The Mercatus Center, part of George Mason University, is one of the best-funded think tanks in the United States. It is listed as "sister organization" to the Institute for Humane Studies. Mercatus describes its mission as "to generate knowledge and understanding of the institutions that affect the freedom to prosper, and to find sustainable solutions that overcome the barriers preventing individuals from living free, prosperous, and peaceful lives."[1]

The Mercatus Center was founded and is funded by the Koch Family Foundations. According to financial records, the Koch family has contributed more than thirty million dollars to George Mason University, much of which has gone to the Mercatus Center, a nonprofit organization. Democratic strategist Rob Stein described the Mercatus Center as "ground zero for deregulation policy in Washington.” George Mason Uni itself was only founded in 1972 on a campus just outside Washington DC. It is now Virginia's largest public research university with 34,000 students on campus, ten schools and colleges.

The Mercatus Center has engaged in campaigns involving deregulation, especially environmental deregulation. According to The Guardian in 2010, it "now fills the role once played by the economics department at Chicago University as the originator of extreme neoliberal ideas."[2] During the George W. Bush administration's campaign to reduce government regulation, the Wall Street Journal reported, "14 of the 23 rules the White House chose for its "hit list" to eliminate or modify were Mercatus entries -- a record that flabbergasted Washington lobbying heavyweights."[3]

The Wall Street Journal has called the Mercatus Center “the most important think tank you’ve never heard of."[4]

The Mercatus Center is an "associate" member of the State Policy Network, a web of right-wing “think tanks” in every state across the country.[5]

History and Ties to the Koch Brothers

The Mercatus Center was founded in 1978 as the Center for the Study of Market Processes.[6] Richard Fink, then an economist at Rutgers, had sought funding to found a center for advancing Austrian school economics, and secured the funds from Charles Koch after visiting him in Wichita, Kansas.[7] The Center moved to George Mason University in 1980, where it merged with the Center for the Study of Public Choice during 1998 to become the James M. Buchanan Center for Political Economy.[4] The Mercatus Center writes of the move that "Once again, support from the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation provided the critical funding for this formative move."[6] The Mercatus Center brand was developed in 1999 from the James Buchanan Center.[4]



In April 2016, GMU renamed its law school the Antionin Scalia School of Law after receiving a $10 million gift from the Charles Koch Foundation and another $20 million from an anonymous donor which was funnelled through Leonard Leo, the executive VP of the Federalist Society. Between 2011 and 2014 the Koch's gave $48 million in donations to the GMU according to the Associated Press - and it is this money which supports the free-market Mercatus Center. The Mercatus Center is also linked to the National Federation of Independent Business and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Charles Koch also chairs the board of the Institute for Humane Studies at GMU.

The Mercatus board includes Richard Fink (Exec VP of Koch Industries, and Charles Koch himself. In a 2011 profile, Philanthropy wrote that Charles Koch and Fink shared a goal for Mercatus:

"...Koch and Fink had another goal in mind. Mercatus would bridge two worlds. Like many of the on-campus centers that Koch has funded, it would continue to conduct original academic research […] At the same time, it would take advantage of its proximity to Washington, bringing its scholarship into direct contact with public policy."[7]

Charles Koch sits on the board of the Mercatus Center.[8]

Rich Fink is also executive vice president of Koch Industries and also founded Citizens for a Sound Economy. Fink heads Koch Industries’ lobbying operation in Washington. In addition, Fink is the president of the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation, the president of the Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundation, a director of the Fred and Mary Koch Foundation, and a director and co-founder, with David Koch, of the Americans for Prosperity Foundation.

Mercatus board member Vernon L. Smith is also a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, which was co-founded by Charles Koch.

Organizations with links to the Koch brothers have reported giving funding to the Mercatus Center. The Center received $5.5 million from the Koch-linked DonorsTrust and Donors Capital Fund between 2010 and 2012. The Charles G. Koch Foundation reported giving $8.8 million from 2002 to 2012, and the David H. Koch Foundation gave $100,000 to George Mason University for "Mercatus Center Programs" between 1999 and 2001.

