Mar 31: The Tobacco Institute's list of available economists, with details of their target for a review of Robert Tollison and Richard Wagner's "Smoking and the State" book (secretly funded and published by the tobacco industry). Jim Savarese writes to Jeff Ross who looks after the cash-for-comments network:

I have listed below potential areas where we could place book reviews for the Tollison/Wagner monograph.

New Jersey
    Targeted paper: The Record
    Economist: JR Clarke, Farleigh Dickinson University.



1988 April 25: NorthWest Airlines had just implemented the first ban on short domestic flights (formalised by the FAA on April 23rd), and the Tobacco Institute was turning out its lobbyists to convince the other airlines that smoking bans of any kind were a bad idea. The economists were central to this propaganda project.

  • Michael Babcock (Kansas Uni) wrote "Good service, not gimmicks win fliers" for the Topeka Capital-Journal which suggested that Northwest was a dangerous and unreliable airline, and that it should concentrate on maintenance and safety rather than persecuting smokers.
  • Michael Kurth (McNeese State) wrote "Market forces are the best way to guarantee freedom" for the Shreveport Journal. He saw it in personal freedom terms:
    The political remedy to social conflict is to ban "offensive" behavior. In a democracy, that usually means the behavior of a minority. That is what the Federal Aviation Administration did when it banned smoking on all airline flights lasting more than two hours. Some air travelers were offended by the smoking of other passengers, even though the smokers were isolated in the back of the plane.

        But by what criteria were their preferences elevated and satisfied over the preferences of smokers?
  • Ryan Amacher (Clemson University) had "Eliminating choice failed marketplace test" He claims that the Northwest Airlines experience had been a disaster (in fact it was highly successful). He also suggests Northwest was a dangerous airline to fly.
  • JR Clark (Uni of Tennessee) had "Focus on service would help airlines most" in the Memphis Commercial Appeal.
  • Michael Davis (Southern Methodist University) had "Smoking ban gets good test" in the Times Herald
  • William Hunter (Marquette Uni) had "Airline smoking ban example of free-market conflice resolution" in the Capital Times.. He damns the Northwest policy for "failing the market test" and praises those airlines which were competing without smoking bans.



1988 May: Savarese has sent the Tobacco Institute a bundle of clippings of the articles planted by this and other economists in their newpapers. This is proof of service, required for payment.

    JR Clark has managed to plant "Excise tax: Bitter medicine for economy" on the Daily Record (May 22).


1988 June 2: James Savarese has advised the Tobacco Institute on the current status of the "NEC Excise Tax" project. The cash-for-comments economists involved were Abrams, Armentano, Clark, Dalton, David, Davis, Howe, Logue, Maurice, Mitchell, Parkman, Sandler, Tuerck, Wyrick, and Miletello

As it now stands, 5 articles have been published, 2 articles (New Mexico and Missouri) are forthcoming, 6 articles have been submitted for publication, and 5 articles are in the revision stage. We have contacted the authors of the articles which are in the revision stage and those articles should be submitted by the end of next week.



1988 June 23: Debbie Schoonmaker at the Tobacco Institute receives a memo from contract organiser James Savarese with "an update status on the NEC Op-Ed Project: [NEC = National Economic Commission, the group they were trying to influence.]

As it now stands, 9 articles have been published, 4 articles (New Mexico, Missouri, Oregon, and Idaho) are forthcoming, 4 articles have been submitted for publication, and 2 articles are in the revision stage.
It lists the network economists by the state in which they operate together with the academics's successes in planting articles on their principle state newspapers. JR Clark is on the list.


1988 July: Jim Savarese has sent the newspaper clippings of the National Economic Commission (NEC) Excise Tax Op-ed Program along to the Tobacco Institute. Following the second term of the Reagan Administration, the budget deficit had blown out to such an extent that it was obvious that the next President would need to find new revenue streams — and cigarettes were the obvious target. NEC was charged with making recommendations for deficit reduction.

    The Tobacco Institute instructed their tame network economists to write op-eds for their designated local newspapers attacking the idea of increased excise taxes. These are newspaper clippings:

  • Dom Armentano, Uni of Hartford (New Haven Register) "Reagan's successor must resist temptation to raise taxes."
  • Burton Abrams, Uni of Delaware (Sunday News Journal) "Equitable and efficient ways to raise taxes."
  • Dwight Lee, Uni of Georgia (The Atlanta Journal) "Tax increase won't cut budget deficit."
  • Allen Dalton, Uni of Idaho (Idaho Press-Tribune) "Federal tax hike destined in 1989."
  • Todd Sandler, Iowa State Uni (Cedar Rapids Gazette) "The Shape of Taxes to Come"
  • John Howe, Uni of Kansas (The Capital-Journal) "Less spending, not more taxes, is the only real budget solution."
  • David Tuerck, Suffolk University (The Boston Globe) "A sinful proposal".
  • Thomas Wyrick, Southwest Missouri State (The News-Leader) "Higher taxes can't solve budget crisis."
  • JR Clark, Fairleigh Dickinson Uni (Daily Record NJ) "Excise tax: Bitter medicine for economy."
  • William Mitchell, Uni of Oregon (Register-Guard) "Tax increases not solution to reducing deficit."
  • Michael Davis, Southern Methodist Uni (Dallas Times Herald) "Excise taxes are far from painless remedy."
  • Charles Maurice, Texas A&M Uni (Houston Post) "Economic panel lets officials dodge the deficit bullet."
  • John David, West Virginia Tech (Charleston Gazette) "Taxes will target the poor."



The Societal/Social Cost of Smoking
1988 June: The Issues Manager of the Tobacco Institute, Susan Stuntz, told her executive audience at the annual knees-up that they had recruited a group of Social Cost economists to assist them with countering claims that smoking was a burden on the economy.
The overall objective of our program is to show there are no social costs of smoking. First, we've established a core group of social costs economists from respected academic institutions across the country. They will take the lead in arguing against social costs economics... testifying [and] dealing with the media [and] conducting briefings... and producing research.
    A new wave of research will be ready by the end of August.
  • For instance, a report using Japan as evidence against the Social Cost argument.
  • A study which shows how dangerous Social Cost methods could be to other industries, such as Sugar, Coffee and Beef. We can anticipate this research will help us generate support from other industries to oppose Social Cost Economics.
  • A study on Absenteeism and smoking to demonstrate that absenteeism is related to job characteristics and income levels, not smoking behavior.
We'll also be promoting these studies as well as other materials produced by our economists — such as the Tollison/Wagner book — that your probably all seen by now, which analyses Social Cost Economic and its application to tobacco.

