Mercatus Center

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3 ON PJT 2025

VOLLMER FAIL MADOFF

As acting General Counsel, Vollmer was quickly thrust into the news media's attention as he testified on February 4, 2009 before the United States House Committee on Financial Services subcommittee with SEC Director of the Division of Enforcement Linda Thomsen and other senior staff from the SEC and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). The subject of the hearings were on why the SEC had failed to act when Harry Markopolos, a private fraud investigator from Boston alerted the Securities and Exchange Commission detailing his persistent and unsuccessful efforts to get the SEC to investigate Bernard L. Madoff, beginning in 1999.^[5] Vollmer claimed executive privilege in declining to answer some questions,^[6][7] and Vollmer and the other SEC officials' lack of cooperation with the enquiry was strongly criticised by Subcommittee chairman Paul Kanjorski and Representative Gary Ackerman.^[5][8][9]

On 18 February 2009, 14 days later, the SEC announced that Vollmer would 'leave the Commission and return to the private sector'.^[10] It was later announced that he would take up a post with his former firm, WilmerHale.^[2]

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brown study connor brulle

In 2001, the Mercatus Center’s board of directors still included its co-founders, Charles Koch and Richard Fink.153 At the time, Fink was a top officer of at least four Koch foundations: as president the Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundation, president of the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation, director of Knowledge & Progress Fund and director of the Fred C. and Mary R. Koch Foundation, as well as boards of Charles Koch’s Institute for Humane Studies and the GMU Center for the Study of Public Choice. 154

:{Fink was also on the GMU board of visitors, along with top officials at other Koch-funded organizations, like James C. Miller III of Citizens for a Sound Economy, Ed Meese III and Ed Fuelner, Jr of the Heritage Foundation, and Manuel Johnson.155

2001 Mercatus Center staff at the time included two up and coming officers who later took significant jobs working closely with Charles Koch: Kevin Gentry, who later joined Koch Industries, and Brian Hooks, who now oversees the entire Stand Together network.156 Charles Koch and Richard Fink remain affiliated with the Mercatus Center’s board of directors, along with other top Koch personnel, including Brian Hooks.157}:

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Tevi Troy - Wikipedia

PJT 2025

• Fight House: Rivalries in the White House from Truman to Trump 2020; Regnery History ISBN 978-1621578369
• The Power and the Money: The Epic Clashes Between Commanders in Chief and Titans of Industry 2024; Regnery History ISBN 978-1684515400

desmog How a ‘Pro-Climate’ Charity Channelled Cash to a Koch-Funded Think Tank - DeSmog

A UK charity that portrays itself as a climate leader facilitated a £830,000 donation to the Mercatus Center, a conservative think tank heavily funded by U.S. oil billionaire Charles Koch, DeSmog can reveal.

The London-based Founders Pledge channels donations from entrepreneurs to charities – empowering business leaders “to do immense good”, according to its website.

This includes giving money to climate causes. The Founders Pledge runs a Climate Fund that claims to “find and fund impactful, neglected climate solutions” – having distributed almost $36 million from over 5,000 donors.

Donor Advised Funds (DAFs) like the one sponsored by the Founders Pledge allow wealthy individuals to anonymously distribute money and other assets. Research shows that DAFs are increasingly being used to funnel money to reactionary causes – including in the UK.

The Mercatus Center is a conservative “market oriented” think tank registered as a charity. Mercatus and its sister group the Institute for Humane Studies (IHS), both located at George Mason University, have been funded by American billionaire and oil magnate Charles Koch, co-founder of Koch Industries – the second-largest private company in the U.S.

The network of influence controlled and supported by Charles Koch and his late brother David includes “a web of interconnected, right-wing think tanks and advocacy groups”. The pair have piled millions of dollars into causes promoting climate disinformation, including buying credibility with large investments in academic institutions.

Between 2018 and 2022, George Mason was by far the biggest university in receipt of Charles Koch’s money. The three institutions – George Mason, Mercatus, and the IHS – received $128.6 million from four Koch foundations during the period. The Mercatus Center, which has called climate change “beneficial”, has also received funding from the oil major ExxonMobil.

And yet, the Founders Pledge – which distributes over £100 million annually and operates in the UK, Germany, and U.S. – has been featured in articles highlighting its green credentials and has been labelled as being among the most “high-impact, cost-effective, evidenced-based organisations” to donate through.

Firms operating DAFs have the right to refuse to give to certain causes, though in practice this rarely happens.

The Founders Pledge told DeSmog: “We tackle climate change as the global, long-term challenge it is, focusing on solutions that change trajectories, transform systems, reduce the biggest risks for devastating damage around the world, and that will be effective even if everything goes wrong.

“Among other efforts, we fund efforts to fast-track low-carbon technologies like advanced geothermal and to make new infrastructure as low-carbon as possible and look for ways to reduce future emissions from existing systems.”

The Mercatus Center did not respond to DeSmog’s request for comment.

The Mercatus Center and Charles Koch

DeSmog’s investigation finds that the Founders Pledge was used to donate almost £830,000 to the Mercatus Center in 2022.

Mercatus was originally founded – with grant funding from Charles Koch – by Richard Fink, an executive vice president and board member at Koch Industries who, along with Charles, still sits on the Mercatus board and has previously been described as “a fixture in Koch Industries”.

Brian Hooks, CEO and chair of the Koch-founded Stand Together Trust, also sits on the board alongside Emily Chamlee-Wright, president and CEO of the IHS.

Charles Koch is chairman emeritus of the IHS board, which is largely populated by George Mason professors and representatives from the Charles Koch Foundation and Stand Together. It has been described by Mother Jones as “a haven for climate deniers that receives funding from the Koch family foundations”.

The Koch Foundation has paid the salaries of Mercatus Center professors, which in turn have produced work arguing that “The evidence regarding global warming and human contribution to it is mixed, and as forecasts of anthropogenic warming get more refined, they predict less extreme warming.”

In 2020, the think tank was also accused of promoting “flawed” research to “hobble” environmental research in Australia, and it has previously suggested that climate change could be “beneficial” and make humanity “better off”.

The Institute for Humane Studies declined to offer an on the record comment.

Political Donations

The Founders Pledge received some £111 million in 2023, and distributed £101.4 million to various charitable causes.

Originating in the U.S. in the 1930s, DAFs are increasingly used by the wealthy to donate to political causes – and often those with reactionary beliefs. A 2024 study found that DAFs are more likely to be used for political donations than other funding methods, while they account for more than one-quarter of all contributions received by “anti-government and hate groups”.

Money from prominent DAFs has been used to finance the radical Project 2025 playbook for Donald Trump’s second term, to contribute to the coffers of groups campaigning against women’s and LGBTQ rights, and to prop up climate denial think tanks, all without the original donors having to disclose their identities.

As of 2023, roughly 2 million DAFs in the U.S. distributed $55 billion in grants to charitable organisations, while UK charities received £645 million from DAFs in the same year, according to the National Philanthropic Trust.

Speaking to DeSmog on the opacity of DAFs, Brian Mittendorf, a professor at Ohio State University and co-author of the aforementioned study, said that his research “shows that donor advised funds in the U.S. disproportionately fund politically engaged institutions” and that “one motivation for this could be to limit revelations about who funds political organisations.”

He added that “public disclosures by these organisations make it difficult to identify which fund provided money to which organisations and especially who gave money to those funds in the first place.”

“When private foundations distribute money to a donor advised fund prior to it being sent to the ultimate recipient, the paper trail is lost,” he said.

The Rise of DAFs in the UK

The practice of channelling political donations through DAFs now seems to be more commonplace in the UK.

One DAF supplier – called Prism The Gift Fund – has been used to distribute nearly £1.6 million since 2017 to a suite of right-wing think tanks and lobby groups including Policy Exchange, the Global Warming Policy Foundation, the Legatum Institute (now the Prosperity Institute), the Centre for Social Justice, and Henry Jackson Society.

The ultimate source of the funds are unknown.

Moreover, research into the transparency requirements surrounding DAFs suggest that the UK could even be lagging behind the U.S.

One key area is how grants are recorded. In the U.S., DAF providers are required to list most of the grants they pay out in their annual returns. Speaking to DeSmog, Mittendorf explained that suppliers of DAFs in the U.S. have to disclose who received a donation if it surpasses $5,000.

This differs from the UK, where there is no formal requirement for DAF providers to list their recipients, although some still choose to do so.

In the case of the Founders Pledge, while recipients of larger donations are named in its 2023 accounts, “grants less than £645,000” are recorded as one lump sum, with no way to tell where that money has gone to, in addition to not being able to tell where it has come from.

A spokesperson for the Charity Commission confirmed that, at present, recording requirements are minimal. “As DAFs are managed by the charities they reside in, our guidance for the parent charities/trustees is the same as for any other charity, rather than specifically for DAFs… No charities are required to list all the organisations they provide grants to.”