Jane Mayer writes in her book Dark Money that,

"Clayton Coppin, who taught history at George Mason and compiled the confidential study of Charles's political activities for Bill Koch, describes Mercatus outright in his report as "a lobbying group disguised as a disinterested academic program." The arrangement, he points out, had financial advantages for the Kochs, because it enabled Charles "to have a tax deduction for financing a group, which for all practical purposes is a lobbying group for his corporate interest."[9]

Right-Wing Ties

In addition to being funded by the Charles G. Koch Foundation, the Mercatus Center also has ties to several prominent right-wing groups, including the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB).

Connections to NFIB and Environmental Deregulation

Two advisory board members of NFIB's Legal Arm are involved with the Regulatory Studies Program at the Mercatus Center: Wendy Gramm, a distinguished senior scholar at the Mercatus Center (where she founded the Regulatory Studies Program) and Susan E. Dudley, former director of the Regulatory Studies program.[10][11][12]

Both Gramm and Dudley have held government positions where they have crusaded against regulations aimed at protecting the environment. Gramm was previously head of the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) 'Information and Regulatory Affairs'. In 2002, the OMB drew up a "hit list" of existing federal environmental regulations it believes should be changed or rescinded of which 44 had been suggested by the Mercatus Center.[13] Dudley was appointed head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs by President George W. Bush. According to the Los Angeles Times, Dudley was one of three people previously blocked by Congress from holding environment-related positions "because of their pro-industry views."[14]

Gramm is also chairman emeritus of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, an ALEC-affiliated State Policy Network member.

Ties to ALEC

Bob Williams, a visiting fellow at the Mercatus Center, is on the ALEC Board of Scholars and has worked on several ALEC Task Forces, including the Tax and Fiscal Policy Task Force of which he was the chair in 2011.[15][16]In August 2011, Williams received the American Legislative Exchange Council's (ALEC's) Private Sector Member of the Year Award.[17] Williams is also the founder of the right-wing think tank, Evergreen Freedom Foundation, an ALEC-affiliated State Policy Network member.

The Mercatus Center itself has also been involved in ALEC's Tax and Fiscal Policy Task Force. Matthew Mitchell, a Mercatus senior research fellow[18] presented to the Tax and Fiscal Policy Task Force at ALEC's 2010 annual meeting.[19] Keith Hall, another Mercatus senior research fellow[20] also gave a presentation at the task force meeting of ALEC's 2012 States and Nation Policy Summit[21]

About ALEC ALEC is a corporate bill mill. It is not just a lobby or a front group; it is much more powerful than that. Through ALEC, corporations hand state legislators their wishlists to benefit their bottom line. Corporations fund almost all of ALEC's operations. They pay for a seat on ALEC task forces where corporate lobbyists and special interest reps vote with elected officials to approve “model” bills. Learn more at the Center for Media and Democracy's ALECexposed.org , and check out breaking news on our PRWatch.org site

News and Controversies

Mercatus Center Study Shows Savings From "Medicare-for-All"

The Mercatus Center released a working paper in July of 2018 titled "The Costs of a National Single-Payer Healthcare System." The paper concluded that Senator Bernie Sanders' Medicare-for-All plan would "increase federal budget commitments by approximately $32.6 trillion during its first 10 years of full implementation."[22]

Medicare-for-All is a plan that would replace the usual costs associated with health care -- premiums, deductibles, and co-pays -- with a tax. Health care would then be free at the point of service, paid for through the government.