    Our team of economics will be addressing their colleagues at the Atlantic, Southern and Western Economics Association meetings. We will promote the final reports from these meetings.Also, an academic symposium of the social cost issue will be held this fall at George Mason University.
[Despite the TI's labeling, these were Hayekian 'Public Choice' economists who had been hired to counter the liberal 'Social Cost' ones.]



1988 Sept: Professor of Economics and Free Enterprise
University of Tennessee at Martin.



1988 Nov: /E This is the Tollison/Saverese network list for 1988. It has 64 names, but it still doesn't cover all 50 States. Some States have two or three network members, so newspapers [and sometimes Congressmen] need to be specified for each member to ensure there is no accidental duplication.

    Telephone numbers (office and home) are often included in case an urgent op-ed or ordinance hearing is needed. These are grouped by State:

NEW JERSEY
J. R. Clark and Assoc
1308 Broad Street, Clifton, New Jersey, 07013, 201-593-8837 201-777-2991
(Affiliation: Farleigh Dickinson University)
Clarke is listed as servicing two States:
TENNESSEE
Professor Brian Goff Department of Economics, Western Kentucky University, Bolling Green, KY 42101, 502-745-2249

Professor F. Steb Hipple
    Department of Economics, East Tennessee State, Johnson City, TN 37604

Prof. J.R. Clark Hendrix Professor of Economics and Free Enterprise School of Business, The University of Tennessee at Martin, Martin, Tennessee 38238-5015, 901-587-7228



1988 Dec: At the beginning of 1988, Northwest Airlineshad successfully banned smoking on all US domestic flights. Then in April 1988 a two-year trial smoking ban on all domestic flights of less than two hours duration had been introduced by the FAA.

    The tobacco industry had flown into a panic since their own polling showed that a majority of airline passengers (smokers and non-smokers) were reasonably happy with such bans. They therefore instructed the cash-for-comments network economists to write articles attacking the financial stability of Northwest, attack its safety record, and preaching the need for smoking 'tolerance'.

    The resulting articles generally took the line that Northwest Airlines was suffering financially... when in fact, the ban had been generally successful. This was, in fact, a clear attempt at influencing the stock-market to put pressure on airline management.

    Involved in this disinformation exercise were

  • Michael Babcock, Kansas State Uni (Topeka Capital-Journal) "Good service, not gimmicks win fliers"
  • Michael Kurth McNeese State Uni, letters to the editor. (Shreveport Journal)
  • Ryan Amacher, Clemson University (unknown) "Eliminating choice failed market test
  • JR Clark, Uni of Tennessee, Martin (Memphis Commercial Appeal) "Focus on service would help airlines most.
  • Michael Davis, Southern Methodist Uni (LA Times Syndicate/Times Herald) "Smoking ban gets good test."
  • William Hunter, Marquette Uni (The Capital Times) "Airlines smoking ban example of free-market conflict resolution."
[Many of the writer knew so little about the smoking ban that they confused the Northwest Airline ban with the later FAA trial.]


1988 Dec 30/E: The Tobacco Institute's Communications report.

Two reviews of Northwest Airlines' total smoking ban concluded that the policy has not passed the market test.
  • The Greenville News carried Clemson University Dean Ryan Amecher's views,
  • the Memphis Commercial Appeal published University of Tennessee-Martin Professor J.R. Clark's analysis.
The clips are enclosed.



1989 Jan 4: The Tobacco Institute's lobbyist, James Savarese, has been given responsiblity for co-opting both genuine and pseudo/astroturf type operations to support the tobacco industry in order to construct some sort of collaborative effort. Savarese's report says:

Airline Cabin Air Quality
  • participated in strategy meetings of airline cabin air quality task force, including Labor Subcommittee.
    [The Tobacco Institute had a Labor Management Committee (LMC) made up mainly of lawyers:
  • worked with airline consultants on indoor air quality
  • participated in meetings with pollster on airline smoking issue
  • participated in follow-up to November 29 ASHA Board Meeting
  • continued op-ed project on Northwest Airlines. As of January 3, three op-ed projects have been published:
    • Shreveport Journal — Michael Kurth — McNeese State Univ.
    • Commercial Appeal — JR Clark — University of Tenn.at Martin
    • The Greenville News — Ryan Amacher — Clemson Univ.



1989 Jan 11: The Tobacco Institute's Scientific Consultancy Activity 1988-89
This is an 80 page mixed bag of files dumped together [Well worth perusing]. The first document is from 1990 [ordered in reverse]

  • Pages 3 to 23 begin with Witness Appearances in 1988 and 1989 involving both "Indoor Air Quality experts" who work for the Tobacco Institute, and three economists [Bob Tollison, Richard Wagner and Dwight Lee]
  • Pages 24 to 31 Labor IAQ Presentations in 1988 and 1989 which involves key figures in the labor movement and a few "IAQ experts."
  • Pages 32 to 39 IAQ/ETS conferences attended by tobacco industry disinformation experts in 1988 and 1989
  • Pages 40 to 41 Academic and Unaffiliated Scientfic Witnesses
  • Pages 43 to 53 Smokers Rights Legislation in various states.
  • See page 54: Tobacco Institute "Confidential" memo on "Tax Hearing Readiness" which is their battle plan to counter earmaking of cigarette excise taxes to fund health programs. It lists a large number of organizations and a few congressmen who can be relied on to help. It also has both primary and secondary lists of economists from Tollison's "cash-for-comments" network willing to give testimony.
Economists: [Primary]
  • Bill Orzechowski, Tobacco Institute
  • Robert Tollison, George Mason University
  • Richard Wagner, George Mason University
  • Dwight Lee, University of Georgia, Athens
  • Michael Davis, Southern Methodist University
  • Gary Anderson, California State at Northridge
  • William Prendergast (resource: Prendergast/Solmon papers)
  • Other Network economists [see Secondary attached list below]

