Foundation for Economic Education (FEE)
Background
The Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) is a non-profit free market organization based in Irvington, New York, and Atlanta, Georgia.
Founded in 1946 by Leonard E. Read, FEE describes itself as “one of the oldest free-market organizations in the United States,” and was one of the first think tanks designed specifically to promote, research and promulgate free market and libertarian ideas.
For Read, who was the general manager of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, “the free-enterprise philosophy had already become almost a religion.” The group’s officers included Read as president, Henry Hazlitt as vice-president, and David Goodrich, chairman of company B.F. Goodrich chairman, as chairman. [2]
The organization was formed to advance what it describes as “the freedom philosophy,” which includes “the sanctity of private property, individual liberty, the rule of law, the free market, and the moral superiority of individual choice and responsibility over coercion.” FEE‘s mission is to “to inspire, educate and connect future leaders with the economic, ethical and legal principles of a free society.” [1]
FEE publishes a libertarian publication titled The Freeman: Ideas on Liberty which promotes global warming skepticism.
Climate change skeptic Donald J. Boudreaux was president of FEE from 1997 to 2001. The late David Padden, founder of the Heartland Institute, has helped fund FEE among numerous other libertarian organizations. [3]
Stance on Climate Change
“Given the uncertain prospects for drastic climate change in the immediate future and considering the potential for crippling costs of aggressive emissions-abatement policies, reasoned concern and continued study appear to be the responsible courses of action.” [4]
“Cost-benefit analysis (CBA) implies we should do very little to prevent climate change. Instead, we should create wealth. Expanding the productive capacity of the economy will compensate future generations better than reductions in GHG will. A richer world in 2100, after all, will be able to afford to do things like relocating people affected by rising sea levels and constructing new port facilities and seawalls.” [5]
“In the most recent 5,000-year period, there have been numerous periods of distinct global warming and global cooling. However, the overall long-term climatic trend indicates that the earth has been getting cooler, not warmer.” [6]
“CO2 generally provides great benefits for the earth and mankind, […] These benefits are in addition to those that are likely to occur in the event that warming actually takes place. Increased temperatures, especially those that occur overnight, will delay the first frost and prolong growing seasons, further expanding crop yields.” [7]
“The dirty little secret behind nearly all the alarmists’ policy proposals is that they will not have any noticeable impact on the climate.” [8]
Funding
According to its website, FEE is supported “solely by contributions from private individuals, foundations, and businesses and by the sales of its publications.” [9]
Conservative Transparency breaks down FEE‘s funding as follows. Note that not all individual values have been verified by DeSmog. [10]
View the attached spreadsheet for details on Foundation for Economic Education funding by year (.xlsx).
| Donor | Total |
| Richard Seth Staley Educational Foundation | $1,782,929 |
| Donors Capital Fund | $950,000 |
| Dunn’s Foundation for the Advancement of Right Thinking | $638,000 |
| Pierre F. and Enid Goodrich Foundation | $626,667 |
| The Rodney Fund | $621,600 |
| DonorsTrust | $544,120 |
| Lowndes Foundation | $393,909 |
| Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation | $304,267 |
| National Christian Charitable Foundation | $250,000 |
| Sarah Scaife Foundation | $196,500 |
| Chase Foundation of Virginia | $186,150 |
| Holman Foundation | $175,000 |
| Lovett and Ruth Peters Foundation | $145,000 |
| John Templeton Foundation | $122,965 |
| Earhart Foundation | $117,000 |
| Schwab Charitable Fund | $116,750 |