President of the People's Policy Project, Matt Bruenig, wrote that the report also finds Medicare-for-all would save $2.054 trillion "through administrative efficiencies and reductions in unit prices." Bruenig notes that this finding was buried in a figure and claims that such was purposeful so that coverage focused on the "incomprehensibly large" cost.[23] Senator Sanders tweeted a link to Bruenig's article.[24] According to The New Republic, the reaction to the Mercatus study "shows partisans are bad at reading studies."[25]

Mercatus Center Called Out for Blocking Action on Climate Change

In July of 2016, nineteen U.S. Senators delivered a series of speeches denouncing climate change denial from 32 organizations with links to fossil-fuel interests, including the Mercatus Center.[26] Sen. Whitehouse (RI-D), who led the effort to expose "the web of denial" said in his remarks on the floor that the purpose was to,

"shine a little light on the web of climate denial and spotlight the bad actors in the web, who are polluting our American discourse with phony climate denial. This web of denial, formed over decades, has been built and provisioned by the deep-pocketed Koch brothers, by ExxonMobil, by Peabody coal, and by other fossil fuel interests. It is a grim shadow over our democracy in that it includes an electioneering effort that spends hundreds of millions of dollars in a single election cycle and threatens any Republican who steps up to address the global threat of climate change. . . . [I]t is long past time we shed some light on the perpetrators of this web of denial and expose their filthy grip on our political process. It is a disgrace, and our grandchildren will look back at this as a dirty time in America’s political history because of their work.”[26]

The Enron Loophole

From Jane Mayer's Dark Money,

"The most fateful Mercatus Center hire might have been Wendy Gramm, an economist and director at the giant Texas energy company Enron who was the wife of Senator Phil Gramm, the powerful Texas Republican. In the mid-1990s, she became the heard of Mercatus's Regulatory Studies Program. There, she pushed Congress to support what came to be known as the Enron Loophole, exempting the type of energy derivatives from which Enron profited from regulatory oversight. Both Enron and Koch Industries, which also was a major trader of derivatives, lobbied desperately for the loophole. Koch claimed there was no need for government policing because corporations' concern for their reputations would cause them to self-regulate. Some experts foresaw danger. In 1998, Brooksley Born, chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, warned that lucrative but risky derivatives market needed more government oversight. But Senator Gramm, who chaired the Senate Banking Committee, ignored such warnings, crafting a deregulatory bill made to order for Enron and Koch, called the Commodity Futures Modernization Act. Despite Born's warning, the Clinton administration embraced exemptions too, swayed by Wall Street pressure."[9]

Influence on Congress (2000-2006)

According to the Center for Public Integrity, Mercatus holds seminars for congressional staff on topics related to its political agenda and an annual retreat for congressional chiefs of staff, spending "at least $227,000 on more than 400 trips for lawmakers and their staff from 2000 through mid-2005." [27]

Opposition to Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (2014)

Hester Peirce, a Senior Research Fellow at the Mercatus Center, has testified against the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, claiming that its "lack of accountability, the opacity of the Bureau’s decision-making processes," and its power to control its own budget and data collection required "fundamental reforms."[28]

Google Funds Legal Conference While Under Investigation (2014)

The Washington Post reported that while Google was being investigated for antitrust violations, the company funded conferences at George Mason University, where the Mercatus Center is hosted, at which "leading technology and legal experts forcefully rejected the need for the government to take action against Google" in front of an audience that included FTC officials, members of Congress, and Justice Department officials.[29] Google has donated to conservative organizations including the Mercatus Center to support research on weakening copyright and patent laws.[30]

Funding

The Mercatus Center describes itself as "100% privately funded." According to its website, in FY 2014 it received 54% of its funding from foundations, 42% from individuals, and 4% from corporations.[31]

Mercatus has received funding from a number of foundations that support conservative causes.

The Center received $5.5 million from the Koch-linked DonorsTrust and Donors Capital Fund between 2010 and 2012. The Charles G. Koch Foundation reported giving $8.8 million from 2002 to 2012, and the David H. Koch Foundation gave $100,000 to George Mason University for "Mercatus Center Programs" between 1999 and 2001.