        "Due by mid-year is a book examining earmarking and "user fees" from a public choice perspective. The treatise will contain 8-10 chapters written by respected economists, including, Henri LePage and Nobel laureate James Buchanan."
The Tobacco Institute's list of cash-for-comments professors and senior academics who were available to write op-eds and give evidence at Congressional hearings, etc. had grown extensively and Clark is listed twice here: <
NEW JERSEY
JR Clark & Associates (Farleigh Dickinson University)

TENNESSEE
Prof Brian Goff, West Kentucky University
Prof F Steb Hipple, East Tennessee State,
Prof J. R. Clark, Univ of Tennessee at Martin

    TI budget papers show that:
  • each op-ed now earned the economists $3,000.
  • Presentations to conferences earned them $5,000.
  • Savarese was paid between $70,000 and $100,000 pa for this project alone,
  • Ogilvy & Mather received $250,000.

See page 5


1989 Mar 17-19: The Annual Meeting of the Public Choice Society together with the Economic Science Assocition. These are Hayek-oriented neo-con economists of the kind which gave us the Global Financial Crisis of 2008-9. The speakers list mentions many active members of the economists network: — some of whom spoke more than once. (William Hunter in particular.) It is clear that this society was a profitable recruiting ground for Tollison and Savarese.

    The large group of speakers connected with Tollison's Center for the Study of Public Choice at George Mason University completely dominated the conference session on Public Health.

  • Robert Tollison
  • Richard Wagner
  • David ER Gay
  • Dwight Lee
  • William C Mitchell
  • Burton Abrams
  • Cecil E Bohanon
  • Charles Breeden
  • William J Hunter
  • Bruce Benson
  • Burton Weisbrod
  • Bruce Yandle
  • Roger L Faith
  • Roger Congleton
  • James Buchanan
  • Gary Anderson
  • Peter J Boettke
  • Jeffrey R Clark
  • Robert J Staaf

    This document also contains a list of the Public Choice Society's participants, many of whom were also members of the economist's network.


1989 April 18: Susan Stuntz (Issues Manager) at the Tobacco Institute memoes her boss Sam Chilcote. She is sending him material previously used for a two-day "Gerry Long" presentation. He wants to use it in a shorter one-day (unspecified) briefing session.

[Gerald H Long was the CEO of RJ Reynolds who in 1988 had just taken over as Chairman of the Tobacco Institute's Executive Committee and wanted to make changes.]

This document has the speaker's powerpoints, including a list of network economists divided on a State-by-State basis.       Note the document is 117 pages

The outline for the Powerpoint slides is here in full, together with the names of the politicians they were required to influence. It boasts that the..
Economists' Network 64 Strong [is] Targeted to Congressional Tax Writing Committees [and utilizing the] Production of Op-Eds on Federal Tax Policy.
[List of economists includes Clark]



1989 Dec 14: Jim Savarese is listing the economists taking part in their new Excise Tax Op-Ed project.

I have also listed the newspapers we plan to target and a package of the materials we are sending to the economists.

    We should start getting drafts of the op-eds around the first of the year.
This economist is on the list for TENNESSEE, Commercial Appeal (Memphis)


1990 Jan: - Feb The Tobacco Institute's "Communications Activities" report says:

MEDIA TOURS BY CONSULTANTS
In place of "Truth Squad" media tours. Jack Peterson, Dave Weeks and Larry Holcomb have been conducting interviews on the publication of the report from the [Philip Morris devised and controlled] ETS Symposium held at McGill University.
They list other media tours by Gray Robertson (ACVA/HBI) Tollison and Wagner, and Jolly Ann Davidson (NABSE). Also
THIRD PARTY AND ALLIED ACTIVITIES
Editorials written by economists Richard K. Vedder of Ohio University, Dominick Armentano of the University of Hartford, and J.R. Clark of the University of Tennessee, appeared.

    These editorials, opposing excise taxes and discussing "user fees," appeared in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the New Haven Register, the Memphis Commercial Appeal, the Jackson Sun, the Kingsport Times, the Paris Post-Intelligencer, and the Weakley County Press.



1990 Jan 22: Clipping of an op-ed by Clark (at the University of Tennessee) for the Tobacco Institute which appeared in a number of tame papers:

  • Paris Post-Intelligence "User-fee label an example of budget's deceptiveness."
  • Weakley County Press "The truth about Bush's Budget"
  • Kingsport Times-News "Respect voter's intellect: Bush should call a tax a tax.
  • The Commercial Appeal "A tax is still a Tax"
  • The Jackson Sun "President disguises tax boost
All attacking President George Bush I and excise tax increases.
[Some would consider this as a pot calling the kettle 'deceptive']


1990 May: Clarke wrote an op-ed and became a witness for the Tobacco Institute. He was listed as being available for consultation. His past service-payments details are listed as:

  • 5/90 Excise Tax/"user fee" op-ed published in The Paris Post-Intelligencer, The Weakly County Press, Kinusoort Times-News, The Commercial Appeal, The Jackson Sun

  • 6/90 Anti-excise tax/"no taxes" op-ed published in The Commercial Appeal, The Jackson Sun




1990 May 7: Carol Hrycaj and Martin Gleason from the Tobacco Institute distribute a CONFIDENTIAL note to their co-workers (including Savarese & Associates) on the 1991 Tax and Social Cost Plans. They are concerned that:
The "social cost" issue impacts all of our issues. Proponents of cigarette excise tax increases, smoking restrictions and advertising bans often rely on "social cost" arguments to support their efforts.