A spokesperson for another prominent DAF provider, The Charity Service, said that “the issues around transparency and DAFs is an interesting one especially as anonymous giving is one of the perceived benefits of giving through a DAF for many donors.”

Tom Brake, director of the campaign group Unlock Democracy, said: “The increasingly influential role think tanks have in our democracy must go hand-in-hand with greater transparency over who funds them and to what end. DAFs do the exact opposite, shielding those donating to think tanks and other organisations from public scrutiny.”

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CPI 2015

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Congress takes notice

Congress is also paying more attention to the Mercatus Center, which from 1999 to 2008 was mentioned by name 32 times in either the Congressional Record or congressional committee reports. Since 2009, it’s been mentioned 93 times, often in reference to Mercatus Center faculty who were testifying before Congress.

2015]

This year, Congress even cited Mercatus Center research in the text of budget bills. House Concurrent Resolution 27 and Senate Concurrent Resolution 11 note that a Mercatus Center study “estimates that Obamacare will reduce employment by up to 3 percent, or about 4 million full-time equivalent workers.”

Mercatus Center Vice President Carrie Conko, while declining to address critics’ “ad hominem attacks” of Charles Koch, stressed the institution’s work is the product of hard work and high standards — not the whims of some patron puppet master.

“As a university research center, our scholarship is independent and subjected to rigorous peer review,” Conko said. “Our researchers are interested in understanding what shapes societies and economies and that covers a spectrum of research from the history of economic thought to the application of economics to questions of public policy.”

Conko also noted that the Mercatus Center abides by a strong conflict of interest and research independence policy, which she described as “stronger than those of most found with typical academic centers or departments.”

Mercatus Center officials note that the center isn’t part of George Mason University the same way as, say, its chemistry or psychology departments. Instead, it’s organized as a stand-alone nonprofit, and as such, George Mason University isn’t directly responsible for it.

The Mercatus Center doesn’t receive direct funding from George Mason University, Conko said.

But George Mason University and its students do receive millions of dollars in annual financial benefit from the Mercatus Center, according to federal tax filings.

That alone is a major incentive for a public university in Virginia, where state funding of higher education is dwindling, to host a privately funded operation on its campus — today, a fairly common practice among public schools.

The Mercatus Center spent $3.64 million during that time to “support graduate students at George Mason University” by “training future scholars and decision-makers to advance and apply a research agenda for understanding institutions and change,” according to a tax filing.

The Mercatus Center helped fund $1.82 million worth of communication efforts that included promoting its research and ideas “to the media and opinion shapers.”

And it made a $10,000 grant to the Atlas Economic Research Foundation, which operates a “global network of more than 400 free market organizations.” They include several Koch-backed nonprofit groups such as Americans for Prosperity, the American Legislative Exchange Council and Americans for Tax Reform.

McAuliffe mum? ....

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2025

https://ecollections.law.fiu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1743&context=lawreview

Uncharitable Think Tanks 207

Institution—also led in the earlier one, with only slight shifts otherwise.229 • From 2010 on, the top funders were Donors Trust, Donors Capital Fund, and the Scaife, Bradley, and Koch family foundations. The Devos family foundations rose to join the ranks of the top ten. • Grants channeled through Donors Trust and Donors Capital Fund accounted for 13.7% of the total. • 74% of all contributions came from completely unidentified sources. • }:}:

After AEI, Heritage and Hoover, the largest recipients were Cato, the Manhattan Institute, the Hudson Institute, the Mercatus Center, the Acton Institute, the State Policy Network, the Reason Foundation, Heartland, and the Americans for Prosperity Foundation. From 2003 to 2018, Brulle and his co-authors tallied total gifts to this cohort of $9.77 billion 230—a sum that refutes the mistaken notion that charitable giving is small dollars, and influential only at the margin. Now for the thought experiment.

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Think Tank Watch: Billionaires Play Big Role in Funding of New Think Tank Institute for Progress (IFP)

Friday, January 21, 2022

Billionaires Play Big Role in Funding of New Think Tank Institute for Progress (IFP)

Get ready to learn another think think tank acronym: IFP. It stands for Institute for Progress, a new Washington, DC-based think tank that has been launched by Caleb Watney and Alec Stapp.

Its mission is to "accelerate scientific, technological, and industrial progress while safeguarding humanity's future." The founders say they will spend most of their initial attention on three key areas: 1) Metascience, 2) Immigration, and 3) Biosecurity.

Mr. Watney, the Co-CEO, was the director for innovation policy at the think tank Progressive Policy Institute (PPI). Before that, he worked as a technology policy fellow at the R Street Institute and as a graduate research fellow at the Mercatus Center.

Mr. Stapp, the other Co-CEO, was the director of technology policy at PPI, a research fellow at the International Center for Law and Economics, a technology policy fellow at the Niskanen Center, and a graduate research fellow at the Mercatus Center.

Scholars at the think tank include senior biosecurity fellow Nikki Teran, who previously worked with the Committee on International Security and Arms Control at the National Academy of Science, the Council on Strategic Risks, and the Open Philanthropy Project. Another scholar is senior immigration fellow Jeremy Neufeld, who previously worked at the Niskanen Center.

There are currently three external board members: Tamara Winter, who formerly worked at the Charter Cities Institute and the Mercacuts Center; Dan Correa, a former Obama Administration official who was CEO of the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) and worked at Stanford's Freeman Spogli Institute as well as the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF); and Zachary Graves, a visiting fellow at George Mason University's Antonin Scalia Law School who formerly worked at the Cato Institute and R Street Institute.

IFP, whose new website can be found here, only accepts funding from individuals and foundations. It is currently funded with the support of Open Philanthropy, Emergent Ventures, Patrick Collison, John Collison, and Sam Bankman-Fried.

Facebook co-founder Dustin Muskowitz and wife Cari Tuna are the main funders of Open Philanthropy, an entity which supports numerous think tanks. George Mason University's Mercatus Center houses Emergent Ventures, a fellowship and grant program which was launched with a $1 million grant from the Thiel Foundation. That foundation was created and funded by billionaire Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal and early investor in Facebook.

Patrick Collison and his brother John Collison are Irish billionaires who co-founded online payment processor Stripe. Sam Bankman-Fried, another billionaire, is the founder and CEO of FTX, a cryptocurrency exchange.

The IFP founders note that Tyler Cowen, head of the Mercatus Center, played a big role in their thinking.

IFP joins a crowded field of policy shops in Washington, which has more than 400 think tanks large and small.

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820 not heard of in a while?  interest sparked by STATS shakeup/shuffle entine GLP deny ever part of stats/cmpa?  there is some pro green units at GMU?  2014 letter from students complained of koch funding?

https://www.mercatus.org/

'the  best students in our program find our "economics with attitude" contagious and many have gone on to stellar careers in research and teaching. The one defining characteristic of our program is the open invitation to inquiry that we offer to all who are serious about using economics to study human beings in all walks of life.

Professor Peter Boettke

ECONOMICS with ATTITUDE

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ubc ch

There are many methods for analyzing the overall large identified network from which Figure 1 was

constructed. The first method we discuss here is the identification of hubs and authorities (Kleinberg,

1999). As a result of this iterative algorithm, each unit in the overall network receives scores measuring

the extent to which it is a hub. Similarly, scores measure the extent to which units are authorities.Loosely

put, hubs point to authorities and authorities are sources of influential information. While this may appear

to be circular as an algorithm, it points to distinctive roles played in this network. We focus here on

authorities as they are the primary sources for providing ideas, arguments and funds to other units in the

KB network. This cannot be underestimated given the greater influence of the core organizations in the

KB network for providing information and arguments to their allies.

The top authorities are: The Cato Institute; The Reason Foundation; The Heritage Foundation; The

Foundation for Economic Freedom; The Independent Institute; The Heartland Institute; The Mercatus

Center; The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE). Most of these have been funded

heavily by the Koch Brothers.

The Cato Instituteis a libertarian think tank headquartered in Washington,

D.C. It was founded in 1977 by the KBs and heavily funded by, and extensively, through channels

enabled by them. One of its prominent goals is the downsizing of the national government - if not its

elimination. It is involved also in the climate change denial efforts. According to Mayer (2017: 106),

Charles Koch turned his private foundation into the Cato Institute. It supports total economic freedom for

the likes of the Koch brothers. The Reason Foundation 4 is another American libertarian think tank based

in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1978 and is also funded by the KBs. It strongly supports

outsourcing public services to private corporations as a part of a program advocating shrinking the

national government (Maclean, 2017: 143). No doubt, another motivation is to create additional profit

sources for private entities replacing governmental programs. We note the current Republican drive to

eliminate the Post Office to replace it with private carriers is consistent with this approach....

https://theintercept.com/2018/09/19/the-mercatus-center-is-a-part-of-george-mason-university-until-its-not/

this PAST SUNDAY, when Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was interviewed on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Jake Tapper quizzed her about the cost to the government of “Medicare for all,” pegged at more than $30 trillion over a 10-year period. CNN’s chyron told viewers the research came from three sources: George Mason University, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, and the Congressional Budget Office.

