Peter J Boettke - The Corporate Corruption of Science website

Peter Boettke appears to have been recruited to the Tobacco Institute's Economists Network as one of three academics operating in Michigan. However he doesn't appear to have delivered much ... if anything at all.

The curiousity is why he was kept on their books for so long. He appears to have attracted their attention because he was becoming the foremost promoter of Hayekian economics.

The idea of running a team of cash-for-comments academic economists was developed by Ogilvy & Mather Public Relations for the Tobacco Institute in 1983 and 1984. At that time the operation was run by one of O&M's contracted consultants, James Savarese, who had both economics and labor/union contacts.

Savarese knew Professor Robert Tollison, of the Economics Department of George Mason University. Tollison had excellent contacts with a large number of Hayek/neo-con economists at other universities, due mainly to his directorship of the Center for the Study of Public Choice, which was located at GMU, but run as a private think-tank. Boettke at this time was a graduate student at GMU.

Tobacco Industry money found its way to the Center, and before long Tollison and the CSPU were acting as a recruitment and money-laundry service and helping Savarese to develop the cash-for-comments network among appropriate academic economists.

The first project began in June 1984, getting 13 economists on their network to write op-ed articles in support of the tobacco industry position on excise taxes, plant them on a local newspaper, then send copies to their Congressman.

Jim Savarese and Bob Tollison (supported by Anne Tollison and staff from the Center) took over the operations from O&M, and branched out into a diverse range of cash-for-comments networks: academic professors in law , business, marketing, and advertising, indoor-air-quality testing experts, risk-assessment specialists, biomedical researchers.

These academics all had in common the desire to make money from the tobacco industry without revealing their connection to the 'Merchants of Death'. With Savarese and Tollison providing the shield, they produced supposedly "independent' opinion-editorials (op-eds); turned up at ordinance hearings on public smoking to oppose smoking bans; attended and gave expert evidence to Congressional inquiries and the like. They constantly spouted the tobacco industry propaganda, and were well paid for selling-out the public trust and the ethical reputation of their universities ... averaging $1,500 a time for these services.

Peter Boettke signed up in 1988 when he began working as an Associate Professor, but before he had gained his PhD. However he was completely unproductive.

By 1989 Tollison and Savarese had about 60 Professors of Economics on their books (including Boettke) , and about the same number from other academic disciplines.

Decline

Over time — and sometimes abruptly — some of these economists dropped out of the operation. Maybe some of them developed a conscience?

A few new recruits were added regularly to the networks in the 1990 - 1994 period. But the tobacco companies themselves tended to take control of the biomedical research specialists, probably because of the legal necessity of dealing with them through lawyers, to avoid the risk of legal 'discovery'. The economists' network lasted the longest, and was the most productive from the industry viewpoint.

Some key documents

• Professor Peter Boettke, Department of Economics, Oakland University, Rochester, MI 48309
• Boettke now has his own website

Network Establishment

1986 Apr 3: This appears to be the approved copy of the letter on "New Research Proposals" that Jim Savarese sent to his network economists. [Eighteen months before Boettke joined the group]

This letter leaves no doubt that these academic economist knew that they were being paid to protect the interests of the tobacco industry.

The economist were also being given outline "rebuttals" developed by Tollison and Wagner to help them in writing their counter-attacks to an an Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) anti-smoking report.

I would like to thank you for all of your cooperation and diligence in handling the projects we have worked on together. I am taking this opportunity to alert you to some new research opportunities that may be available in the upcoming weeks.

As you know, the tobacco industry is exposed continuously to a barrage of attacks on economic issues. Many of these attacks involve a serious perversion of the concept of social cost. The Tobacco Institute is interested in considering research proposals which would establish a much more realistic examination of the social cost issue as it relates to the smoking issue.

I have attached a report prepared by the staff of the Office of Technology Assessment which is representative of the kind of "research" being put forth by anti-tobacco activists. I have also included the rebuttals developed by Bob Tollison and Richard Wagner to the OTA report.

The Institute would like to examine proposals for research that test, in a quantitative way, a number of propositions on the relevant cost considerations that apply to the smoking issue.

This went out to the long list of cash-for-comments economist on the network and many of them wrote op-eds and fed them to their local newspapers.

1987 Jan: Boettke has completed his MA in Economics at George Mason University

1988–90: Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, School of Business Administration, Oakland University, Rochester, MI 48309

1988 April 25: Following a joint meeting, the lobbyist Leslie Dawson of James Savarese & Associates is minuting the agreed decisions to the Tobacco Institute:

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 advisory group they were trying to influence.]

1988 July 22: The Savarese Update on the NEC Op-Ed Project shows that while another three economists on the network have managed to get material published (from the July 5 Status report), Peter Boettke had still not submitted one.

1988 Dec: /E The Tax Hearing Readiness document of the Tobacco institute [for the 1989-1990 legislative session] lists both the TI economist who are immediately on tap, and also those in other States who can be called upon:

1989 Jan: Boettke eventually gained his PhD in Economics from George Mason University. He also won their William P Snavely Award for Outstanding Achievement for Graduate Studies in Economics

He had now become a recognised disciple of Hayek and von Mises.