What TI and Its Allies Must Cover
  1. "Social cost" arguments used to justify excise tax increases, smoking restrictions and ad bans are not valid.
  2. Independent economists state that "social cost" calculations used by anti-smokers do not withstand credible economic scrutiny.
  3. There is no convincing economic evidence that smokers impose costs on society. Any supposed costs are "private costs" and are borne by the smoker.
  4. Other industries are vulnerable to social cost attacks. A "slippery slope" may exist as anti-smokers, using "social costs" arguments, seek legislation restricting smoking or increasing taxes. These efforts may signal lawmakers to regulate other products as well.
The messages they want the economists to promote are:
  • Excise taxes are regressive
  • Cigarette excise taxes are discriminatory (Blacks, Hispanics)
  • Excise taxes are unfair.
  • Excise taxes are unreliable sources of revenue.
The document has a listing for the cash-for-comment economists who are operating in Tennessee:
TENNESSEE
Professor Brian Goff
Department of Economics, Western Kentucky University
Boiling Green, KY 42101 502-745-2249

Professor F. Steb Hipple
Department of Economics, East Tennessee State
Johnson City,TN 37604

J.R. Clark
Hendrix Professor of Economics and Free Enterprise
School of Business, The University of Tennessee at Martin
Martin, Tennessee 901-587-7228



1990 May 9: This is a list of the newspapers designated to certain economists on the network. They are to attempt to plant an op-ed article on "Excise Taxes" on this local newspapers.

TENNESSEE
J. R. Clark, Univ of Tennessee at Martin
has been given the Commercial Appeal as his propaganda target.


1990 June: - July Communications Activities report from the Tobacco institute lists their various successes in these two months in planting articles on newspapers, and in generating interviews and news items on radio and television via 'media tours' by paid consultants (who pretended that they weren't) It includes:

Economists are weighing in on the federal budget debate with a new series of anti-excise tax op-eds in key congressional districts. Economists appearing in print (copies enclosed) include:
  • J.R. Clarke, Jackson Sun and Commercial Appeal;
  • Ryan Amacher, Anderson Independent-Mail:
  • Todd Sandler, Fort Dodge Messenger;
  • Domenick Armentano, Hartford Courant:
  • William Mitchell, Register Guard; and
  • Barry Poulson, Alamaso Valley Courier.



1990 Aug: PR firm Fleishman-Hillard is now running media tours using members of a number of cash-for-comments networks which Savarese and others are now operating for the Tobacco Institute:

  • economists network (still under the Tollisons and Savarese)
  • ventilation network members (Mainly run by Health Buildings International)
  • biological scientists network,
  • academic lawyers nework
  • labor network (Savarese also)
  • advertising academics network
At this time the economist's media tours are to promote the Richard Wagner and Robert Tollison book on the Social Cost of smoking which had been written for the Tobacco Institute. and reviewed by many of the cash-for-comment economist network members.

    Also there is attached a list of Savarese's network economist triumphs which has the intriquing heading "Consulting Economists — Not on Philip Morris List" which suggests that PM was running a parallel operation to that of the Tobacco Institute.

    This list holds the recent successes in planting op-eds on local newspapers, and a few appearances of economists at State hearings, conferences, etc.

J R Clark
Hendrix Professor of Economics, University of Tennessee

5/90 Excise Tax/"user fee" op-ed published in The Paris Post-Intelligencer, The Weekly County Press, Kingsport Times-News, The Commercial Appeai,The Jackson Sun

6/90 Anti-excise tax/"no taxes" op-ed published in The Commercial Appeal, The Jackson Sun


See two of his articles


1990 Aug 3: Sam Chilcote at the Tobacco Institute has advised the Members of the Executive Committee of plans to develop a celebrity speakers program using academics and other expert consultants. There are offering the speakers both money and personal promotion in exchange for their help:

[W]hile it is clear that there are a number of individuals who can and are speaking out on our issues independent of the Institute, there also is much more that could be done. There are, for example, opportunities to develop higher profiles for those individuals with whom we enjoy an existing relationship, and to increase within the media an awareness of their availability.

    There also are a number of individuals who have been identified who do not currently have a relationship with the industry, but whose views appear to be compatible with our own. Should the Executive Committee decide that it wants to proceed with an expansion of our speakers' program, these individuals would be contacted to determine their interest in our issues.

    The addition of new speakers to our program will be expensive. Most of these individuals command substantial consulting fees; media and other activity will require a new commitment of funds, although an exact amount cannot be determined until candidates have been approached.
He then lists:
  • Authors, newscasters and newspaper columnists
  • Well-known politicians, political aides, White House staffers, State authorities, agency administrators, etc
  • Heads of various coalition groups (American Advertising Federation. etc)
  • Cash-for-comments legal and business academics from Savarese's network list.
  • Cash-for-comments 'risk assessment' academics and promoter.
  • Cash-for-comment experts in indoor air pollution and ventilation systems.
  • Cash-for-comment academic economists + some likely allies:
  • BRUCE L. BENSON, professor of economics, Florida State University and board member, James Madison Institute, a Tallahassee think tank.
  • DWIGHT R. LEE, professor of economics, holder of the Ramsey Chair of Private Enterprise, University of Georgia [Later close Clark associate]
  • JAMES C. MILLER, Citizens for a Sound Economy Foundation, Washington; former director of OMB
  • WALTER E. WILLIAMS, professor of economics, George Mason
        University, Fairfax, Va.
  • BOB TOLLISON, George Mason University, Center for the Study of Public Choice
  • Some more minor network academics, together with their recent achievements.
Jeffrey Clark, along with dozens of others, is thought to be a potential speaker and is credited with recent achievements:
J.R. Clark
Hendrix Professor of Economics,
University of Tennessee

5/90 Excise Tax/"user fee" op-ed published in The Paris Post-Intelligencer. The Weekly County Press. Kinasport Times-News. The Commercial Appeal, The Jackson Sun

6/90 Anti-excise tax/"no taxes" op-ed published in The Commercial Appeal. The Jackson Sun



1990 Dec: Tobacco Institute document. It lists the services that academics and secret consultants have provided to the tobacco industry during 1989 and 1990 — both as witnesses and as authors of articles and letters.

  • Pages 2 - 9     Advertising: lawyers and advertising administrators
  • Pages 10 - 30 Science and Public Policy on ETS/IAQ
  • Pages 31 - 39  Taxation
    This gives the dates of each of the services, and any 'Current Projects' they may be working on:
J.R. Clark
    Hendrix Professor of Economics,University of Tennessee
  • 5/90 Excise Tax/"user fee" op-ed published in The Paris Post-Intelligencer, The Weekly County Press, Kingsport Times-News, The Commercial Appeal, The Jackson Sun
  • 6/90 Anti-excise tax/"no taxes" op-ed published in The Commercial Appeal, The Jackson Sun

See page 32-5

[The Tobacco Institute, due to budget cuts has reduced the number of academics on its network in each state. Clark is now the only member for Tennessee, and they have no one in New Jersey.