In February 2014, the Mercatus Center received a $1.99 million grant from the conservative John Templeton Foundation.[32]

Between 2002 and 2008, the right-wing Bradley Foundation gave $50,000 to George Mason University specifically designated for the Mercatus Center.

Personnel

Board of Directors

As of June 2016:[8]

Former Board of Directors Members

Menlo Smith, CEO of Sunmark Capital Corp.

Staff

As of June 2016:[8]

Sherzod Abdukadirov, Research Fellow

Ashley Adams, Director for Event Strategy

Paul Dragos Aligica, Senior Research Fellow

Alexander Anton, Budget and Operations Associate

Daniel Asiedu, Help Desk Coordinator

Matt Bagnoli, Manager of Donor Relations

Taylor Barkley, Assistant Director of Outreach for Technology Policy

Dan Barrett, Performance Measurement Manager

William Beach, Vice President for Policy Research

Christina Behe, Editor and Production Coordinator

Orges Beqiri, Associate Director of Donor Relations

Charles Blahous, Director of Spending and Budget Initiative; Senior Research Fellow

Theodore Bolema, Director for Policy Research Editing

Kathy Bollen, Associate Director for Policy Research Operations

Robin J. Bowen, Director of Regulatory Outreach

Benjamin Brophy, Web Product Manager

James Broughel, Program Manager, Regulatory Studies Program

Garrett Brown, Director of Publications

Michael Buck, IT Project Manager

Julie Burden, Senior Director of Event Strategy

Greg Burns, Program Associate

Daniel Butler, Senior Director of Development

Rhett Butler, Director of Foundations Relations

Jen Campbell, Event Manager

Trevor Carlsen, Health Care Outreach Associate

Andrea Castillo, Program Manager of the Technology Policy Program

Eric Celler, Program Coordinator at the F.A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics

Erica T. Celler, Program Coordinator of Academic and Student Programs

Bryce Chinault, Outreach Associate

Lane Conaway, Program Manager of Academic and Student Programs

Tyler Cowen, Holbert L. Harris Chair of Economics at George Mason University; General Director and Senior Fellow, F.A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics

William Culleton, Outreach Associate

Karen Czarnecki, Senior Director of Outreach

Malia Dalesandry, Executive Assistant

Brandon Davis, Graphic Designer

Kate De Lanoy, Associate Director of Media Relations

Veronique de Rugy, Senior Research Fellow

Tad DeHaven, Research Analyst

Bradley Dick, Development Associate

Courtney Dunn, Events Coordinator

Scott Eastman, Program Coordinator for the Project for the Study of American Capitalism