| The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation | $115,000 |
| Adolph Coors Foundation | $80,000 |
| The Roe Foundation | $67,500 |
| Charles Koch Institute | $63,400 |
| Armstrong Foundation | $60,000 |
| JM Foundation | $45,000 |
| The Carthage Foundation | $35,000 |
| Herrick Foundation | $25,000 |
| George Edward Durell Foundation | $25,000 |
| Stiles-Nicholson Foundation | $23,500 |
| John M. Olin Foundation | $22,500 |
| Atlas Economic Research Foundation | $21,000 |
| F.M. Kirby Foundation | $20,000 |
| Philip M. McKenna Foundation | $20,000 |
| Chiavacci Family Foundation | $18,000 |
| John William Pope Foundation | $13,000 |
| John P and Kathryn G Evans Foundation | $8,000 |
| Arthur N. Rupe Foundation | $5,000 |
| The Howell Foundation | $5,000 |
| Hickory Foundation | $3,500 |
| Woodhouse Family Foundation | $2,500 |
| National Philanthropic Trust | $1,500 |
| Fund for American Studies | $1,000 |
| Charles and Ann Johnson Foundation | $250 |
| Ruth & Lovett Peters Foundation | $250 |
| Grand Total | $7,851,757 |
Koch Funding
According to Greenpeace USA, FEE has received at least $353,167 from Koch foundations between 2000 and 2017. Including archived data from the Conservative Transparency project, that total jumps to $367,667: [11]
| Year | Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation | Charles Koch Institute | Grand Total |
| 1989 | $1,000 | $1,000 | |
| 1991 | $1,000 | $1,000 | |
| 1995 | $1,000 | $1,000 | |
| 1996 | $4,000 | $4,000 | |
| 1997 | $2,500 | $2,500 | |
| 1999 | $5,000 | $5,000 | |
| 2000 | $8,000 | $8,000 | |
| 2009 | $15,767 | $15,767 | |
| 2010 | $7,000 | $7,000 | |
| 2014 | $31,000 | $27,500 | $58,500 |
| 2017 | $228,000 | $228,000 | |
| 2016 | $7,500 | $7,500 | |
| 2015 | $28,400 | $28,400 | |
| Grand Total | $304,267 | $63,400 | $367,667 |
990 Forms
Key People
Staff
As of April 2013, Staff included: [12]
- Lawrence W. Reed — President
- Carl Oberg — Executive Director
- Jonathan Moody — Director of Development
- Max Borders — Director of Content
- Richard Lorenc — Director of Programs and Alumni Relations
- Michael Nolan — Managing Editor, the Freeman & TheFreemanOnline.org
- Tsvetelin Tsonevski — director of Academic Affairs
- Chuck Grimmett — Director of Web Media
- Sara Walcott — High School Programs Coordinator
- Todd Hollenbeck — College Programs Coordinator
As of March 2012, the following staff were listed on FEE‘s website:
- Lawrence W. Reed — President.
- Carl Oberg — Executive Director.
- Linda Newton — Director of Human Resource & Finance.
- Sheldon Richman — Editor, The Freeman & TheFreemanOnline.org.
- Margaret E. Poteet — Director of Development.
- Michael Nolan — Managing Editor, The Freeman & TheFreemanOnline.org.
- Tsvetelin Tsonevski — Director of Academic Affairs.
- Anna Cuthrell — Director of Programs and Alumni Relations.
- Aaron Ensley — Director of K-12 Education Outreach.
- Brandon Wasicsko — Assistant Director of Programs.
- Chuck Grimmett — Director of Web Media.
Previous:
- Richard B. Ebeling — Former President
- Mark Skousen — President 2001-2002
Initial Officers
- David M. Goodrich — Chairman (also Chairman of the B.F. Goodrich Company)
- Leonard Read — President
- Henry Hazlitt — Vice President
- Fred R. Fairchild — Secretary; Professor of economics at Yale University
- Claude Robinson — Treasurer; President of the Opinion Research Institute
Faculty
As of March 2012, FEE listed the following among their “Faculty”:
- Doug Bandow — Senior fellow at the Cato Institute.
- Brad Birzer
- Peter Boettke — Senior Research Fellow, Mercatus Center.
- Brian Brenberg — Grants manager at the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation.
- Bill Butos
- Anthony Carilli — Member, Board of Scholars, Virginia Institute of Public Policy.
- Christopher Coyne — Professor of Economics, Mercatus Center, GMU.
- Paul Cwik
- Bob Ewing
- Burt Folsom — Senior Fellow in economic education, Mackinac Center.
- Roger Garrison
- Mark Hendrickson
- Steven Horwitz — Professor of Economics at St. Lawrence University, Senior Fellow, Frasier Institute
- Israel Kirzner
- Peter Leeson — Member, board of scholars, Virginia Institute for Public Policy.