    However TI budget papers show that each op-ed still earned the economists $3,000. Presentations to conferences earned them $5,000. Savarese was paid $70,000 to $100,000 pa for this project, and Ogilvy & Mather $250,000.]

See page 5



1991 Jan: Tobacco Institute draft plan for 1991 with emphasis on "Taxes." These are the economist-related paragraphs:
Objective
To discourage reliance on consumer excise taxes on cigarettes to meet social and economic objectives by demonstrating that excise taxes are regressive and inconsistent with fair taxation.

Goals and Tactics:
  • Commission two op-ed articles in 1991 from consulting economists. As articles are published, provide to other Institute decisions for promotion and submission to appropriate policy makers.
  • Conduct at least 10 presentations by consulting economists on the excise tax issue before national, regional and state tax policy conferences.
  • Continue to utilize consulting economists for testimony and briefings. Expand appearances to include presentations to business clubs and the business press. Conduct media refresher courses for public speaking appearance and delivery of testimony.
  • Utilize the consulting economists for an op-ed program that addresses the national earmarking issue and state specific earmarking issues. As articles are published, provide to other Institute divisions and promote to appropriate public policymakers. Use field staff network to support distribution efforts.





1991 Jan 8: Savarese has sent the current list of network economists to Carol Hyrcaj at the Tobacco Institute. It contains three new names, but otherwise is essentially the same as the old lists.


    ALABAMA, Robert B. Ekelund, Jr., Auburn University
    ARIZONA, William J. Boyes, Arizona State University
    ARKANSAS, David E. R. Gay, University of Arkansas
    CALIFORNIA, Gary Anderson, California State at Northridge
                Roger Arnold, California State Univ. - San Marcos
    COLORADO, Barry Poulson, University of Colorado
    CONNECTICUT, Dominick Armentano, University of Hartford
    DELAWARE, Burton Abrams, University of Delaware
    FLORIDA, Bruce Benson, Florida State University
    GEORGIA, Dwight R. Lee, University of Georgia
    IDAHO, Allan Dalton, Boise State University
    ILLINOIS, James Heins, University of Illinois
    INDIANA, Cecil Bohanon, Ball state University
    IOWA, Todd Sandler, Iowa State University
    KANSAS, Michael Babcock, Kansas State University
    KENTUCKY, Brian Goff, Western Kentucky University
    LOUISIANA, Michael Kurth, McNeese State University
    MAINE, Robert McMahon, University of Southern Maine
    MASSACHUSETTS, David Tuerck, Suffolk University
    MISSISSIPPI, Bill Shughart, University of Mississippi
    MISSOURI, Joe A Bell, Southwest Missouri State University
                Thomas I. Wyrick, Southwest Missouri State University
    MONTANA, Terry L. Anderson, Montana State University
    NEBRASKA, Dee Martin, University of Nebraska
    NEVADA, John Dobra, University of Nevada Reno
    NEW HAMPSHIRE, Dennis Logue, Dartmouth College
    NEW MEXICO, Allen Parkman, University of New Mexico
    NORTH DAKOTA, Cliff Dobitz, North Dakota State University
    OHIO, Richard Vedder, Ohio University
    OKLAHOMA, Joseph Jadlow, Oklahoma State University
    OREGON, William Mitchell, University of Oregon
    PENNSYLVANIA, Ann Harper-Fender, Gettysburg College
    RHODE ISLAND, Arthur Mead, Universityof Rhode Island
    SOUTH CAROLINA, Ryan Aiaacher, Clemson University
    SOUTH DAKOTA, Dennis lain, Augustana College
TENNESSEE, JR Clark, The University of Tennessee at Martin
    TEXAS, S Charles Maurice, Texas ASM University
                Michael Davis, Southern Methodist University
    VIRGINIA, Richard B Wagner, George Mason University
    WASHINGTON, Richard D. Zerbe, Jr., University of Washington



1993 Mar 23: Jim Savarese is proposing to Calvin George at the Tobacco Institute a new Op-ed program.

Outlined below is our proposed op-ed program in opposition to the use of excise taxes to finance health care.
• Op-ed article by Robert Tollison to be submitted to Wall Street Journal $ 4,000
• Rebuttal article by Bob Ekelund, Auburn University, to be submitted to the Birmingham News $ 3,000
• "Monster" tax op-ed project using twenty economists (list attached) to submit articles in opposition to using excise taxes on cigarettes to finance health care reform - to be submitted to twenty newspapers in twenty different states $60,000
TOTAL $67,000
Jeffrey Clark is listed as one of the proposed lucky recipients of $3,000 in largess from the Tobacco Institute for bashing out a quick op-ed from the material provided to him. He was told to submit the article to the Commercial Appeal.



1993 July: Appointed Professor of Free-Enterprise and Director of Center for Economic Education at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.



1993 Aug 3: This is a series of lists dated from March to August 1993. Savarese's staff have sent these to the Tobacco Institute to progressively report successes and failures with the economists writing op-ed pieces and having them published.

    Collectively they give us a good idea as to how the network worked and how litte they managed to plant on the major newspapers (the smaller local papers were obviously easy.) It's also interesting to observe the mechanical processes and the tight control the tobacco industry and its lawyers exerted over these academic lackies.

  • The articles were either rejected, revised or passed by Jim Savarese and his staff
  • They were then sent for checking and alteration by Calvin George [Cal] at the Tobacco Institute.
  • The lawyer David Reemes who worked for the industry's main Washington lawfirm Covington & Burling then cleared them for publication.
  • The economist then received the revised copies back for onward transmission to the selected newspapers.
  • They would then send a copy to their local Congressmen without mentioning the tobacco industry's contractual arrangement.
Clearly, by 1993, many of the original network members were dropping out. The Tobacco Institute also appears to have been having problems getting even those academics who stayed loyal to write articles that justified their $2000 to $3000 payments. [Perhaps some of them developed a conscience!]