The George Mason paper touched off controversy when it was released in July, because buried in the findings was an estimate that the $32.6 trillion price tag would also result in a $2 trillion savings over national expenditures on health care, relative to the status quo. Designed to create sticker shock for “Medicare for All,” instead the study, produced by the Mercatus Center, which bills itself as part of George Mason, inadvertently proved a point of progressive supporters of single payer.

The Mercatus Center, which gets most of its funding from foundations like the Koch family foundations, scrambled to dispute its own finding. Working paper author Charles Blahous argued that an alternative scenario he constructed using higher provider payment rates (which, by definition, costs more money) is actually the correct one. This makes no sense, since “Medicare for All” is based on Medicare rates. But fact-checking organizations largely took Blahous’s side, while making factual errors over and over again and attributing incorrect statements to “Medicare for All” supporters.

Throughout this debacle, as in this story from the Associated Press, the working paper is routinely identified as an “analysis by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University in Virginia.” When a Mercatus senior outreach associate sent repeated emails to policymakers touting the working paper and fact-check articles that adopted the think tank’s spin, she also identified herself as coming from “the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.”

This association with a college gives Mercatus the imprimatur of academic research, something to be taken more seriously by the media than the flurry of white papers churned out by ideological think tanks.

The Intercept wanted to learn more about how Mercatus sought to massage public opinion and contain the fallout from the unintended implications of their paper. George Mason University is a public university in Virginia that is subject to the state’sFreedom of Information Act, which The Intercept used to request communications between Mercatus and members of the media.

That’s when The Intercept learned that the Mercatus Center at George Mason University is not, apparently, part of George Mason University.

THAT, AT LEAST, was the contention of Elizabeth Woodley, compliance officer at George Mason University, when asked for communications between Blahous, Mercatus senior outreach associate Jessica Paska, and members of the media. “Neither Charles Blahous nor Jessica Paska are employees of George Mason University,” Woodley wrote in her response. “They appear to be employees of the Mercatus Center Inc., an independent 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization.”

To call the Mercatus Center at George Mason University “independent” ignores a host of linkages between the organization and the college. The Intercept reviewed the Mercatus Center’s affiliation agreement with the university, which identifies Mercatus as “a Center of the University.”  The center is authorized to use the university’s name and seal, according to the agreement, and isled by a faculty director (currently the :{blogger :(style="background-color:#ffff66;"):}:and economist Tyler Cowen, an employee of George Mason University), jointly chosen by the Mercatus board of directors and the George Mason provost. The provost also approves all members of the Mercatus board. The faculty director governs Mercatus on behalf of George Mason, according to the affiliation agreement.

Mercatus is required to mention George Mason University in everything it publishes: Indeed, the Blahous working paper on “Medicare for All” is attributed to the “Mercatus Center at George Mason University.” On its own website, Mercatus calls itself “the world’s premier university source for market-oriented ideas” and “a university-based research center” that “trains students.”

According to the affiliation agreement, all of Mercatus’s activities and programs “shall be carried out consistently with the educational and research missions” of the university, including cooperation with other units of the university on “projects of mutual interest.” While Mercatus employees are explicitly not to be designated as employees of George Mason, Mercatus leases office space on the George Mason campus in Arlington, Virginia (for the low price of $1 for a 28-year lease, according to a space usage agreement reviewed by The Intercept); employees of Mercatus receive ID cards from George Mason; employees are eligible to be appointed as “affiliate faculty members” of George Mason (Blahous does not appear to be an affiliate faculty member); and the university pays tuition costs for any Mercatus employees who want to take classes, as it does for George Mason employees.

[pix Charles Blahous speaks during a news conference at the Treasury Department in Washington, D.C., on July 28, 2014.]

Finally, Blahous and Paska, along with all Mercatus employees, have “@mercatus.gmu.edu” email addresses, which presumably would be under the control of the university. However, when questioned about this, Woodley maintained that “the addresses are ‘@mercatus.gmu.edu’ email addresses, not ‘@gmu.edu’ addresses,” and that “our IT department has informed me that they do not have access to the ‘@mercatus.gmu.edu’ addresses.”

In other FOIA requests reviewed by The Intercept, Woodley asserted that communications from George Mason faculty members who worked for outside organizations related to the university, much like the setup with Mercatus, were not subject to public records requests, because they were “prepared outside the context of the professor’s University employment.”

Freedom of information experts briefed on the matter said the Mercatus Center was trying to have it both ways, benefiting from being associated with an academic institution while shirking the responsibilities of that institution.“Organizations love to get that official letterhead,” said Michael Morisy, founder and chief executive of MuckRock, a nonprofit that assists journalists and researchers in public records requests. “It’s pretty weird for Mercatus to be giving the impression that they’re part of a public body, while also claiming they’re exempt when it’s more convenient.”

Under Virginia law, a public body is one that is either “supported wholly or principally by public funds” or an entity “created to perform delegated functions of the public body or to advise the public body.”

Mercatus is privately funded, though the reputation boost they get from the George Mason affiliation could be seen as in-kind support, Morisy noted. “Even if the public is subsidizing the brand they benefit from, they do benefit,” he said. On the second point, however, given the litany of linkages, a case can be made that Mercatus is performing delegated functions of George Mason University.

“It could create confusion at best among the public as to whether this is a university entity, and if so, why isn’t it publicly accountable as the rest of the university is?” said Megan Rhyne, executive director of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government, a public records advocacy group.

The email blasts from Paska, the public relations associate at Mercatus, also include references to George Mason. “A growing number of politicians are voicing support for a proposal of ‘Medicare for All.’ Is this a realistic policy? How much would it cost?” writes Paska in the first of four emails sent over a three-week period to policymakers and media outlets.

The Intercept obtained the emails from Warren Gunnels, a policy director for Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., the lawmaker most closely associated with “Medicare for All.” Other legislative staffers received the same emails. They list Paska’s title as “Senior Outreach Associate – Spending, Budget, Tax; Mercatus Center at George Mason University.” (Paska was previously a communications director for Republican Freedom Caucus member Rep. Morgan Griffith of Virginia.)

Paska’s emails directly confront the finding in the Mercatus paper that “Medicare for All” would reduce national health care expenditures, using Blahous’s contention that it’s more proper to use rates other than Medicare when making the calculations. “Another way to explain Chuck’s findings: Medicare for All doesn’t save money; cutting payments to doctors, nurses, and hospitals saves money,” Paska writes.

After fact-check organizations picked up on these subjective readings of the paper, Paska blasted out links to those fact checks. Mercatus even ran numerous Facebook ads in August promoting the paper and friendly media articles. This suggests a form of intellectual and media laundering which The Intercept couldn’t assess further, because the Mercatus Center at George Mason University won’t comply with George Mason University public records requests.

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN George Mason and Mercatus is not necessarily unique. Across academia, 501(c)(3) organizations partner with universities to obtain resources or simply reputation-related benefits for their work. “It’s funny that you emailed us, we are the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University,” said Alex Abdo, a staff attorney with the institute. The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University is another example. “I don’t think people would attribute our views to Columbia or theirs to NYU,” Abdo said.

Of course, those are both private universities not subject to public records requests. And the Mercatus Center in particular, in addition to all the linkages to George Mason University in its affiliation agreement, has in the past carried unusual influence over the selection of university professors.

According to a successful Freedom of Information Act request this April, made by the activist group UnKoch My Campus, from 2003 to 2011, gift agreements between Mercatus and George Mason created professorships in the university’s economic department. The Mercatus donors who funded the professorships were allowed to participate in the selection and evaluation of the professors.

Samantha Parsons, a George Mason alum and co-founder of UnKoch My Campus, believes that Mercatus’s ties to the university allow the organization to essentially launder its agenda so it appears more objective. “It’s always described as the Mercatus Center at George Mason University,” Parsons said. “Just that automatically lends comfort to the public, that it’s associated with the university, not biased.”

As Rhyne similarly wondered, “If that’s how [the research is] being promoted, is the university willing to be on the record saying, ‘Yes, this is something we would stand behind?’”

The Koch family foundation does not use only George Mason University for this purpose. Troy University’s Johnson Center also receives Koch funding, as does the Center for the Study of Free Enterprise at Western Carolina University. The economics department at Florida State University initially gave the Koch Foundation control over hiring and curriculum. An investigation into the Kochs’s infiltration of campuses showed that the foundation gave $108 million to 366 colleges and universities between 2005 and 2014.

the Blahous working paper on “Medicare for All” in particular shows the impact of these university-based research centers. The paper got wide pickup in the media, and even when its finding in support of “Medicare for All” was exposed, the Mercatus Center fought back and rallied media outlets to report its spin. Whether or not the association with a public university played a role in that is unclear, because Mercatus refuses to honor the public records requests.