1989 Jan 11: The Tobacco Institute's report file on their Scientific Consultancy Activity 1988-89.

This is an 80 page mixed bag of files dumped together. [Note that the first is in 1990]

[TI budget papers show that each op-ed now earned the economists $3,000. Presentations made to conferences earned them $5,000.

Savarese was paid $70,000 to $100,000 per annum for this project, and Ogilvy & Mather was being paid $250,000.]

1989 Mar 17-19: The Annual Meeting of the Public Choice Society together with the Economic Science Association. These are all Hayek-oriented libertarian economists of the ultra-freemarket kind who gave us the 2008-9 Global Financial Crisis.

The speakers list mentions many active members of the economists network: — some of whom spoke more than once. (William Hunter in particular.)

The Public Choice Society was a profitable recruiting ground for Tollison and Savarese. And the large group of speakers on Public Health were those connected with Tollison's Center for the Study of Public Choice at George Mason University and with the cash-for-comments network.

1989 April 18: Susan Stuntz (Issues Manager) at the Tobacco Institute wrote a memo to her boss Sam Chilcote. She is sending him material previously used for a two-day "Gerry Long" presentation which he wants to use 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.]

1990–97: He has now become an Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, New York University, New York, NY 10003

1990 May 7: The Tobacco Institute's "1991 Tax and Social Cost Plans" have sections on

1990 June: /E It now becomes clear why Boettke has not been working on network projects.

He has published a substantial book (Kluwer Academic Publishers) "The Political Economy of Soviet Socialism: The Formative Years, 1918-1928."

This was an expansion of his doctoral dissertaiton, and it interprets the first decade of Soviet economic history in terms of the ideas of Ludwig con Mises and Friedrich Hayek.

[The book is a resounding success among the libertarians and corporate think-tank operators and analysts.

He appears to have become a specialist in economic analysis of Communism, the Soviet Union, and Eastern Europe from this time on. ]

1991 Oct: Boettke reviewd the new book of his friend and fellow Public Choice economist, Richard Wagner "To Promote the General Welfare"

1992 Aug: /E He was a National Fellow at the Hoover Institution during the 1992-93 year.

1993: His second major book on the Soviet Union was published: Why Perestroika Failed: The Politics and Economics of Socialist Transformation.

1994 March 16: A group of academic economists including almost all the members of the Tobacco Institute's cash-for-comments network sent an "An Open Letter to President Clinton on Healthcare Reform."

This had been organised by David J Theroux, the founder and operator of the Independent Institute apparently with the assistance of an academic network member, Simon Rottenberg.

[The Independent Institute was way out in Mad-Hatter/Tea Party territory and was well-funded by the tobacco industry.

It often performed as a contractor to the Tobacco Institute.]. They say:

1994 Oct 14: David Theroux of the Independent Institute is updating the Tobacco Institute on the progress of their book "Sin Taxes" which is a project being directed by Bill Shughart (a key member of the cash-for-comment economists network) and Tom Di Lorenzo (who worked for the tobacco industry direct,)

1994 Dec 14: Independnt Institute President, David Theroux writes to Tim Hyde, at RJ Reynolds Tobacco:

1997: His third major publication was "Where Did Economics Go Wrong: Modern Economics As A Flight From Reality."

If he'd had more insight into the the realities of American economics and politics, he would have found theanswer his question hidden in his own acknowledgements. He gives thanks to the

1997–98: Associate Professor, Department of Economics and Finance, School of Business, Manhattan College, Riverdale, NY 10471

1998–03: Associate Professor, Department of Economics, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA 22030 (tenured Fall 2000) Also the editor of the journal, Review of Austrian Economics (Kluwer Academic Publishers).

1999 June: Peter Boettke is now at the New York University and also a member of the Board of Advisors of the Heartland Institute. He is still mixing with a number of other cash-for-comment economists from the old Savarese network, and a few other tobacco industry academic lobbyists.

The Board of Heartland has Philip Morris executive Roy E. Marden — Manager of Industry Affairs, Philip Morris Companies, Inc. Marden was Philip Morris's chief bag-man when dealing with think-tanks. He had given them $30,000 that year.

2003–07: Professor, Department of Economics, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA

He is closely involved with the Koch Brothers-funded Mercatus Center at GMU which is virtually an arm of the Atlas Network of libertarian think-tanks run with the assistance of the UK's Institute of Economic Affairs and Adam Smith Institute (both linked to the Mont Pelerin society).

2004: He is the "Hayek Visiting Fellow" at the London School of Economics. This fellowship is funded by the Ludwig von Mises Institute with US foundation money.

The LSE has its own 'Hayek Society." which co-funds the Hayek Visiting Fellowship.

2009 Oct 19: London School of Economics promoted his lecture on the Austrian Economists.

2012 June 5: Boettke is now a Research Fellow at the Independent Institute, He has published a new book "Living Economics: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow" only a few years after deciding it was dead.

He seems to have taken Hayek and von Mises down off their pedestals.

USA

Peter J Boettke [Prof.]

— An ultra-libertarian economist from the Oakland University in Rochester MI who allowed himself to be recruited into the tobacco industry's cash-for-comments network — but who doesn't appear to have provided them with any services. —

Decline

Some key documents