    Despite the protestations, these are not 'independent' opinion articles. They are industry-shaped, manipulated propaganda pieces designed as advocacy vehicles to promote tobacco interests in political, media and public circles — even when they don't directly mention or promote cigarettes or smoking.

    These lists are all headed 'MONSTER' Tax Op-Ed Project:
    TENNESSEE
    Professor J.R. Clark, The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, 206 Founders Hall, 615 McCallie Avenue, Chattanooga, TN
    • Mar 23 — [TI designated newspaper/s] Commercial Appeal
    • Apr 9 — Recieved 4/16/93 — Sent to Cal 4/19/93 — Received from Cal 4/22/93 — Waiting - legal 4/28/93 — Returned 4/29/93 — Rev. Draft 4/30
    • May 12 — Submitted to the Memphis Commercial Appeal
    • May 18 — (as above)
    • June 2 — Forthcoming: Memphis Commercial Appeal
    • June 14— Forthcoming: Memphis Commercial Appeal
    • Aug 3 — (as above)




The Alexis de Tocqueville (AdTI) Scam.

William Orzechowski at the Tobacco Institute proposed to the AdTI that they run a major project to attack junk-science, and use this to lable the EPA's report on passive smoking (ETS) as rubbish.

    Cesar Conda, who ran the AdTI under Co-Chairmen Jack Kemp and Joseph Lieberman (a pathetic attempt to give it a non-partisan political status) proposed to the Tobacco Institute that they organise a 'research paper' to critically assess the methodology used by the EPA.
  • He was vague on content, but suggested three possible authors: Fred Singer, Kent Jeffreys, or Bob Tollison.
  • They would also assemble an Advisory Board of economists and scientists to endorse the report and give it publicity.
  • The AdTI would release and distribute the rport to press outlets nationwide and circulate it widely on Capitol Hill.
  • Alternatives: It could be either a well researched report taking several months, or a quick-and-dirty churn-out taking 2-3 weeks.
  • The cost of the project either way would be $20,000.
My sense is that we could produce an effective backgrounder report which reviews all of the known facts about the science used in the ETS case. Moreover, the Commission on Environmental Science - or whatever we choose to call it - would give the issue added attention and prominence.



1994 Aug 11: The Alexis de Tocqueville Institute has issued the report "Science, Economics and Environmental Policy: A Critical Examination."

    This report, supposedly by a team led by Kent Jeffreys (former director of the Competitive Enterprise Institute's Environmental Studies Program) looking into the problems of ETS, radon, and the costly Superfund cleanups of toxic waste dumps. It was actually compiled by S Fred Singer and Gerhard Stoher of SEPP — so it took on a climate-denial slant.

    A note sent out by the Tobacco Institute on Aug 25 to its regional directors with a copies of this document points out the report's value in attacking the EPA's view of passive smoking.


    The [Commission on Environmental Science] — actually the Academic Advisory Board — listed Jeffrey Clark as a member along with many other cash-for-comment network economists including Bob Tollison, Richard Wagner, and Dwight Lee.


[A draft of the Alexis de Toqueville Report had been sent to the Tobacco Institute for approval six weeks before its release.


The Institute then advised its Management Committee at their meeting in June 1994.]


Singer, SEPP and APCO

    S Fred Singer of SEPP worked primarily with Philip Morris by way of the tobacco company's own PR-firm, APCO & Associates APCO also ran the tort reform project (ATRA and CALA) and TASSC — The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition With its junk-science web site, TASSC became the main vehicle for attacking regulatory science as 'junk'.

    APCO and Steve Milloy ran this operation both for the tobacco industry and other industries who eventually supported the project via a small corporate coalition. This was a well-funded, and well-camoflagued attack on the activist concerns about Environmental Tobacco Smoke (ETS), which hid behind the potential problems raised by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over radon, pesticides and the SuperFund toxic chemicals in the environment.

    They also trotted out John D Graham and his Harvard Center for Risk Analysis as experts. They were also tobacco industry-funded lobbyists.

Aim of the AdTI Report: The aim of this report was to group together a number of different environmental threats (which most Republicans had been convinced were fallacious) and thereby create a giant straw scarecrow. They would then classify the various threats jointly as examples of the EPA's exaggerate claims of threats to health and burn the lot together. This EPA strawman/scarecrow, they held, was evidence of the radical agenda of the EPA and other anti-smoking, anti-polluting zealots.

The importance of the Alexis de Tocqueville Report
This report market a turning-point in the tobacco industry's fight-back operations. Philip Morris had just successfully established The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition (TASSC) and Steve Milloy at TASSC was given the job of labelling any anti-tobacco study results as 'junk-science'.

    APCO & Associates, who created and secretly ran TASSC by way of CGI Grey Marketing, had extended the reach of this new 'junk-science' operation to embrace mutual-help relationships with the major poisoning and polluting industries which were becoming embroiled in the problems of climate change. They also started up a European version of TASSC called the European Science and Environmental Forum (ESEF), run by Roger Bate through the Institute for Economic Affairs (IEA) in London.

    This was one of the tobacco industry's contributions to the 'anti-science' movement which was intended to counter both anti-smoking and climate change research — and in the process, coopt the energy, oil and mining companies to support the tobacco industry under seige. It resulted in the Atlas Network (libertarian think-tanks) emerging around the world as a powerful group of corporate-funded lobbyists.



1995 Oct: /E Philip Morris has been sent a list of the Tobacco Instutute's network economists who had been commissioned, and had...

