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| Founder | Lew Rockwell |
|---|---|
| Established | 1982; 43 years ago (1982) |
| Focus | Economics education,Austrian school of economics, andlibertarianism |
| Faculty | 350+[1] |
| Staff | 21 |
| Key people | Lew Rockwell (Chairman) Thomas DiLorenzo (President) Joseph Salerno (Editor Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics) |
| Budget | Revenue: $4,200,056 Expenses: $4,165,289 (FYE 2017)[2] |
| Location | ,, United States |
| Website | mises |
TheLudwig von Mises Institute for Austrian Economics, orMises Institute, is anonprofiteducational,research, andpublishing institution headquartered inAuburn, Alabama, that is a center forAustrian economic thought,right-wing libertarian thought, and thepaleolibertarian andanarcho-capitalist movements in the United States.[3][4][5][6] It is named after the economistLudwig von Mises (1881–1973) and promotes theMisesian version ofheterodox Austrian economics.[7][8][9]
The Mises Institute was founded in 1982 byLew Rockwell, chief of staff to Texas Republican CongressmanRon Paul. Early supporters of the institute included economistF. A. Hayek, writerHenry Hazlitt, economistMurray Rothbard,Ron Paul,[10] and libertarian coin dealerBurt Blumert.[10][11]
The Mises Institute was founded in 1982 byLew Rockwell, who was chief of staff to Texas Republican CongressmanRon Paul; previously Rockwell had been editor for the conservativeArlington House Publishers and had worked for the far-rightJohn Birch Society and the traditionalistHillsdale College.[12][11] Rockwell received the blessing of Margit von Mises during a meeting at theRussian Tea Room inNew York City, and she was named the first chairman of the board.[8] According to Rockwell, the institute was meant to promote the contributions of Ludwig von Mises, who he feared was being ignored by libertarian institutions financed byCharles Koch andDavid Koch. As recounted byJustin Raimondo, Rockwell said he received a phone call from George Pearson, of the Koch Foundation, who had said that Mises was too radical to name an organization after or promote.[13]
The original academic vice president of the Mises Institute wasMurray Rothbard, an influentialright-wing libertarian activist and writer who had studied under Ludwig von Mises; Rothbard was a leading figure in the development ofanarcho-capitalism and had also been aCato Institute co-founder.[14][15] Ron Paul, the Texas Republican congressman who would later run for president of the United States, was named a distinguished counselor[16] and assisted with early fundraising.[10] A timber company owner also contributed funds.[8]
Judge John V. Denson assisted in the Mises Institute becoming established at the campus ofAuburn University.[17] Auburn was already home to some Austrian economists, includingRoger Garrison. The Mises Institute was affiliated with the Auburn University Business School until 1998 when the institute established its own building across the street from campus.[18][non-primary source needed]
The Mises Institute aligned itself with what Rothbard called theOld Right, with "a defense of the gold standard, military isolationism, and 'traditional morality' and opposition to fiat money, supranational institutions, and 'forced integration'", according to academics Niklas Olsen and Quinn Slobodian.[4] It started theReview of Austrian Economics in 1986.[3]
Rothbard and Rockwell coined the name "paleolibertarians" for socially right-wing libertarians like themselves.[19][16] They forged a "paleo alliance" between paleolibertarians andpaleoconservatives in the form of theJohn Randolph Club in 1989, which allied the Mises Institute and the paleoconservativeRockford Institute.[3][4] In the early 1990s,Austrian economistSteven Horwitz called the Mises Institute "afascist fist in a libertarian glove."[20][undue weight? –discuss]
Figures at the Mises Institute were associated withneo-Confederate positions, and the institute held conferences aboutsecession, including one in 1995 inCharleston, South Carolina, where theAmerican Civil War had begun.[21][12][22][23] After Rothbard's death in 1996, his protegeHans-Hermann Hoppe became a leadinganarcho-capitalist figure of the institute and is known for his anti-democratic writing.[4][24]
In a 2000 report, theSouthern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) said that the Mises Institute had shown "recent interest inneo-Confederate themes" and that Rockwell, the institute's founder, had "argued that the Civil War 'transformed the American regime from a federalist system based on freedom to a centralized state that circumscribed liberty in the name of public order.'"[25]