That last point is rather ironic. The Charles Koch Institute is a core funder of the National Freedom of Information Coalition, an association of public records groups in all 50 states. The Koch Foundation, the same group funding the Mercatus Center amid its resistance to Freedom of Information Act requests, gave $80,000 last year to the American Society of News Editors for its freedom of information hotline program, among other investments supporting media efforts aimed at government transparency.

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https://bluevirginia.us/2013/03/kochfunded-mercatus-center-embarrasses-gmu-yet-again-with-laughable-report-on-freedom

in  many ways, George Mason University (GMU) is a fine school, an institution of higher learning that Virginians should be proud of. But in at least one way, it is a cringe-inducing embarrassment. That, of course, is the tremendous amount of money from the Koch brothers that goes to fund climate science denialism, to rail against environmental regulation more broadly, at GMU’s far-right-wingnut Mercatus Center, described in The New Yorker as essentially a scam to “take corporate money and give it to a neutral-sounding think tank.” Mercatus is very useful to the Koch brothers, of course, because they can count on the corporate/clueless media to cite it as some sort of unbiased, neutral “think tank,” when in reality it is wildly biased, and certainly not a “think tank” the way most people would ever “think” of that concept.

Given all this, it’s not surprising that Koch-funded fellows at Mercatus have now produced a laughable, far-right-wingnut report that purports to measure “Freedom in the 50 States.” Of course, it does no such thing, unless by “freedom” you mean “freedom for corporations, polluters, and the super rich to completely run amok, while the state tells you what you can and can’t do with your body, who you can or can’t marry, whether or not you can organize with other workers to demand better pay and benefits, etc.”  In short, this report is a Koch-brothers-meet-John-Galt wet dream of what America should look like. And that, my friends, is not a pleasant thought, in any way, shape or form.

Let’s look at a few of the metrics they use. Most importantly is having a low “tax burden” (note the loaded words they use?) — that metric makes up 29% of the entire score in and of itself, and of course the lower the better, even if your state’s schools, roads, bridges, health care systems, etc. are falling apart. The super-rich Koch brothers certainly don’t care – let the little people suffer, they’re doing fine, bwahahahahaha!

The next highest weighting in this “study” (using the word as loosely as is humanly possible) goes to that pressing issue, one that I know all of us sit up nights worrying about, namely “Freedom from Tort Abuse.” What on earth is THAT, you ask? According to Mercatus, “This is what the US Chamber of Commerce calls a state’s ‘lawsuit climate.’ It captures risks and costs that businesses must pass on to consumers as higher prices.”Yep, the virulently anti-government, pro-corporate-welfare US Chamber of Commerce came up with with the metric that makes up another 12% of the Mercatus Center’s scoring. ‘Nuff said.

So, combine those two items – low taxes and “freedom from tort abuse” – and you’re up to over 40% of the score right there. Throw in a few more on the “libertarian” wish list – “gun control freedom” (6.6%), “health insurance freedom” (5.4%), tobacco and alcohol “freedom” (6.9% combined), “labor market freedom” (3.8%) – and you’ve got the bulk of it. Note, by the way, that “marriage freedom” is weighted at just 2.1%, lower than “alcohol freedom” (2.8%), “tobacco freedom” (4.1%), and many others.

So yes, the whole thing would be completely laughable if it weren’t so insidious. Alex Pareene of Salon skewers it here, noting that the Koch-funded Mercatus Institute’s “definition of ‘freedom’ largely adheres to the standard American libertarian conception of ‘liberty,’ which is to say it is oriented almost entirely around private property ownership and low taxation.” Thus, North Dakota comes out in the rankings as the most “free” state, even though it just “passed the most restrictive antiabortion laws in the country…[i]ncluding a law specifically aimed at shutting down the state’s lone abortion provider.” In other words, you’re free in North Dakota to have very low taxes and very low services, but if you’re a woman you are NOT free to make important medical decisions, with your doctor, about your body. Is this the combo “Atlas Shrugged”/“The Handmaid’s Tale” version of “freedom” or what?

By the way, just in case you’re at all interested, Virginia is considered by the Koch brothers, aka Mercatus, as “one of the freest states in the country, ranking eighth overall,” in part due to ” Virginia’s status as a right-to-work state.” Lovely, huh? Meanwhile, just to our north, our unfortunate brethren in Communist Maryland suffer at #44, despite the fact that you can marry who you want there, while Virginia enshrines discrimination into its state constitution. Got that? I’d also note that, as a general rule, the “blue” states – the ones that are huge net donors to the “red” states – are considered less “free,” while the “red” states – huge net recipients of federal largesse, with the lowest education and health rankings in the country – are considered the most “free.” To put it another way, if you were dreaming up a dystopian vision of America, and ranking the most dystopian states the highest and the least dystopian the lowest, you’d basically have…the Mercatus Center study. What an embarrassment.

==

https://www.desmogblog.com/mercatus-center

==

In 2001, for example - the first year that OMB compiled the "hit list" - it received nominations covering 71 federal regulations. Forty-four of these nominations were submitted by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, a conservative think tank funded by many of the same industries that are directly regulated by the targeted rules. Of the 71 submissions, OMB ranked 23 as "high priority" on the basis of brief, skeletal statements (often no more than a page) submitted by Mercatus and other industry groups. Thirteen of the 23 rules on the "hit list" were environmental regulations, including such important promulgations as the Forest Service's roadless area conservation rule and EPA's rule strengthening the standard for arsenic in drinking water. EPA's rule regulating water pollution from Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) also made it onto the list, just one month after representatives of the agriculture industry met with top-level OMB officials. Despite repeated requests from the Center for Progressive Reform and OMB Watch, however, OMB has never disclosed the criteria by which it selects rules for inclusion on the "hit list."

==

3/15

By now, it's common knowledge that the Koch Brothers more or less own the Republican Party – having spent twice as much in election 2012 as the top ten unions combined.

But a lesser-known aspect of Koch influence is their spending on ideological warfare. The Kochs not only spend big in our elections, but they also finance a network of think tanks, advocacy campaigns, and even educational curricula in order to spread their message.

One example is George Mason University (GMU). Last year, a group of students protested the fact that the Charles Koch Foundation, which is the university's single largest donor, has given at least $23 million to the school since 2005.

This week, a GMU professor gave a speech on a topic that could've come right out of the Kochs' ideology – why we need “less democracy.”

Dr. Garett Jones, professor of Economics and BB&T Professor for the Study of Capitalism at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, gave a lecture on the aforementioned topic, taking aim at some of the core values this country is founded upon. Here's a summary from Fourth Estate, a GMU student paper:

Jones says that less democracy and more epistocracy could lead to better governance. Democracy leaves power to the majority while epistocracy allocates power to the knowledgeable. Jones did not imply that democracy should be eliminated, but lessened by 10% for the sake of long term economic growth.

According to Jones, less democracy would lead to better governance because politicians would be inclined to work on long term growth rather than spending to impress constituents during election season. Politicians try to please the public at the expense of neglecting long- term policies because they are elected through a democratic process.

For example, Jones said senators act like voters have short term memories. They make decisions to get reelected rather than spending their whole term focused on long-term growth.

Jones's remarks are fairly consistent with Koch political activity, which includesadvocating for voter ID laws that are designed to drive down voter participation. On his GMU site, the university notes that Jones is not only an academic researcher, but that he has also served as Economic Policy Adviser to Senator Orrin Hatch and as a staff economist to the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress “ – bodies he apparently thinks are too democratic.

== 

http://en.:{wiki:(style="background-color:#ffff66;"):}:pedia.org/wiki/Mercatus_Center

Mercatus

The Mercatus Center at George Mason University in the United States is a non-profit^{[^^1]^}(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercatus_Center#cite_note-about-0) market-oriented research, education, and outreach think tank that works with policy experts, lobbyists, and government officials to connect academic learning and real-world practice.

The Mercatus Center was founded by Rich Fink, former president of the Koch Family Foundations, which funds a network of market-oriented think tanks and advocacy groups. Originally called the Center for Market Processes, it moved why? from Rutgers University to George Mason in the early 1980s before assuming its current name in 1999. The Mercatus Center is entirely funded through donations, including from energy company Koch Industries^{[^^2]^}(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercatus_Center#cite_note-Kamen-1), individual donors and foundations.

