This is an on-going story, one which DG and I (Pen) became aware of about a year ago.
DG and I have researched the conduct of the people involved in the Minnesota Affinity Scam/Ponzi Scheme organized by admitted criminal Trevor Cook. Our involvement/interest started with the civil case brought by a group of several dozen conservatives who listened to various radio programs throughout the country, promoting investment schemes using currency arbitrage.
The schemes were promoted by Pat Kiley, and operated by Trevor Cook and numerous others named in court documents. David Strom is not implicated in any of those schemes, but his association with two of the named defendants, Chris Pettengill and Gerald Durand, piqued our interest. This series on David Strom relates to our Affinity Scam series through that connection.
In this series, we will go into Strom's background, his involvement with Pettengil and Durand, his conduct after it became apparent there might be a problem with them, and finally we'll conclude with a summary of where this points.
Part I focuses on David Strom the public figure.
David Strom is a prominent political figure among the far-right conservatives in Minnesota. For several years, he headed a pseudo-grass-roots anti-tax group called the “The Minnesota Tax-Payers League" It is a heavily corporate / pro-wealthy media outlet. It consist of non-disclosed members, with a closely held list of major donors. Strom was one of the public faces speaking for the behind the scenes big money. The right wails bitterly about George Soros making small disclosed contributions to the Minnesota Independent “news blog”. While not immediately provable, based on statements made by outlets like Minnesota Monitor when contrasted against the vast media purchases made by the Tax Payors League, it appears the Soros contributions were insignificant compared to the Tax-Payers League and it’s shadowy set of confidential donors.
Then David Strom moved on, first as President, and then Senior Policy Fellow at the equally right wing Minnesota Free Market Institute. During that period, he bought time on the local AM Salem broadcasting station, "WWTC - the Patriot" for his own radio show where he promoted the positions of the right generally, and specifically the Tax Payers League and the Free Market Institute, each of which had been his sponsors at different times. In the last year of his radio show, he sought new sponsors, hooking up with Pettengill and Durand who also had a program on another local Salem AM station, KYCR, alternately promoting the same viewpoint of his previous sponsors, whom he featured as regular guests, and the investment schemes of Durand and Pettengill who were in fact his new sponsors, although not identified as such. Strom was also a featured speaker and host at the Durand / Pettengill investment seminars he helped advertise.
He is now the Research Director for the Emmer gubernatorial campaign, and remains a fellow of the Claremont Institute, an extremely right wing think-tank. Strom is known for holding extremely conservative views and has been called an ‘intemperate voice’ on the right.
David Strom has a master’s degree in Political Science, and has served as an instructor in political philosophy at various colleges and universities. By his own admission during an interview with DG, myself, and Dan Browning, the Business Editor at the Minneapolis Star Tribune, he is definitely “not any sort of financial or economics expert". His words, not ours. He confessed to knowing next to nothing on the topics of investments, stocks, bonds, or commodities trading. Strom admitted he has never worked in the private sector. Outside of heading the Tax Payers League as essentially a figurehead for confidential interests, he admits he has no practical, real-world economic or financial sector experience.
The Tax Payers League is a Pro-Republican organization which claims to be nonpartisan. The Tax Payers League, both during Mr. Strom’s leadership and after, exclusively backed positions on policy which were tightly aligned with Republican platform positions. They bought billboard and airtime to support pro-Republican positions. More often they, bought airtime and billboards to attack Democrats, protecting Republican candidates from being the ones to be negative. They purchased billboards that read “Liberalism 101 – tax, tax, tax, spend, spend, spend.” as an example. Claims to be non-partisan are specious. The Tax Payers League has never paid for a billboard which read, “Conservatism 101 – borrow, borrow, borrow, spend, spend, spend” or anything similarly critical in any way that could be construed as bi-partisan . The League, under Mr. Strom and now, is another sock-puppet/faux independent group, like “The Liberty Foundation” or “The Cato Institute” or a raft of others which get money from powerful and affluent interests, and then pretend to be local and populist advocates for pro-Republican positions
The League is a very powerful institution in Minnesota because it has a great deal of money to buy air-time and billboards and other sources to get out their message. The big money behind it has great influence over the more conservative elements of the Republican faithful in the state. If David Strom called, and you were a Republican politician in Minnesota, I suspect strongly you picked up the phone. People like Tim Pawlenty, Michele Bachmann, and Norm Coleman know him. It is no accident that Emmer has him on his campaign staff, but it is surprising that he is supposed to be doing research.
