I think we can all agree that it's reasonable to
ask Mitchell Bard to
support his citation, and you claim you have done this and he refuses to
do so. The citation of Mitchell Bard should carry the caveat that he has
been asked to support his claim and refused to do so. The date of the
estimate is also relevant and should be noted in the text. If these are
factual statements about which we can all agree, fine, otherwise there may
be a bit more haggling to do.
The date of the estimate is in the text. As for Bard's "refusal to support
his claim", aside from the fact that it is un-verified, I don't see exactly
why Bard (or any other person) would be obligated to respond to every
anonymous individual who e-mailed him on the internet demanding information,
or how his response (or lack thereof) would be relevant to a well-cited
reference.
Jay.