The organization's stated mission is to generate knowledge and understanding of how institutions affect the freedom to prosper and find creative solutions to overcome barriers that prevent individuals from living free, prosperous, and peaceful lives. A university-based research center, Mercatus works to advance knowledge about how markets work to improve lives by training graduate students, conducting research, and applying sound economics to offer solutions to society’s most pressing problems. Mercatus has several research and outreach programs: Capitol Hill Campus, the Government Accountability Project, the Regulatory Studies Program, and the Global Prosperity Initiative.

The Mercatus Center is located on George Mason University's Arlington Campus, along with the George Mason University School of Law, the Law and Economics Center, and its sister organization, the Institute for Humane Studies. Its general director and board chairman is George Mason economics professor Tyler Cowen. Other Board members include Nobel Laureate Vernon Smith, former U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese, businessman Charles G. Koch, and Rich Fink.

In 2001, the Office of Management and Budget asked for public input on which regulations should be revised or killed. Mercatus submitted 44 of the 71 proposals the OMB received. The recommendations from Mercatus critiqued regulations such as a proposed Interior Department rule prohibiting snowmobiles in Rocky Mountain National Park, a Transportation Department rule limiting truckers' hours behind the wheel, and a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rule limiting the amount of arsenic in drinking water.^{[^^2]^}(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercatus_Center#cite_note-Kamen-1) More recently, Mercatus has offered a series of critiques of the government's Hurricane :{Katrina:(style="background-color:#ffff66;"):}: disaster relief^{[^^3]^}(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercatus_Center#cite_note-2) and a framework for evaluating counter-terrorism measures^{[^^4]^}(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercatus_Center#cite_note-3). Mercatus organizes an active African research activity, EnterpriseAfrica!, in cooperation with the Institute of Economic Affairs of the United Kingdom, the Free Market Foundation of South Africa, and the John Templeton Foundation.  wiki

http://www.:{sourcewatch:(style="background-color:#ffff66;"):}:.org/index.php?title=Mercatus_Center

The Mercatus Center, part of George Mason University, is one of the best-funded think tanks in the United States at the moment. It is listed as "sister organization" to the Institute of Humane Studies. "Mercatus generates knowledge and understanding of how institutions affect the freedom to prosper and holds organizations accountable for their impact on that freedom," it states on its website. [1]

The Mercatus Center has engaged in campaigns involving deregulation, especially environmental deregulation. [WENT AFTER EPA, which went after KOCH?]

History

The Mercatus Center was founded as the Center for Market Processes by Rich Fink, executive vice president of Koch Industries and former president of the Koch Foundations, who went on to found Citizens for a Sound Economy. In the early 1980s the center moved to George Mason University. It merged with the Center for the Study of Public Choice during 1998 to become the James M. Buchanan Center for Political Economy. The Mercatus Center brand was developed in 1999 from the JBC.

Regulatory Studies Program

Personnel

• Wendy Lee Gramm, Chair
• Susan E. Dudley, Director
• Brian Mannix, Senior Research Fellow
• Jay Cochran III, Research Fellow
• Jerry Ellig
• Jonathan H. Adler - From August 2005 to July 2006 - Visiting Senior Scholar.

Board of Advisors

• C. Boyden Gray, Former White House Counsel and Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering
• Sidney E. Harris, Dean, J. Mack Robinson College of Business, Georgia State University
• Christopher Hill, Vice Provost for Research, George Mason University
• Thomas Hopkins, Dean of Business, Rochester Institute of Technology
• Steven Manaster, Dean, College of Business and Administration, University of Colorado
• Susan Phillips, Former Governor of the Federal Reserves Board; Dean, School of Business and Public Management, The George Washington University
• Vernon L. Smith, Professor of Economics and Law, Interdisciplinary Center for Economic Science (ICES), George Mason University
• W. Kip Viscusi, John F. Cogan, Jr. Professor of Law & Economics, Harvard Law School

Executive Staff

• Frank Atkinson, Chairman, McGuireWoods Consulting, LLC
• Tyler Cowen, General Director, Mercatus Center [2]
• Richard Fink, Executive Vice President, Koch Industries [3]
• Manuel Johnson, Co-Chairman, Johnson Smick Group
• Charles Koch, Chairman and CEO, Koch Industries, Inc.
• Dwight Schar, Chairman and CEO, NVR, Inc.
• Roger Silk, CEO, Sterling Foundation Management
• Vernon L. Smith, Professor of Economics and Law

The Mercatus Center

The Mercatus Center is a conservative think tank located at George Mason University.  It is a sister organization to the Institute for Humane Studies.  The Mercatus Center was originally founded at Rutgers University by Richard Fink in the late 1970s, under the name the Center for Market Processes. 

Koch Industries began funding the organization when it moved to George Mason University in the 1980s, and still finances the centre today. In 1999, the organization was renamed the Mercatus Center.  Charles Koch and Richard Fink serve on its board of directors.

The Mercatus Center believes that a gap exists between economic understanding and real-world decision and policy making.  Its mission, therefore, is to bridge that gap and to "provide policy makers with the economic tools to make sense of today's most pressing issues."

The *Wall Street Journal* has called the Mercatus Center "the most important think tank you've never heard of," and SourceWatch identifies the Mercatus Center as "one of the best-funded think tanks in the United States at the moment."  From 1999-2006, the Mercatus Center received a total of $2,670,662 in funding from conservative organizations, including $1.44 million from the Koch Family Charitable Foundations.  Furthermore, between the years 2003 and 2007 the Mercatus Center received $160,000 in funding from ExxonMobil.

The Mercatus Center and Lobbying

According to PublicIntegrity.com, the Mercatus Center regularly lobbies in the federal government, includingproviding lawmakers with "Capitol Hill breakfasts and luncheons hosted by deregulation scholars."  Mercatus has been an effective machine for pushing Koch's conservative political and economic values.

The Mercatus Center explicitly states that it does not engage in lobbying, and definitely "does not employ nor retain any registered lobbyists."  However, in 2005 Ohio Congressman Bob Ney, who has travelled on 19 occasions at the expense of the Mercatus Center, proposed a bill to amend the Clean Air Act.  Ney's bill called for the Secretary of Energy to build fifteen new oil refineries and sell them to private companies.  Ney's amendment not only fell in line with the position of the Mercatus Center, which had been trying to weaken the Clean Air Act, but it also seemed to benefit Koch Industries, Inc.--the largest private oil company in the United States and the Mercatus Center's largest beneficiary.

Lobbying rules stipulate that any organization that spends more than $24,500 within a six-month period trying to influence government representatives, must register itself as a lobbying group.  In both 2004 and 2005, the Mercatus Center spent over $55,000 on congressional travel.  Furthermore, between 2000 and 2005 Mercatus spent $227,000on more than 400 trips by government officials and their aides.  The Mercatus Center has never registered itself as lobbying group.

The Mercatus Center and The Clean Air Act

In 2002 the Mercatus Center led a focused attack on the Clean Air Act.  This attack was led by Mercatus Center Distinguished Senior Scholar, Wendy Gramm.  Gramm, who is an ardently opposes regulation in the energy sectors, asked for the reassessment of 44 of the Clean Air Act's federal regulations.  Regulations included in the Mercatus Center's requests for review were: national public health standards for smog and soot, and standards for tailpipe exhaust pollution from gasoline vehicles, diesel vehicles, and heavy diesel trucks.  As the non-profit group, Clean Air Trust highlighted, "Gramm would like to pull the plug on virtually every effective air pollution cleanup measure adopted in recent years."

http://www.desmogblog.com/koch-and-george-mason-university

jm nyt:

In the mid-eighties, the Kochs provided millions of dollars to George Mason University, in Arlington, Virginia, to set up another think tank. Now known as the Mercatus Center, it promotes itself as “the world’s premier university source for market-oriented ideas—bridging the gap between academic ideas and real-world problems.” Financial records show that the Koch family foundations have contributed more than thirty million dollars to George Mason, much of which has gone to the Mercatus Center, a nonprofit organization. “It’s ground zero for deregulation policy in Washington,” Rob Stein, the Democratic strategist, said. It is an unusual arrangement. “George Mason is a public university, and receives public funds,” Stein noted. “Virginia is hosting an institution that the Kochs practically control.”

The founder of the Mercatus Center is Richard Fink, formerly an economist. Fink heads Koch Industries’ lobbying operation in Washington. In addition, he is the president of the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation, the president of the Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundation, a director of the Fred C. and Mary R. Koch Foundation, and a director and co-founder, with David Koch, of the Americans for Prosperity Foundation.

