2013-10-31 Koch foundation donated again to Fraser Institute in 2011, U.S. tax records show vancouverobserver/politics/koch-foundation-donated-150000-fraser-institute-2011-us-tax-records-show Jenny Uechi Oct 31st, 2013 A Charles Koch Foundation has founded the Vancouver-based Fraser Institutes Economic Freedom of the World reports since 2008. The reports are referenced several times in the Economic Freedom ad above, which suggests that more economic freedom leads to higher quality of life. The Charles G. Koch Foundation has donated $150,000 to the Vancouver-based right-wing think tank Fraser Institute in 2011, according to U.S. tax records. The funding was for a report, which now seems to be a key part of a larger Koch campaign promoting economic freedom. “Charitable” Fraser Institute accepted $500k in foreign funding from Koch oil billionaires This is the fourth year of funding for The Fraser Institute by the Koch Foundation. Fraser received: $150,000 in 2010 $175,500 in 2009 $150,000 in 2008 The donations that the Vancouver Observer has been able to confirm through U.S. tax records total $625,500 since 2007. The Koch brothers are hard-right libertarians who co-founded the Tea Party to promote an agenda of reducing government and lowering taxes. They have donated over $100 million to conservative causes and climate change denial, and have invested in Canadas oil sands for over 50 years. Fraser Institute communications director Dean Pelkey said that the Koch funding goes toward the Institutes annual Economic Freedom of the World report, which links economic freedom to quality of life and attempts to measure it in more than 140 countries. The study was started 25 years ago by a research team led by Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman and former Fraser Institute executive director Michael Walker. The Charles G. Koch Foundation is not mentioned anywhere in the acknowledgements of earlier reports, but starts appearing in every annual report since 2009. Last year, Walker told the Vancouver Observer that the Fraser Institute had also been receiving funding from Koch Industries in earlier years, as they had extensive holdings in Canada. Any money Im aware of from that source... is used for our international research, he said. The fruit of that international research has been the annual Economic Freedom of the World report. The report is a big deal to U.S. right-wing institutions. The Searle Fredom Trust contributed $100,000 to the Fraser Institute in 2010 and 2011 specifically toward the report, according to IRS tax records. Americans for Prosperity, a libertarian policy institute which recently spent $33.5 million against U.S. President Obama during the 2012 election, also splashed the Fraser Institutes latest report prominently on its site last month. The report appeared in a controversial $200,000 economic freedom television ad campaign by the Charles G. Koch Foundation this summer. The Fraser Institutes name appears several times in the televised ad, which references the Institutes previous reports. Closeup of a screenshot of the Charles G. Koch Foundation ad The 60-second ad argues that people have better civil rights, live longer and earn more money when government is small and private wealth is protected. It was launched as a counter-offensive against Obamas efforts to raise minimum wage, according to Forbes magazine. While the ad was only on the air for four weeks, and broadly seen as a bust, it was part of a broader charm offensive that has been ongoing for years. Economic Freedom is like a multi-faceted entity, consisting of academic reports, videos and related websites. The Fraser Institute runs a website called Free the World, referenced in the Charles Koch Foundations Economic Freedom site. The Fraser Institutes economic freedom report also shows up prominently in a Cato Institute documentary, also co-funded by the Kochs. Pelkey said that the Charles G. Koch Foundation has no influence or input into our research, and that the the money received annually from the Foundation represents less than 1.4 per cent of the Fraser Institutes total revenue. Nonetheless, the Fraser Institute has been a proponent of oil sands development and the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, both carrying enormous benefits to the Koch brothers who stand to gain an estimated $100 billion from the Keystone XL pipeline, according to a recent report by The International Forum on Globalization. The report says the Keystone XL is vital to the Kochs interests and claims Koch Industries owns 2 million or more potential acres in Alberta with tar sands exceeding Exxon, Chevron and ConocoPhillips combined. Graph from Billionaires Carbon Bomb report The report raises alarms over Keystone XLs carbon impact, and says the Kochs have made so-far successful efforts to counter-regulation of carbon as part of their broader agenda to advance an extremist ideology they call economic freedom. To prove that carbon regulation isnt necessary, the Kochs and other proponents of the Keystone XL pipeline need to convince governments that the environment would be better if industry was more free to regulate itself. The Kochs economic freedom campaign argues this point with supporting data from the Fraser Institute. In its longer video (below), the Fraser Institutes data is used to support the claim that less economically regulated countries take better care of the environment. With files from Heather Evens Screenshot from Economic Freedom and Quality of Life video Graph from Fraser Institutes 2009 Economic Freedom of the World report Economic Freedom in 60 Seconds https://youtube/watch?v=gpLfQvRmf2E Episode One: Economic Freedom & Quality of Life https://youtube/watch?v=v1U1Jzdghjk
Posted on: Tue, 04 Nov 2014 17:15:52 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015