[PEN-L:33129] Re: Re: Re: Fw: economists and free riding behavior...

["Ian Murray" <seamus2001@xxxxxxxxx>]

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Michael Perelman" <michael@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>


> =========================
>
> Even better is the following gem:
>
> "Does economics make citizens corrupt"
> Bjorn Frank & Gunther Schulze
> Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization
> Vol. 43 (2000) p 101-113
>

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Foster used past lover to infiltrate the Blair circle

Antony Barnett
Sunday December 15, 2002
The Observer

New details have emerged of how Peter Foster used an American economics
professor who had been his lover to wheedle his way into Cherie Blair's
inner circle.

The revelations come amid reports that the Australian conman is trying
to sell his story to the media and growing evidence that Foster has
cynically targeted the Blairs since early this year and was willing to
use any contact to get close to them.

The Observer has discovered that Foster used his relationship with
ex-girlfriend Leah Marcal to get close to the Prime Minister's wife.

Foster met Marcal - a friend of Cherie's lifestyle guru, Carole Caplin -
in the summer of 2001. Marcal, a professor of economics at California
State University, was in Fiji advising the island's New Labour Party in
the general elections. She and Foster became lovers and Foster donated
more than £50,000 to the party. When it emerged that the convicted
fraudster had helped to fund New Labour, it became a major political
scandal.

Business associates of Foster claim that when he came to London this
spring he bragged about using Marcal to get to the Blairs.

According to Mike Carroll, who was to be Foster's sales director, the
Australian conman told him Marcal knew Caplin. Carroll told The Observer
: 'It was clear he was targeting the Blairs from the start.'

These further disclosures over Foster's attempts to inveigle his way
into the inner circle of the Prime Minister's wife, come as the
convicted conman warned that he had 'plenty of ammunition' to aim at
Downing Street. It is expected he will make a statement tomorrow
morning.

It is also believed that Caplin has been offered a 'name your price'
deal for her story by Associated Newspapers, publisher of the Daily Mail
and the Mail on Sunday, which have taken the lead attacking Cherie Blair
for her links with Foster.

News International, publisher of the Sun, the Times, the News of the
World and the Sunday Times, has also offered six-figure sums for a
Caplin interview.

According to her media adviser, Ian Monk, however: 'There are no
circumstances in which Carole will sell or tell any story that will
damage her relationship with the Blairs.' Monk has been in regular
contact with Alastair Campbell, Blair's director of strategic
communications, to try and 'close the story down'.

Downing Street sources said that they were hopeful that the story will
cease to be front page news once Foster has made his statement, although
some believe that reports of Cherie's involvement with the convicted
fraudster could continue until Christmas.

Last night the Prime Minister's official spokesman dismissed claims that
the Blairs' blind trust which was used to buy two flats in Bristol for
Euan Blair was based in an off-shore tax haven. 'It is UK-based,' the
spokesman said.