- Edward J. López — Former President, Association of Private Enterprise Education.
- Robert McNamara — Staff attorney, Institute for Justice.
- Matthew Mitchell — Research Fellow, Mercatus Center.
- Isaac Morehouse — Past director, Students for a Free Economy, Mercatus Center.
- Ivan Pongracic
- Benjamin Powell — Senior economist, Beacon Hill Institute. Research Fellow, Independent Institute.
- Jeff Proctor — Member, Market-Based Management® team, Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation.
- Lawrence W. Reed — President, FEE.
- Gregory Rehmke — FEE program consultant.
- Mario Rizzo
- Bruce Rottman
- Frederic Sautet — Economist, Mercatus Center, George Mason University.
- Frank Stephenson
- Nikolai Wenzel — Member of the Association of Private Enterprise Education. Former Director of Academic Program for the Atlas Economic Research Foundation.
- Lawrence White — Professor of Economics, George Mason University.
Trustees
According to 990 tax forms last filed by FEE in 2010 (PDF), trustees have included: [13]
- Lawrence Reed — President
- Lee Currie — Executive Director
- Walter Lecroy — Vice Chairman
- Wayne Olson —Chairman
- Roger Ream — Secretary
- Edward Kopko
- Frayda Levy — Also on Board of Directors for Americans for Prosperity.
- Don Smith
- Jeffrey Giesea
- William Dunn
- Ethelmae Humphreys — Also Board Member at the Cato Institute.
- Harry Langenberg
- Kris Alan Mauren — Founder, Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty.
As of April, 2013: [14]
- Wayne Olson — Chairman
- Harry H. Langenberg — Vice Chairman
- Roger R. Ream — Secretary
- Jeff Giesea — Treasurer
- Don Smith
- Ethelmae Humphreys
- Michael S. Yashko
- Peter Boettke
- Kris Alan Mauren
- Harold (Jay) Bowen, III
- Stephen (Steve) R. Hennessy
- Edward M. Kopko
- Ingrid A. Gregg
Board of Scholars [15]
Distinguished Scholars
- Peter J. Boettke
- Burt Folsom
- Steven Horwitz
- Israel Kirzner
Members
- Scott Beaulier
- Brad Birzer
- Art Carden
- Anthony Carilli
- Christopher Coyne
- Sanford Ikeda
- Robert Higgs
- Peter Leeson
- Edward Lopez
- Adam Martin
- Ivan Pongracic Jr.
- Benjamin Powell
- Edward Stringham
- Nikolai G. Wenzel
- Lawrence H. White
- Claudia R. Williamson
Actions
Ongoing
Through its publication, The Freeman, FEE regularly publishes articles questioning the existence of man-made climate change and opposing the implementation of any sort of emissions reductions policy. A number of its articles are published by prominent climate change skeptics, and use inflamatory language such as “alarmists” to refer to those who accept the mainstream global warming science.
The following are sample publications in The Freeman relating to climate:
- Daniel Sutter. “Climate Consensus: Do Little for Now,” December 27, 2012.
- Roy Cordato. “ Climate Confusion: How Global Warming Hysteria Leads to Bad Science, Pandering Politicians, and Misguided Policies that Hurt the Poor,” May 21, 2009.
- Max Borders. “ Climate Media, Media Climate, and Cost-Benefit Analysis,” December 27, 2012.
- Tim Stonesifer. “Climate of Extremes: Global Warming Science They Don’t Want You to Know,” February 24, 2010.
- “A History of Climate Agenda,” February 11, 2011.
- Max Borders. “Climate Change: What if They’re Right?”, January 1, 2007.
- Aubrey Drewry. “Climate-Change Worries in the Eighteenth Century,” July 1, 1998.
- Mike van Winkle. “100 Reasons Why Climate Change is Natural,” December 16, 2009.
- J. David Bethel. “Global Warming: Not an Immediate Problem,” December 1, 1996.
- Michael Heberling. “Global Warming Revisited”, April 24, 2009.
- Roy Cordato. “A Carbon Tax Will Fix Global Warming? It Just Aint So!,” May 1, 2007.
- Christopher Lingle. “Global Warming: Extreme Weather or Extreme Prejudice?”, November 1, 2003.