Fink, with his many titles, has become the central nervous system of the Kochtopus. He appears to have supplanted Ed Crane, the head of the Cato Institute, as the brothers’ main political lieutenant. Though David remains on the board at Cato, Charles Koch has fallen out with Crane. Associates suggested to me that Crane had been insufficiently respectful of Charles’s management philosophy, which he distilled into a book called “The Science of Success,” and trademarked under the name Market-Based Management, or M.B.M. In the book, Charles recommends instilling a company’s corporate culture with the competitiveness of the marketplace. Koch describes M.B.M. as a “holistic system” containing “five dimensions: vision, virtue and talents, knowledge processes, decision rights and incentives.” A top Cato Institute official told me that Charles “thinks he’s a genius. He’s the emperor, and he’s convinced he’s wearing clothes.” Fink, by contrast, has been far more embracing of Charles’s ideas. (Fink, like the Kochs, declined to be interviewed.)

At a 1995 conference for philanthropists, Fink adopted the language of economics when speaking about the Mercatus Center’s purpose. He said that grant-makers should use think tanks and political-action groups to convert intellectual raw materials into policy “products.”

The Wall Street Journal has called the Mercatus Center “the most important think tank you’ve never heard of,” and noted that fourteen of the twenty-three regulations that President George W. Bush placed on a “hit list” had been suggested first by Mercatus scholars. Fink told the paper that the Kochs have “other means of fighting [their] battles,” and that the Mercatus Center does not actively promote the company’s private interests. But Thomas McGarity, a law professor at the University of Texas, who specializes in environmental issues, told me that “Koch has been constantly in trouble with the E.P.A., and Mercatus has constantly hammered on the agency.”An environmental lawyer who has clashed with the Mercatus Center called it “a means of laundering economic aims.” The lawyer explained the strategy: “You take corporate money and give it to a neutral-sounding think tank,” which “hires people with pedigrees and academic degrees who put out credible-seeming studies. But they all coincide perfectly with the economic interests of their funders.”

In 1997, for instance, the E.P.A. moved to reduce surface ozone, a form of pollution caused, in part, by emissions from oil refineries. Susan Dudley, an economist who became a top official at the Mercatus Center, criticized the proposed rule. The E.P.A., she argued, had not taken into account that smog-free skies would result in more cases of skin cancer. She projected that if pollution were controlled it would cause up to eleven thousand additional cases of skin cancer each year.

In 1999, the District of Columbia Circuit Court took up Dudley’s smog argument. Evaluating the E.P.A. rule, the court found that the E.P.A. had “explicitly disregarded” the “possible health benefits of ozone.” In another part of the opinion, the court ruled, 2-1, that the E.P.A. had overstepped its authority in calibrating standards for ozone emissions. As the Constitutional Accountability Center, a think tank, revealed, the judges in the majority had previously attended legal junkets, on a Montana ranch, that were arranged by the Foundation for Research on Economics and the Environment—a group funded by Koch family foundations. The judges have claimed that the ruling was unaffected by their attendance.

Wendy Gramm

From SourceWatch

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Wendy Lee Gramm is chairman of the "regulatory studies program" at the Mercatus Center of George Mason University, generally calling for deregulation of the energy industry. She was on Enron's board of directors before its collapse. Enron had been a financial backer of the Mercatus Center.

Previously, Wendy Gramm held several positions in the Reagan Administration, including heading the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, when it exempted from regulation Enron trading in energy derivatives.

She has also previously been head of the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) 'Information and Regulatory Affairs'. During 2002, the OMB drew up a "hit list" of existing federal environmental regulations it believes should be changed or rescinded. Of these, 44 had been suggested by the Mercatus Center.

Wendy Gramm is married to Senator Phil Gramm.

Positions held

Government

• Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) 'Information and Regulatory Affairs', Director (1985-1988)
• Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Director (1988-1993)
• Mercatus Center Regulatory Studies Program, Chairman

Thinktanks

• Texas Public Policy Foundation, Chair, 2000-
• Independent Women's Forum, Director

Private companies

• Enron, director
• Iowa Beef Processors (IBP)
• Invesco Funds
• Longitude
• Chicago Mercantile Exchange
• State Farm Insurance Companies

References

• Clean Air Trust, Trust names Wendy Lee Gramm The Clean Air 'Villan of the Month', January 2002
• "Wendy Gramm", Mercatus Center
• Bridget Magnus, The Problem with Wendy, ShortWoman blog, August 20, 2003.

mayer 

In the mid-eighties, the Kochs provided millions of dollars to George Mason University, in Arlington, Virginia, to set up another think tank. Now known as the Mercatus Center, it promotes itself as “the world’s premier university source for market-oriented ideas—bridging the gap between academic ideas and real-world problems.” Financial records show that the Koch family foundations have contributed more than thirty million dollars to George Mason, much of which has gone to the Mercatus Center, a nonprofit organization. “It’s ground zero for deregulation policy in Washington,” Rob Stein, the Democratic strategist, said. It is an unusual arrangement. “George Mason is a public university, and receives public funds,” Stein noted. “Virginia is hosting an institution that the Kochs practically control.”

The founder of the Mercatus Center is Richard Fink, formerly an economist. Fink heads Koch Industries’ lobbying operation in Washington. In addition, he is the president of the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation, the president of the Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundation, a director of the Fred C. and Mary R. Koch Foundation, and a director and co-founder, with David Koch, of the Americans for Prosperity Foundation.

Fink, with his many titles, has become the central nervous system of the Kochtopus. He appears to have supplanted Ed Crane, the head of the Cato Institute, as the brothers’ main political lieutenant. Though David remains on the board at Cato, Charles Koch has fallen out with Crane. Associates suggested to me that Crane had been insufficiently respectful of Charles’s management philosophy, which he distilled into a book called “The Science of Success,” and trademarked under the name Market-Based Management, or M.B.M. In the book, Charles recommends instilling a company’s corporate culture with the competitiveness of the marketplace. Koch describes M.B.M. as a “holistic system” containing “five dimensions: vision, virtue and talents, knowledge processes, decision rights and incentives.” A top Cato Institute official told me that Charles “thinks he’s a genius. He’s the emperor, and he’s convinced he’s wearing clothes.” Fink, by contrast, has been far more embracing of Charles’s ideas. (Fink, like the Kochs, declined to be interviewed.)

At a 1995 conference for philanthropists, Fink adopted the language of economics when speaking about the Mercatus Center’s purpose. He said that grant-makers should use think tanks and political-action groups to convert intellectual raw materials into policy “products.”

The Wall Street Journal has called the Mercatus Center “the most important think tank you’ve never heard of,” and noted that fourteen of the twenty-three regulations that President George W. Bush placed on a “hit list” had been suggested first by Mercatus scholars. Fink told the paper that the Kochs have “other means of fighting [their] battles,” and that the Mercatus Center does not actively promote the company’s private interests. But Thomas McGarity, a law professor at the University of Texas, who specializes in environmental issues, told me that “Koch has been constantly in trouble with the E.P.A., and Mercatus has constantly hammered on the agency.” An environmental lawyer who has clashed with the Mercatus Center called it “a means of laundering economic aims.” The lawyer explained the strategy: “You take corporate money and give it to a neutral-sounding think tank,” which “hires people with pedigrees and academic degrees who put out credible-seeming studies. But they all coincide perfectly with the economic interests of their funders.”

In 1997, for instance, the E.P.A. moved to reduce surface ozone, a form of pollution caused, in part, by emissions from oil refineries. Susan Dudley, an economist who became a top official at the Mercatus Center, criticized the proposed rule. The E.P.A., she argued, had not taken into account that smog-free skies would result in more cases of skin cancer. She projected that if pollution were controlled it would cause up to eleven thousand additional cases of skin cancer each year.

In 1999, the District of Columbia Circuit Court took up Dudley’s smog argument. Evaluating the E.P.A. rule, the court found that the E.P.A. had “explicitly disregarded” the “possible health benefits of ozone.” In another part of the opinion, the court ruled, 2-1, that the E.P.A. had overstepped its authority in calibrating standards for ozone emissions. As the Constitutional Accountability Center, a think tank, revealed, the judges in the majority had previously attended legal junkets, on a Montana ranch, that were arranged by the Foundation for Research on Economics and the Environment—a group funded by Koch family foundations. The judges have claimed that the ruling was unaffected by their attendance.

Read more http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/30/100830fa_fact_mayer?printable=true#ixzz0xjjDaoCJ

The Mercatus Institute, a libertarian-oriented — and Koch brothers-affiliated — think tank based out of George Mason University (a public university, for whatever that’s worth), regularly releases its ranking of American states in terms of “Freedom.” Their definition of “freedom” largely adheres to the standard American libertarian conception of “liberty,” which is to say it is oriented almost entirely around private property ownership and low taxation. As a result,  America’s freest state this year turns out to be North Dakota.