... prepared and submitted op-eds [attacking the FDA] for publication to major newspapers in select states — targetting key Congressional districts:

    Economists prepared and submitted op-eds for publication to major newspapers in select states:
  • Dr William Boyes, Arizona State University
  • Dr Barry Poulson, University of Colorado
  • Dr Dominick Armentano, University of Hartford
  • Dr Dwight Lee, University of Georgia, Athens
  • Iowa economist tbd [To Be Determined]
  • Dr Cecil Bohanan, Ball State University
  • Dr Robert Pulsinelli, Western Kentucky University
  • Dr Michael Kurth, McNeese State University (Louisiana)
  • Dr Bill Shughart, II, University of Mississippi
  • Dr Joe Bell, Southwest Missouri State University
  • Dr Terry Ridgway, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
  • Dr Allen Parkman, University of New Mexico
  • Dr Lowell Gallaway, Ohio University
  • Dr Ed Price, Oklahoma State University
  • Dr William Mitchell, University of Oregon
  • Dr J.R. Clark, The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
  • Dr Michael Davis, The University of Texas at Dallas
  • Robert Higgs, Independent Institute, Edmonds, Washington
  • Dr Charles Breeden, Marquette University
They had been told to "attack the FDA proposal from an anti-big government, anti-regulatory perspective" with a number of pre-determined themes
  • While FDA claims their focus is on preventing youth smoking, the action is the first step to impose harsher regulations on tobacco;
  • The FDA regs will have repercussions on not only the tobacco industry, but vending, confectionery and candy industries, distributors, advertisers and sponsors for sporting events; and
  • The regs will have a devastating impact on jobs.

[This memo demonstrates just how compliant these academic tobacco lackeys had become — and how much they were willing to follow tobacco industry instructions in writing their op-ed pieces.]

1995 Nov 5: JR Clark's op-ed "More Regulation Would Be Wasteful, Intrusive" appeared in the Chattanooga Free Press newspaper. He forgets to mention in the article that the writing was funded, edited and legal-checked by the Tobacco Institute.
    [See page 70 in this 204 page file]


1995 Dec 21: Savarese & Associate's Status report to Carol Hyrcaj at the Tobacco Institute on the FDA op-editorial program [Dec 8th].

As reflected in the status report, we have replaced Iowa, Wisconsin, and the Houston congressional district with three new states (California, Massachusetts and West Virginia). As you know, we have already received Robert Sexton's (California) article, as well as confirmation that the economist in Massachusetts is able to participate.

At this time, we are asking those economists that have published, to forward a copy of their article to their congressman/congresswoman.
Clearly some of their draft articles were not entirely satisfactory and required rewrites by Savarese's staff. The notes include some additional revealing items such as:
  • Professor Cecil Bohanon — "Revised op-ed returned to economist 11/10"
  • "Professor Pogue has been contacted. We are waiting to hear whether he will be able to particpate."
  • Professor Kurth — "Will have op-ed to us by next week" [for checking]
  • Professor Ridgway — "Will have op-ed to us in a week"
  • Professor Gallaway — "Returned revised op-ed to economist 11/2"
  • Professor Davis — "Returned revised op-ed 11/3"
  • Clifford Fry, Resources Inc, Bryan Texas — "Had to identify new economist. Sent materials 11/14"
  • Prof Charles Breeden, Marquette University, — "Had to identify new economist. Sent materials 11/14"
[These last two were obviously a fill in for a Texas and a Wisconsin economist who had dropped out or the network.]


1996 Jan 5: This Status Report on FDA Op-ed Program is revealing about the master-servant relationship between the tobacco industry and their network economists. It lists 20 attempted newpaper plants of their anti-FDA propaganda and details about the 20 economists who wrote these articles on commission:

TENNESSEE
Professor J.R. Clark, The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, 206 Founders Hall, 615 McCallie Avenue, Chattanooga, TN
  The Commercial Appeal-declined:
  Chattanooga Free Press [presumably still under consideration]
  [No details of any Congressmen contacted]
Attached to the front of this document is a model letter to be used by the professors when sending a copy of their article to a local Congressman.

Of course the cover letter to the Congressman makes no mention of the fact that the Tobacco Institute paid $3,000 to have the op-ed written.


See also the earlier version of this report which notes which op-eds have been sent for revision before being submitted to the newspaper.


1996 Jan 26: This Status report for the FDA Op-Ed Program shows that they were still planting articles and contacting Congressmen for the Tobacco Institute.


1996 Feb: /E The Tobacco Institute's Media Relations report on the Economists:

    Ongoing
  • An extensive economist op-ed program was implemented to focus media attention on the FDA's agenda. The program attacks the FDA proposal from an anti-big government, anti-regulatory perspective. Targeting key Congressional districts:
  • Economists prepared and submitted op-eds for publication to major
        newspapers in select states :
    • Dr William Boyes, Arizona State University
    • Dr Barry Poulson, University of Colorado
    • Dr Dominick Armentano, University of Hartford
    • Dr Dwight Lee, University of Georgia, Athens
    • Iowa economist tbd [To Be Determined]
    • Dr Cecil Bohanan, Ball State University
    • Dr Robert Pulsinelli, Western Kentucky University
    • Dr Michael Kurth, McNeese State University (Louisiana)
    • Dr Bill Shughart, II, University of Mississippi
    • Dr Joe Bell, Southwest Missouri State University
    • Dr Terry Ridgway, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
    • Dr Allen Parkman, University of New Mexico
    • Dr Lowell Gallaway, Ohio University
    • Dr Ed Price, Oklahoma State University
    • Dr William Mitchell, University of Oregon
    • Dr J.R. Clark, The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
    • Dr Michael Davis, The University of Texas at Dallas
    • Robert Higgs, Independent Institute, Edmonds, Washington
    • Dr Charles Breeden, Marquette University
[Along with the core group of Tollison, Wagner, Ekelund, etc. these are mostly the 'stayers'.]

1996 Mar 8: Kelleigh Varnum, of Savarese & Associations advises Carol Hrycaj at the Tobacco Institute that:

We have located an economist to replace John David (WV). His name is Cliff Dobitz (ND). The status report reflects this addition.

    Also attached is Ed Price's (OK) letter to Congressman Largent.
Doblitz was an old network contributor from North Dakota. But presumably he had not then been contracted or contracted to attack the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) which was the then-current project for both op-ed writing and contacting Congressmen.

    The Status Report for this FDA Op-ed Program records his involvement at a time which was nearly the end of the cash-for-comments networks operations.





The network begins to wind down.

    Newspapers across America were becoming more aware of the way they were being used, and so the value of the cash-for-comments economists and their flood of libertarian op-eds was declining.

    Some of the academic economists were possibly also developing consciences about their betrayal of public trust and the reputation of their universities, and dropping out of the network. However a few of the die-hards soldiered on....