- “Bonner Cohen. The Satanic Gases: Clearing the Air about Global Warming by Patrick J. Michaels and Robert C. Balling,” Cato Institute, 2000.
- Michael Heberling.”Unprecedented Global Warming?”, May 1, 2001.
- Jonathan Adler. “Global Warming: Hot Problem or Hot Air?”, April 1, 1998.
- Doug Bandow. “Global Politics, Political Warming,” January 1, 1998.
- John Stossel. “Don’t Look to Government to Cool Down the Planet”, January 1, 2008.
- Ben Bolch. “Hot Talk, Cold Science: Global Warming’s Unfinished Debate,” July 1, 1998.
- Roy Cordato. “Should There Be a Carbon Subsidy?”, July 1, 1998.
- “How a Free Society Could Solve Global Warming,” October 1, 2007.
- Jarret B. Wollstein. “Nightmare in Green:The Authoritarian Environmental Movement Wants to Destroy Industrial Civilization,” September 1, 1998.
- Robert James Bidinotto. “Environmentalism: Freedoms Foe for the 90s,” November 1, 1990.
September 2004
The Freeman published an article that attempted to rebut a previous study published in Nature linking global warming to increased extinction rates.
The FEE article points to a previous study co-produced by the Marshall Institute with the Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change as refutation. Both of these organizations have known connections to oil industry funding.
According to the Freeman article, “the threat of climbing temperatures alone need not be a cause for alarm … global temperature averages always change.” [16]
Foundation for Economic Education Contact & Address
As of May 23, 2016 the main contact address was: [20]
1819 Peachtree Road NE, Suite 300
Atlanta, GA 30309
USAMain Line: (404) 554-9980
Toll Free: (800) 960-4333
Fax: (404) 393-3142
Related Organizations
- The Freeman: Ideas on Liberty, also The Freeman Online.
Social Media
- @feeonline on Twitter.
- “FEE” on Facebook.
- “Foundation for Economic Education” on LinkedIn.
Resources
- “About,” Foundation for Economic Education. Accessed April, 2013.
- “The Freeman: Ideas on Liberty – March 1984,” Vol. 34, No. 3. Archived October 6, 2008.
- “David H. Padden, R.I.P.,” Anniversary Benefit 2011 from the Heartland Institute, October, 2011.
- J. David Bethel. “Global Warming: Not an Immediate Problem,” The Freeman, Vol. 46, Issue 12 (December, 1996).
- Daniel Sutter. “Climate Consensus: Do Little for Now,” The Freeman, December 27, 2012.
- Michael Heberling. “Unprecedented Global Warming?”, The Freeman, May 1, 2001.
- Roy Cordato. “Should There Be a Carbon Subsidy?”, The Freeman, July 1, 1998.
- Roy E. Cordato. “A Carbon Tax Will Fix Global Warming? It Just Ain’t So!” (PDF), The Freeman, May 2007.
- “A Tradition of Freedom,” Foundation for Economic Education. Accessed March 26, 2012.
- “Foundation for Economic Education,” Conservative Transparency. Accessed May 25, 2017.
- “Foundation for Economic Education (FEE): Koch Industries Climate Denial Front Group,” Greenpeace USA. Accessed May 25, 2017. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/mCFy1
- “Staff,” FEE. Accessed April 20, 2013.
- “Form 990: Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax: FOUNDATION FOR ECONOMIC EDUCATION, INC – 2010” (PDF), Department of the Treasury, Internal Revenue Service, March 5, 2012. Retrieved from DocumentCloud.
- “Board of Trustees,” FEE. Archived May 2, 2013.
- “Board of Scholars,” FEE. Archived May 9, 2013.
- Lingle, Christopher, “Higher CO2, More Global Warming, and Less Extinction?“ The Freeman Online, Vol. 54, Issue 7, September 2004.
- “Foundation for Economic Education,” SourceWatch Profile.
- “Foundation for Economic Education,” Wikipedia entry.
- “Koch Industries: Still Funding Climate Denial 2011 Update” (PDF), Greenpeace, April 2011.
- “Contact,” Foundation for Economic Education. Archived May 23, 2016. WebCite URL: http://www.webcitation.org/6hjTfzamx