North Dakota has also been in the news for another reason recently. What was it, again? Oh, right,  it passed the most restrictive antiabortion laws in the country. Including a law specifically aimed at shutting down the state’s lone abortion provider. It passed this law knowing it was unconstitutional.

rfk2:

Am Farm Bureau lobby front

Fed judge said animal fac needed water permit like any other fac; JG called mtg w/

ind and Mercatus  bd member was partner in McGuire Woods LLP, in the suit.  Merc

wrote plan, sent to epa ok'd by ex Farm Bur Adam Sharp --> build hog house to spc,

own only the shit; they make almost no $, so no one to sue when pollute w. shit;

write own shit mgmt plan w/ no public; even weak rules weakened more, shit

relgated to states; only tool for small farmers ~ int'l corp gone 74 ~TJ vision.

The Mercatus Center: A Tentacle of the Deregulation-Loving Kochtopus Helping in the Effort to Deny Climate Change and Eviscerate the EPA

Published 1, October 10, 2011 Academics , Environment , Politics , Science ,

Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger

From Climate Science Watch (March 18, 2010): To the libertarians, the widely-shared scientific assessment that human-caused climate change will likely produce major harmful consequences — and the communication of this evidence to the public by the leading climate scientists — poses a particularly serious threat. An informed public concerned about the likelihood of harmful impacts of unchecked global climatic disruption is more likely to call for significant government action to curb greenhouse gas emissions. In order to block proactive government policymaking and keep corporate interests unregulated, libertarian groups have focused a significant part of their efforts on climate change on distorting the science to confuse public opinion, denying the seriousness of the problem, and, most recently, impugning the integrity of the climate science community. The Koch brothers have stepped forward with deep pockets to bankroll such efforts.

Many people have already heard about the libertarian billionaire businessmen brothers Charles and David Koch who have helped to found and/or fund a number of non-profit organizations and think tanks—including the Cato Institute, Americans for Prosperity, ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council), the Federalist Society, the Reason Foundation, and the Heritage Foundation—whose aim seems to be the advancement of the Kochs’ agenda “that government taxes and regulations impinge on prosperity.”

What many people may not be aware of is the number of academic centers/institutions that the Kochs are also helping to fund at both public and private colleges and universities—including Florida State University, West Virginia University, Brown University, Troy University, and Utah State University.

I’m going to focus on just one of these Koch-funded academic centers in this post—the Mercatus Center, a conservative think tank located at George Mason University in Virginia—and on Susan B. Dudley, a woman who worked at Mercatus and was then appointed to a regulatory position at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in 2007.

THE MERCATUS CENTER

In a 2004 Wall Street Journal article, the Mercatus Center was described as “the most important think tank you’ve never heard of.” Previously known as the Center for the Study of Free Market Processes, the Mercatus Center was founded by Richard Fink—with a grant from Charles Koch. Koch currently serves on the center’s Board of Directors—as does Fink who is also an executive vice president and a member of the board of directors of Koch Industries, Inc.

Jane Mayer wrote the following in Covert Operations, an article that appeared in the New Yorker in 2010: The Kochs are longtime libertarians who believe in drastically lower personal and corporate taxes, minimal social services for the needy, and much less oversight of industry—especially environmental regulation.

Public Citizen, a group founded by consumer advocate Ralph Nader, has called the Mercatus Center  “a wholly-owned subsidiary of Koch Industries and other corporate interests.” Richard Fink claims, however, that the center does not actively promote the Koch company’s private interests. He said that Koch “has other means of fighting its battles” in Washington and that they never had a nonprofit advance their agenda. Some people would disagree.

Thomas McGarity, a University of Texas law professor who specializes in environmental issues, told Mayer that “Koch has been constantly in trouble with the E.P.A., and Mercatus has constantly hammered on the agency.” Another environmental lawyer who spoke to Mayer said that Mercatus was “a means of laundering economic aims.”  The lawyer described the strategy: “You take corporate money and give it to a neutral-sounding think tank,” which “hires people with pedigrees and academic degrees who put out credible-seeming studies. But they all coincide perfectly with the economic interests of their funders.”

Rob Stein, a Democratic strategist, told Mayer that the relationship between George Mason University and Mercatus is an unusual arrangement. “George Mason is a public university, and receives public funds. Virginia is hosting an institution that the Kochs practically control.” Stein claimed that Mercatus was “ground zero for deregulation policy in Washington.”

According to Sourcewatch, Mercatus “has engaged in campaigns involving deregulation, especially environmental deregulation.” It has been reported that fourteen of the twenty-three regulations that George W. Bush put on his hit list were first suggested by academics who worked at the Mercatus Center.

In 2010, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst’s Political Economy Research Institute released a study that named Koch Industries as one of this country’s top ten polluters. That same year, Greenpeace released a report titled Koch Industries Secretly Funding the Climate Denial Machine. In the report’s executive summary, Greenpeace stated thatKoch Industries had “become a financial kingpin of climate science denial and clean energy opposition.”(Greenpeace also reported that Koch foundations have contributed more than $48 million in grants to “climate opposition groups” since 1997—and that more than half of that has been donated since 2005.)

MEET SUSAN B. DUDLEY

Frank O’Donnell, president of Clean Air Watch, wrote in 2007 about George W. Bush’s re-nomination of “a veritable rogues’ gallery of anti-environmental figures to key posts in federal agencies.” O’Donnell said that Susan B. Dudley, one of the nominees, was “a true anti-regulatory zealot. As director of regulatory studies at the industry-funded Mercatus Center, Dudley was like a wrecking ball out to smash key safeguards.” He added, “Putting Dudley in this key federal post would be like naming comedian Michael Richards to head the U.S. Civil Rights Commission.”

According to Lee Fang of Think Progress, George W. Bush appointed Susan B. Dudley, the director of the Regulatory Studies Program at the Mercatus Center, to head the OMB Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA)—after the center had attacked the “EPA regulation of tailpipe greenhouse gases by challenging the science of climate change.” (Dudley’s was a recess appointment in 2007.)

O’Donnell said that as head of OIRA Dudley would have one “of the most obscure yet powerful jobs in Washington. The person in this position can, largely without public scrutiny, interfere with actions of agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency, and become a conduit for industries seeking to avoid federal health, environmental and safety standards.”

The Cost is Too High: How Susan Dudley Threatens Public Protections, a report produced by Public Citizen and OMB Watch in 2006, said that while Dudley worked at Mercatus, she “attacked proposed regulations in formal submissions to government agencies and orchestrated campaigns to derail other safeguards already on the books.” The report also claimed that Dudley displayed“an extreme anti-regulatory ideology” and “questioned the merit of regulation altogether in congressional testimony and regulatory comments, and she has urged weakening, if not eliminating entirely, public safeguards.”

Dudley worked to oppose public health regulations as a “hidden tax” that hinders profits when she was at Mercatus. She opposed all of the following: EPA plans that would have set tougher standards for smog; lower-polluting cars and SUVs—as well as cleaner gasoline; air bags in cars; stronger regulations for arsenic in drinking water; measures that could help curbglobal warming. (Think Progress)

Dudley has been quoted as stating that the “evidence regarding global warming and human contribution to it is mixed, and…if a slight warming does occur, historical evidence suggests it is likely to be beneficial, occurring at night, in the winter, and at the poles.” In her testimony before the Senate Subcommittee on Clean Air, Wetlands, Private Property and Nuclear Safety/Committee on Environment and Public on April 24, 1997, Dudley said: “Ozone in the troposphere, like ozone in the stratosphere, has the beneficial effect of screening ultraviolet radiation, which is known to have various health and welfare effects including melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancer, cataracts, and crop and fishery damage.”

The University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), a nonprofit consortium of more than seventy universities that offer Ph.D.s in atmospheric and related sciences, doesn’t see it the same way Dudley does. UCAR has said the following about ozone in the troposphere:

Ozone occurs naturally at ground-level in low concentrations. The two major sources of natural ground-level ozone are hydrocarbons, which are released by plants and soil, and small amounts of stratospheric ozone, which occasionally migrate down to the earth’s surface. Neither of these sources contributes enough ozone to be considered a threat to the health of humans or the environment.

But the ozone that is a byproduct of certain human activities does become a problem at ground level and this is what we think of as ‘bad’ ozone. With increasing populations, more automobiles, and more industry, there’s more ozone in the lower atmosphere. Since 1900 the amount of ozone near the earth’s surface has more than doubled. Unlike most other air pollutants, ozone is not directly emitted from any one source. Tropospheric ozone is formed by the interaction of sunlight, particularly ultraviolet light, with hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides, which are emitted by automobiles, gasoline vapors, fossil fuel power plants, refineries, and certain other industries.

And this is what UCAR said about the negative impacts of tropospheric ozone:

While stratospheric ozone shields us from ultraviolet radiation, in the troposphere this irritating, reactive molecule damages forests and crops; destroys nylon, rubber, and other materials; and injures or destroys living tissue. It is a particular threat to people who exercise outdoors or who already have respiratory problems.