Neil Eckard, Development Communications Manager

Mohamad Elbarasse, Program Manager

Lindsey Emmick, Senior Manager for Foundation Relations

Bob Ewing, Director of Media Relations

Michael Farren, Research Fellow

Jason J. Fichtner, Senior Research Fellow

Gregory Fitton, Program Associate at the Study of American Capitalism Program

Claire Forman, Manager of Donor Relations

Daniel Francis, Policy Communications Manager

Nita Ghee, Senior Policy Research Editor

Meg Gilliland, Digital Marketing Manager

Olivia Gonzalez, Research Assistant

Robert Graboyes, Senior Research Fellow

Nolan Gray, Marketing Associate

John Grover, Development Associate

Stefanie Haeffele-Balch, Deputy Director, Academic and Student Programs

Roman Hardgrave, Director of Online Strategies

Alex Hasan, Senior Network and Security Engineer

Robert Hasler, Financial Operations Associate

Justin Hayes, Marketing Manager

Kim Hemsley, Media Analytics Associate

Cristinan Hernandez Brown, Recruiter

Sophia Higgins, Manager of Financial Reporting

Jeff Holmes, Creative Director

Patrick Horan, Program Associate

Eric Imhoff, Development Database Administrator

Sarah Jenislawski, Senior Manager, Foundation Relations

Jim A. Johnston, Director of Marketing

Mary Jones, Assistant Director of Outreach

Sarah Jones, Payroll and Benefits Specialist

Elizabeth Kailey, Director of Finance

Jamil Khan, Program Coordinator, Health Care

Benjamin Klutsey, Program Manager

Brian Knight, Senior Research Fellow

Jeff Koo, IT Project Manager

Christopher Koopman, Research Fellow

Leah M. Kral, Director of Strategic Management Systems

Angela Kuck, Deputy Director of Spending and Budget Initiative and Director of Policy Communications

Kayla Lahti, Program Associate

Gary D. Leff, Chief Financial Officer

Jayme Lemke, Senior Research Fellow and Associate Director of Academic and Student Programs

Peter Lipsey, Program Manager of Academic and Student Programs

Michael Mayfield, Help Desk Coordinator

Maurice P. McTigue, Vice President, Outreach

Adam Michel, Program Manager

Stephen Matteo Miller, Senior Research Fellow

Adam Millsap, Research Fellow

Matthew Mitchell, Director of the Project for the Study of American Capitalism and Senior Research Fellow

Claire Morgan, Director of Academic Relations for Academic and Student Programs

Marc Morris, Media Relations Associate

Lindsay Moss, Video Production Associate

Sarah Muse, Senior Development Associate

Chris Myers, Director of External Relations

Jonathan Nelson, Program Associate, for the Regulatory Studies Program

Scott Norbert, Application Development Manager

Ladan Nowrasteh, Marketing Director

Michael Olson, Desktop Support Technician

Naomi Ortega, Office Manager

Sam Pfizer, Associate Director of State Outreach

Kyle Precourt, Associate Director of Media Relations

Rizqi Rachmat, Research Data Visualist

Robert E. Raffety, Senior Director of Policy Research Operations

Edward Ranger, Financial Operations Associate

James Reed, Office Coordinator

Chad Reese, Assistant Director of Outreach for Financial Policy

Tyler Richards, Program Coordinator for the Regulatory Studies Program

McKenzie Robey, Program Associate for Academic and Student Programs

Andrea Ronal, Development Associate

Daniel M. Rothschild, Executive Director

Amanda Ruetz, Manager of Financial Operations

Stacie Rumenap, Director of Corporate Relations

Daniel Sacks, Director of Donor Relations

Ranock Saing, Help Desk Technician

Rachiny Samek,Human Resources Associate

Thomas Savidge, Program Associate for the State and Local Policy Project.

Ashley Schiller, Manager of Donor Relations

Caitlyn Schmidt, Event Manager

Corrie Schwab, Managing Editor

Leck Shannon, Program Manager

Oliver Sherouse, Research Analyst

Cory Shreckengost, Director of Editorial Content

Vera Soliman, Research Assistant

Bethany Stalter, Event Coordinator

Solomon Stein, Research Fellow, F.A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics

Virgil Storr, Senior Research Fellow and Senior Director, Academic and Student Programs

Lauren Thompson, Program Associate for Academic and Student Programs

Alexandra Tooley, Senior Web Projects Manager

Robin L. Walker, Director of Outreach for Fiscal and Health Care Policy

Camille Walsh, Media Manager, Spending and Budget Initiative

Emily Washington, Policy Research Manager

TJ Whittle, Editor

Geary Williams, Network Administrator

Richard Williams, Director of Regulatory Studies Program and Senior Research Fellow

Michael Wilt, Policy Writer and Editor

Chris Wolske, Senior Director of IT

Jennifer Zambone, Vice President for Operations

Stephen Zimmer, Program Associate for Academic and Student Programs

Mercatus Center

George Mason University

3301 North Fairfax Drive, Suite 450

Arlington, VA 22201-4433

tel: (703) 993-4930

1-800-815-5711

Fax: (703) 993-4935

web site: www.mercatus.org

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