...Bottom line: The industry's shareholders long ago were reduced to the role of cutouts, allowed to keep collecting a small piece of the pie so politicians can go on posing as scourges of "Big Tobacco" even as government has become, effectively, the "beneficial owner" of the major tobacco companies.... New York State has a court fight on its hands over its punitive exactions from such companies, which were not party to any lawsuit and never did anything wrong. Georgia has cracked down too, whacking innocent brands for benefit of local employer Brown & Williamson. And the state of Wisconsin even...