While not party to the original Cook-Kiley et al (alleged) Affinity Scam, David Strom hosted a radio show sponsored by two people alleged to be key members of the original scam, Gerald Durand and Chris Pettengill. Given his protestations that he did no more than a superficial five-minute google search for the credentials or activities of Gerald Durand and Chris Pettengill, at any time before, during, or after news reached him from the media of this Affinity Scam, while continuing to sell his name and his radio show to them, and while representing that the show was sponsored by an effectively defunct non-profit foundation, that he is now employed with the title of Research Director is beyond funny.
While I am NOT, and I repeat NOT defending Mr. Strom by any means, one cannot achieve a Master's degree in any field without doing some research. Generally, (but not always) a master's program requires a thesis, which involves original research. (Some universities offer programs without a thesis, but this is more common in the Executive MBA programs, etc)
ReplyDeleteNow, that being said, Mr. Strom's inability or incompetence in research as far as Messrs Durant and Peggengil is laughable, and I agree, Mr. Strom being employed as a "researcher" by a political campaign shows how incompetent the politician is, or will be if elected.
ToE, I don't know what Mr. Strom did or did not do for his masters degree. I did however request, at the beginning of the Afinity Scam series, my local library to assist me in discovering the topic of any master's thesis - and a copy of it, if possible. The library contacted the librarians where Strom earned his masters, and were told they had no record of Strom writing a thesis there. Nor could the research librarians find a copy of any such research anywhere else.
ReplyDeleteI was told that it is usual, but not absolute, for a masters thesis to be in the library of the academic institution where it was earned.
It is also not a requisite apparently for a thesis to be written. What other form of research Strom may have done, if any, I haven't found it -- and as you know, I'm pretty good at digging out obscure information.
I can't find any expert or research that Strom has done in the area of economics and political science policy. But it is possible, although unlikely, that I missed something.
So far as I can tell, research is not Strom's forte.
I'm no expert on Masters Degrees, but I believe the research papers are referred to as Capstones not thesis/theses(?).
ReplyDeleteAs well, and perhaps in part consequently, they are not necessarily published, in fact they may be entirely private. However, I don't have any question of his bona fides - call me guilible.
That said, Mr. Strom admitted to having done one google search, that's all. This from a guy who claimed that the "buyer should beware" and presented/presents himself as a savvy expert in the area of personal business. He takes up the gauntlet (willingly) of blaming others for being fools when getting burned by a company or by a system - but seemingly throws his hands in the air and says "not MY fault" when his guests are found to have had what appear to be prior unethical dealings with clients previously selling the same product he also appears to have allowed them to sell while on his show.
George Bush used to be mocked as being much like Alfred E. Nueman - and it seems the "what me worry" crowd has a lot of members when therre is money to be made on the backs of decent (if too trusting) hardworking Americans.
I'm sure that my research librarians, and the librarians where Strom received his masters are aware of the assorted terminologies. They could find no record of his research, never mind a paper of any kind, by Strom. I had expressed n interest in even learning the topic if I couldn't get a copy of the work itself.
ReplyDeleteThis doesn't conclusively prove anything, but it suggests he did not do rsearch as a primary part of his degree.
It certainly doesn't change that research does not appear to be his greatest strength.
It is not always requisite for a Master's Thesis to be written. Pen is right, that it is sometimes called capstone, although that term has fallen into disfavor. A master's thesis is usually written by those who intend to pursue academic and/or higher education careers, and those who intend to continue to try and earn a PhD or other more advanced degree.
ReplyDeletePlease do not take my comments above as criticizing the post: I found it to be informative and well written.
I was lazy, here's the quote that addresses the topic of master's degrees from Wikipedia (I said I was being lazy)
ReplyDelete"The two most common types of master's degrees are the Master of Arts (M.A.) and Master of Science (M.S. or M.Sc.); these may be course-based, research-based, or a mixture of the two."
My impression, which is not conclusive fact, is that Mr. Strom earned his masters through the course-work method. It is what I was told by the librarians doing the search for and with me.