Kyle Wingfield wrote a 2006 commentary inThe Wall Street Journal that theSouthern United States was a "natural home" for the institute, as "Southerners have always been distrustful of government," with the institute making the "Heart of Dixie a wellspring of sensible economic thinking."[26]
By 2011,The Economist said, the Austrian School economics championed by the Mises Institute had "won few mainstream converts". But it noted the Mises Institute's growing presence on the internet as well as its facilities in Auburn including an amphitheater, conservatory, recording studio and library.[8]
The political scientist George Hawley described the Mises Institute in 2016 as "the intellectual epicenter of the radical libertarian movement in the United States".[3] As of 2022, about 30 Mises Institutes had been created worldwide; some had died off but others, especially Brazil's (Instituto Rothbard), had gained influence.[27]
The institute describes its mission as to "promote teaching and research in the Austrian school of economics, and individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard."[28]
Its academic programs include Mises University (non-accredited), Rothbard Graduate Seminar, the Austrian Economics Research Conference, and a summer research fellowship program. In 2020, the Mises Institute began offering a graduate program.[29] It publishes theJournal of Libertarian Studies, which it took over in 2000 from theCenter for Libertarian Studies.[30]
The German Mises Institute (Ludwig von Mises Institut Deutschland e.V.) is a 2012 founded interest group and think tank of libertarian gold traders and investment advisors, which were associated with Swiss-based German billionaireAugust von Finck (1930–2021). Many gold dealers from the von Finck company Degussa Goldhandel are active on the board of the institute; they reject intergovernmentalfiscal policy and promote gold as a "safe currency".[citation needed] Von Finck was active in economic policy and criticized the EU.[31]
The Mises Institute describes itself aslibertarian, and as promoting theAustrian School of economics.[32] In 2003,Chip Berlet of the SPLC described it as "a major center promoting libertarian political theory and the Austrian School of free market economics", while also assessing that it favors a "Darwinian view of society in which elites are seen as natural and any intervention by the government on behalf of social justice is destructive".[33]
The Mises Institute favors the methodology ofMisesianpraxeology ("the logic of human action"),[28] which holds that economic science isdeductive rather thanempirical. Developed by Ludwig von Mises, following theMethodenstreit opined byCarl Menger, it opposes themathematical modeling andhypothesis-testing used to justify knowledge inneoclassical economics. Misesian economics is a form ofheterodox economics.[7][8][9] It is distinct from that of otherAustrian economists, including Hayek and those associated withGeorge Mason University.[34][35][36]
Although the Mises Institute is sometimes described as athink tank, it does not use that term to describe itself, as its stated goals do not includepolitical advocacy orpublic policy analysis.[37][38]
Thepaleolibertarian economic and cultural views of some of the Mises Institute's leading figures have been influential in thepresidential campaigns ofRon Paul, thepresidential campaign ofRand Paul, thepresidential campaigns ofDonald Trump, and thecandidacy of Joshua Smith for chair of theLibertarian Party.[5][39][6][40][41][16]
A 2014New York Times piece described the Mises Institute as part ofRand Paul's intellectual inheritance.[6]
Candice Jackson, who served as acting head of theU.S. Department of EducationOffice for Civil Rights during theTrump Administration, was previously a summer fellow at the Mises Institute and had collaborated on articles for Rockwell's website.[42]
Notable figures affiliated with the Mises Institute include:[43]
... the Ludwig von Mises institute is the intellectual epicenter of the radical libertarian movement in the United States ...
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)... the Mises Institute differed from Cato and Heritage through its self-avowed proximity to what Rothbard called the "Old Right" ...
Rockwell founded the Ludwig von Mises Institute, where he and libertarian economist Murray Rothbard promoted neo-Confederacy views and the Austrian school of economics that called for the dismantling of state intervention in market economies.
To the original 'anarchocapitalist' (Rothbard coined the term) [...].
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