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OPINION ONLY
Gary M Galles
— A conservative economist at the Pepperdine University in Malibu who was a late recruit to the cash-for-comments network, and associated with Robert Sexton, a member of the cash-for-comments economists network. — The cash-for-comments economists network had between 50 and a hundred economists at various US State and private universities, who were signed up to work behind the scenes for the tobacco industry by Professor Robert D (Bob) Tollison and his partner James Savarese. Most did so with the proviso that their links to the industry were protected from discovery, and that payments were laundered by being passed through one or more corporate bank-accounts. Gary M Galles was a Pepperdine University economist who co-wrote op-eds and articles for the popular press with Robert L Sexton. Sexton had been contracted through James Savarese and Robert Tollison to support the cash-for-comments network of academics which worked for the Tobacco Institute. However there is no sign that Galles himself was part of the formal network — and, indeed, he may never have received his half of the $1000 to $1500 that Sexton would have been paid by the Institute for each article or op-ed. Galles also wrote a few anti-Clinton pieces for the newspapers by himself that could have been contracted by the tobacco industry, but there is no evidence that they were. He appears to be an enthusiastic member of the Ludwig von Mises Institute and the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Foundation.
| Genuine opinion ... or fabricated propaganda? |
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| There should be no question that these were genuine expressions of economic opinions rather than confecting distortions. Membership of the network ensured that these economists were factional warriors of the 'unfettered free-market' type. But we can question what prompted this sudden urge to express their views ... and whether this was part of a well-paid outreach program aimed at supporting the tobacco industry? The chanting of the mantra: "These opinions are my own", loses validity when commercial promotion of dangerous substances is the intent, and when payments for these services is concealed. |
See also the document labled economists network which treats the historical development of this network by Ogilvy & Mather, and then by James Savarese and Robert Tollison. The idea began in 1979 and ran through the 1980s under the direction of Savarese and Tollison.
Some key documents • Professor of Economics, Pepperdine University, Malibu CA If you look at Pepperdine from the vantage point of Canada, the University is on the far right of any map.
1993 Apr 2: Journal of Commerce article by Gary Galles of Pepperdine University: Mr Clinton's Concealed Taxes.  
[This has been sent to the Tobacco Institute and circulated to executives. It was probably not tobacco funded.]
The tobacco industry at this time was in negotiations over what became the 'Master Settlement Agreement' with the State Attorney's Generals. They were most fearful of the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) being given control of cigarettes as a drug, and so the Tobacco Institute funded the FDA Project to attack the agency on the grounds that it was just extending its power.
The economist's network went into a period of slow decline around this date. The economists were obviously fearful of having their names exposed, and so the Status Reports made by Savarese & Associates to the Tobacco Institute began to carry only the names of their institutions, not the economists themselves. [A policy not always adhered to.]
1995 Feb 5: Clippings of Economists's Network op-ed articles sent to the Tobacco Institute. - The FDA's Quest for Power, by Gary M Galles and Robert L Sexton, published as a Guest Editorial in the Investor's Business Daily [A favourite tobacco industry publication.]
- Ever-expanding federal government stealthily constricting individual freedoms, by William J Boyes.
- Smoking ad ban by FDA appears to be self-serving, by Joe Bell.
- President can't hid political vanity behind a smoke screen, by Robert Higgs.
- FDA Shouldn't take the Role of Parents, by Ed Price.
- Teen-smoking crisis is really overblown, by Lowell Gallaway.
[These are all late network recruits.]
1996 Feb 5: The Investor's Business Daily (a newspaper which consistently ran tobacco propaganda — usually by Michael Fumento) carried a Guest Editorial "The FDA's Quest For Power" by Gary M Galles and Robert L. Sexton The Food and Drug Administration's plan to regulate tobacco is a notable power grab, even by Washington standards.
By claiming to "save our children" from "evil tobacco companies," the FDA is justifying new powers far beyond any Congress ever meant to grant it. It credits both Galles and Sexton as economics professors at Pepperdine University.
Sexton (and possibly Galles) were listed here under CALIFORNIA
Pepperdine University
Published February 5 1996 — Investor's Business Daily
[ Investor's Business Daily was a tobacco-friendly newspaper which could always be counted on to publish tobacco industry handouts]
1996 Mar: /E Galles doesn't appear to have done anything for the Tobacco Institute after this date — although some material was republished in the San Francisco Chronicle.
1996 Sep 20: A rehash of the anti-FDA February article earned Sexton and Galles another fifteen hundred dollars or so... plus the editorial payment from the San Francisco Chronicle. The article was now retitled, FDA's Rapacious Quest for Power by Robert L. Sexton and Gary M. Galles Power grabs are part and parcel of politics. However, the FDA's proposed new regulations on tobacco are notable in this regard, even for Washington. It has twisted data to create a questionable crisis, stretched its statutory language beyond recognition to reverse its own position that such restrictions were beyond its regulatory reach.
These proposals go far beyond reducing youth smoking, a goal even the tobacco companies support (with money as well as words). But they use "save our children" imagery, contrasted with that of "evil" tobacco companies, to extend their control far beyond anything ever legislatively imagined for the FDA.
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