1996 Apr 16: Kelleigh Varnum has advised the Tobacco Institute on the progress of the FDA Op-ed Program.

To date, 14 of 20 articles have published.
  • David Kurth (LA) informed us that his op-ed was published on February 21, in Lagniappe. Apparently, there was a breakdown in communication with the editor and he did not realize that the article had published. Enclosed is a copy of the article. Unfortunately, it is of very poor quality. We will forward the original to you when we receive it.

  • Although the Atlanta Constitution has promised for quite some time to publish Dwight Lee's op-editorial, there still have not been any developments. As a result, we have directed Dwight to pursue other outlets for submission.
    [Lee later became Clark's co-author on many papers.]

  • Cecil Bohanon (IN) is contacting the editor of the Journal Gazette. He will pursue other outlets for submission if they decide not to publish his article.

  • Publication of Barry Poulson's (CO) and Cliff Dobitz's (ND) op-editorials is forthcoming.

  • Both Mike Davis (TX) and Terry Ridgway (NV) are checking with their editors on the status of their articles.
The general list also records JR Clark's other attempts.
  • The Commercial Appeal — declined
  • Chattanooga Free Press — Published November 5, 1995
  • Contacted Congressman Wamp 1/22/96
[He has now won their favor again. Not only has he planted their propaganda in a newspaper (albeit a second-rate give-away) but he has also contacted a Congressman and lobbied directly on the tobacco industry's behalf.]


1996 June 24: Status Report on FDA Op-Ed Program. It lists the various network economists and the articles they have planted with their newspapers. It also records publication dates and those newspapers which declined to use the propaganda, together with the Congressmen who have been contacted.

    About this network economist it says:

TENNESSEE
Professor J.R. Clark, The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, 206 Founders Hall, 615 McCallie Avenue, Chattanooga, TN
Submitted to: The Commercial Appeal — declined:
• Chattanooga Free Press - Published November S, 1995
• Contacted Congressman Wamp on 1/22/96



1998 Aug 15: The Florida "Press Journal" carried an article "Government assaults success" by cash-for-comments economist Dom T Armentano which attacks the McCain tobacco bill and the FDA.

    The list of activities of the other economists shows that the network continued to be operated by the Tobacco Institute itself (now under Walter Woodson and Lance Morgan — both from the Public Affairs division).

    James Savarese is still in the picture, however. The op-eds are now being rejected by many newspapers who are no longer willing to publish tobacco industry propaganda.

    When cigarettes could no longer be advertised in newspapers, the press quickly began to loose sympathy for the industry. The opportunity for op-eds was gradually disappearing.

Since legally discovered tobacco documents had already begun to appear on-line, the Tobacco Institute has carefully deleted the names of the Professor of Economics who wrote each op-ed piece in this document.

Jeffrey Clarke is listed here only under the heading

TENNESSEE, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
DECLINED: The Tennessean

[This was the end of Clark's run with the tobacco industry. He now needed to look to other poisoning or polluting companies and industries who needed his support.]


The Savarese network of economists continues behind the scenes until at least early 1999. However, after the Cipollone Case (when thousands of tobacco documents were released to the public) and following the Master Settlement Agreement (1997-98) when millions of documents were put on-line, the evidence of later activities disappears from the tobacco archives.

This doesn't mean that these economists stopped working for the tobacco industry — just that they kept their communications to the telephone — and Savarese didn't send their material on to the Tobacco Institute for vetting and legal checks.



2006: On the Board of Directors of the Mont Pelerin Society


2006 Apr 1: Cash-for-comments economist Professor Joseph Jadlow retired as Secretary-Treasurer/Executive Director of Southern Economic Association after three decades. The job was taken by another cash-for-comments economists, Jeffrey R Clark of the University of Tennessee at Charranooga.


2009: His C/V lists Contract/Grant Research funding from numerous ultra-libertarian foundations:

Chevron USA; Beneficial Finance; The William B. Cockroft Foundation; The J. Howard Pew Freedom Trust; Earhart Foundation; The Walker Foundation; The John Templeton Foundation; The Goodrich Foundation; The Charles B. Koch Foundation; The John William Pope Foundation
He is also associated with many ultra-libertarian think tanks and societies, but he appears to have forgotten about his support from the Tobacco Institute, Alexis de Tocqueville Institute, etc.

2010: Vice President of the Mont Pelerin Society He is now co-writing with Dwight Lee and Russell Sobel.


2011 Dec: Two of the more immoral economists in academia write an article published in the Cato Journal. "Markets and Morality" by JR Clark and Dwight R Lee (also a cash-for-comments economists) The byline carries the information that:

J. R. Clark is Professor of Economics at the University of Tennessee at Chat- tanooga, where he holds the Probasco Chair of Free Enterprise.

    Dwight R. Lee is the William J. O'Neil Professor of Global Markets and Freedom at Southern Methodist University.
[He has also written other pieces with Dwight R Lee in 2011 — published by the Independent Institute. So he is highly political.]

2012 /E: The Association of Private Enterprise Education has two cash-for-comments economists among the top four executives.

  • Bradley Hobbs, President, Florida Gulf Coast university
  • Peter Boettke, Vice President, George Mason University
  • Benjamin Powell, Past President, Suffolk University
  • JR Clark, Secretary/Treasurer, Uni of Tennessee at Chattanooga
J.R. Clark earned his Ph.D. in Economics from Virginia Polytechnic Institute under the Nobel Laureate James Buchanan. He holds the Probasco Chair at The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and is the author of numerous books and academic articles published in the United States, Japan, Canada, and Russia.

    Prior to coming to UTC, Clark was with the Joint Council on Economic Education in New York, chaired a large economics department in New Jersey, held the Hendrix Chair, and was a research fellow at Princeton University.

    Dr Clark's consulting experience includes Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, universities, and publishing firms. He has performed litigation support for law firms in personal injury, wrongful death, business evaluations and matrimonial cases. He has received significant grants in entrepreneurship from the J. Howard Pew Freedom Foundation Trust, is past President of the Association of Private Enterprise, and sits on the boards of the Palmer R. Chitester Fund and William B. Cockroft Foundation

. [He's modest. Not a word about his services to the tobacco industry.]

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