Ozone affects plants in several ways. High concentrations of ozone cause plants to close their stomata. These are the cells on the underside of the plant that allow carbon dioxide and water to diffuse into the plant tissue. This slows down photosynthesis and plant growth. Ozone may also enter the plants through the stomata and directly damage internal cells.

Rubber, textile dyes, fibers, and certain paints may be weakened or damaged by exposure to ozone. Some elastic materials can become brittle and crack, while paints and fabric dyes may fade more quickly.

When ozone pollution reaches high levels, pollution alerts are issued urging people with respiratory problems to take extra precautions or to remain indoors. Smog can damage respiratory tissues through inhalation. Ozone has been linked to tissue decay, the promotion of scar tissue formation, and cell damage by oxidation. It can impair an athlete’s performance, create more frequent attacks for individuals with asthma, cause eye irritation, chest pain, coughing, nausea, headaches and chest congestion and discomfort. It can worsen heart disease, bronchitis, and emphysema.

Prior to Dudley’s appointment to OIRA, Scott Silver, executive director of Wild Wilderness, wrote in an email exchange with Media Transparency that “Dudley would be the most anti-regulatory zealot within the Bush Administration, bar none. Her ideology is based upon a core belief that regulations are generally bad and there should be no regulation unless it can be proven to be cost effective and supported from within the market place.”

The Cost is Too High report said that Dudley’s radicalism put her “right at home at Mercatus”—which was “founded by corporate interests and endowed by large corporations, free-market oriented foundations, and leaders from the corporate world”  and “has long operated at the intersection of money, power, and influence in order to promote corporate special interests at the expense of the public interest.”

Note: Susan B. Dudley is a Research Professor of Public Policy and Public Administration and is serving as the Director of the Regulatory Studies Center at George Washington University.

SOURCES & FURTHER READING

EPA Nemesis: Mercatus Center Another Koch Think Tank (Sourcewatch/Center for Media and Democracy)

Koch Industries Climate Denial Front Group Mercatus Center (Greenpeace)

From Promoting Acid Rain To Climate Denial: Over 20 Years Of David Koch’s Polluter Front Groups (Think Progress)

The White House’s Agents Of Environmental Corruption (Think Progress)

Koch’s Web of Influence (Center for Public Integrity)

Koch-Powered Tea Party Pushes Climate Denial Bill In New Hampshire (Think Progress)

Covert Operations: The billionaire brothers who are waging a war against Obama. (The New Yorker)

The White House’s Agents Of Environmental Corruption (Think Progress)

Does Bush know how to pick ‘em or does he know how to pick ‘em? (Daily Kos)

The Cost is Too High: How Susan Dudley Threatens Public Protections (Public Citizen & OMB Watch)

Bush Nominates Anti-Regulatory Zealot To Head ‘Super-Powerful’ Public Safety Office (Think Progress)

Stop Susan Dudley: The air you breathe depends on it (Public Citizen)

Dudley Do-Wrong of George Mason University (Media Transparency)

With Senate on break, Bush appoints officials: The three, including a contentious regulatory director, most likely would not have been approved by lawmakers. (Los Angeles Times)

I Am OMB and I Write the Rules (Washington Post)

On First Day Of New Congress, Koch Operatives Met With GOP Chairman Planning To Gut The Clean Air Act (Think Progress)

ALEC Exposed: The Koch Connection (The Nation)

Exclusive: Tea Party Billionaire David Koch Denies Climate Change, Shrugs Off His Carbon Pollution (ThinkProgress)

The Koch Energy and Commerce Committee (Turley Blog)

Koch Industries multibillionaire Koch brothers bankroll attacks on climate change science and policy (Climate Science Watch)

The Most Important Think Tank You’ve Never Heard Of (Richard C. Young)

Rule Breaker: In Washington, Tiny Think Tank Wields Big Stick on Regulation (Mercatus)

Meet Koch Industries (Oil Watchdog)

Mercatus Center—Koch Industries: Still Fueling Climate Denial [REPORT] (PolluterWatch)

Koch Industries: Still Fueling Climate Denial [REPORT] (PolluterWatch)

Koch Industries: Still Fueling Climate Denial 2011 Update (Greenpeace)

Koch Industries: Secretly Funding the Climate Denial Machine (Greenpeace)

The Kochs’ Mercatus Center and Environmental Deregulation (The Green Market)

Does This Matter? Eliminating the EPA? (Watchdog Progressive)

REPORT: Koch Fueling Far Right Academic Centers At Universities Across The Country(ThinkProgress)

FSU Accepts Funds From Charles Koch In Return For Control Over Its Academic Freedom (ThinkProgress)

Billionaire’s role in hiring decisions at Florida State University raises questions (St. Petersburg Times)

VIDEO: Why Oil Billionaire David Koch Is Secretly Funding Astroturf To Repeal CA Clean Energy Law AB 32 (Think Progress)

Wegman scandal rocks cornerstone of climate denial (Think Progress)

Institute for Humane Studies (IHS) – Koch Industries Climate Denial Front Group (Greenpeace)

Climate Change Deniers Without Borders: How American oil money is pumping up climate change skeptics abroad—and how they could derail any progress made in Copenhagen. (Mother Jones)

Bush Obstructs EPA, OSHA, CDC Regulations (Mother Jones)

Koch Industries and Lobbying in Washington (Desmogblog)

Koch and George Mason University (Desmogblog)

Still Hiring Tree Haters (Tom Paine)

Another big time fox nominated to be gatekeeper to the henhouse (Watching the Watchers)

Charles Koch’s Assault on Academic Freedom (Mother Jones)

In Washington, Tiny Think Tank Wields Big Stick on Regulation: With White House Ex-Staffers, Mercatus Helps Zap Codes It Says Restrict Business (Wall Street Journal)

Statutory Interpretation in the Era of OIRA (Georgetown University law Center)

Testimony of Susan E. Dudley

Before the Subcommittee on Clean Air, Wetlands, Private Property and Nuclear Safety

Committee on Environment and Public Works

April 24, 1997

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Mercatus Center Founders Circle 2004

List provided to Public Citizen by the Mercatus Center

ombwatch dudley rept 2006

Altria Corporate Services, Inc.

Anschutz Foundation

The Armstrong Foundation

W. H. Attebury

Richard A. Bacas

Bachman Foundation

Elliot A. Baines

Mr. & Mrs. Frank E. Baxter

Bochnowski Family Foundation

Castle Rock Foundation

Dorothy Byrne

Patrick M. Byrne

Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation

Paul G. Chelew & Shirley F. McKenzie

Arthur A. Ciocca

Richard W. Colburn

Covenant Foundation

Garland & Carolyn Cox

E. L. Craig Foundation

Dan E. Cullen

D & D Foundation

David H. Koch Charitable Foundation

Mr. & Mrs. Jeremy S. Davis

The Shelby Cullom Davis Foundation

Earhart Foundation

Exxon Mobil Corporation

Freddie Mac

Philip M. Friedmann

Larry & Mary Futchik

Edwin A. Gallun, Jr.

General Motors Corporation

The Gillette Company

Mr. & Mrs. Thomas C. Graham

Richard R. Greer

Elmer R. Haile, Jr.

Harold E. Hamilton

Philip D. Harvey

IFREE

John E. & Sue M. Jackson Charitable Trust

Ruth H. Jackson Charitable Trust

Jeld-Wen Foundation

Craig W. Johnson

John P. Kavooras

Mr. & Mrs. Michael L. Keiser

Randy Parris Kendrick

Mr. & Mrs. Richard Korpan

Dr. & Mrs. Benjamin LeCompte, III

Allan W. & Lois J. Lund

Natalie C. Lund

Mr. & Mrs. Bartley Madden

E. Pierce Marshall

Miriam & Emmett McCoy Foundation

John T. & Libby Menefee

Microsoft

Joseph R. Mitchell

The Modzelewski Charitable Trust

Dorothy Donnelley Moller

The Hon. Herbert N. Morgan

Albert G. Oaks

Pfizer Inc.

Mrs. Dorothy Pollak

The John William Pope Foundation

Robert A. Pritzker

James M. Rodney

Sarah Scaife Foundation Inc.

Dwight C. Schar

James W. Shields

Dr. Vernon L. Smith

Henry M. Staley Charitable Trust

State Farm Insurance Companies

Jackson T. Stephens, Jr.

Sunmark Foundation

William Thomas

James C. Thompson

James E. Upfield

US Chamber of Commerce

UST Public Affairs Inc.

Alex C. Walker Educational & Charitable

Foundation

The Walton Family Foundation, Inc.

F. William Weber

Mr. & Mrs. Jerry A. Wenger

Prof. & Mrs. John O. Whitney

Joseph H. Wilkens

Christopher & Patricia Witzky

Betty K. Wolfe

Sam Wyly

Fred M. Young, Jr.

Norma E. Zimdahl

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