Don't ask the sociologists, the demographers, the advertising agencies, and certainly not the tobacco companies.
For decades, we now know from their own documents, the tobacco companies targeted children.
"We have no interest in putting the tobacco companies out of business, " Clinton said.
White House officials had, indeed, brokered last year's settlement between the attorneys general and the tobacco companies.
The tobacco companies have long argued that their advertising is aimed purely at encouraging smokers to switch brands.
Last year's settlement was reached by the tobacco companies and the attorneys general of a majority of the states.
The tobacco companies warned that paying it might put them out of business.
But what if juries continue to sock the tobacco companies with punitive damages, so that they collectively exceed constitutional limits?
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Some of the pharmaceutical companies, some of the energy companies, some of the tobacco companies are dirt cheap, says Olney.
There doesn't seem much doubt that the tobacco companies deceived the public - they've already lost a string of cases.
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While fighting adverse publicity, the tobacco companies also sought to expand their profits in other nefarious ways, says the government.
Together, let's reaffirm the FDA's authority to protect children from tobacco, hold the tobacco companies accountable, and protect tobacco farmers.
Since McCain had barred the tobacco companies from the negotiations, Moore and the other AGs found themselves serving as reluctant surrogates.
In effect, the lawyers are becoming joint business partners with the states and the tobacco companies in levying a tax on smokers.
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Bliley has asked that the tobacco companies provide the documents on CD-ROM.
The tobacco companies know that prospect alone won't win them much sympathy.
But others, Yach among them, thought the tactics that had worked with the tobacco companies would fail if tried on the food industry.
It threw out technical arguments by the tobacco companies that the government was trying to "acquire" their intellectual property rights by removing logos.
That's true to the extent that the tobacco companies would have to voluntarily end the advertising that entices American youth to start smoking.
The tobacco companies, once among the mightiest lobbyists in Washington, seem to have few friends left in either of America's two main political parties.
Much of it would go to paying off lawsuits against the tobacco companies, for anti-smoking programs and funding research to cure the diseases it causes.
To get the dough, the tobacco companies raised cigarette prices substantially.
Congress not only added considerably to the cost, but stripped away the protection from future class action lawsuits the tobacco companies thought they were getting.
The money going to the lawyers was clearly part of the overall amount that the tobacco companies were willing to pay to settle the case.
ECONOMIST: Lawyers and their fees: Knights in golden armour | The
But that's not why the tobacco companies were fuming this week.
The reaction of the tobacco companies has also been suspiciously muted.
ECONOMIST: Lawyers and their fees: Knights in golden armour | The
While the courts are at it, they should take a similar knife to the original settlement in the case of the states versus the tobacco companies.
The new proposed restrictions on the tobacco companies appear odd when compared to America's stance on the global anti-tobacco treaty being sought by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
The tobacco companies are accused of complicity in all this.
And the tobacco companies have other things to worry about.
ECONOMIST: Lawyers and their fees: Knights in golden armour | The
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