Mises Institute – Wikipedia

Libertarian economic think tank

United States

The Ludwig von Mises Institute for Austrian Economics, or Mises Institute, is a libertarian nonprofit think tank located in Auburn, Alabama, United States.[2][3] It is named after Austrian School economist Ludwig von Mises (18811973).

It was founded in 1982 by Lew Rockwell, Burton Blumert, and Murray Rothbard,[4] following a split between the Cato Institute and Rothbard, who had been one of the founders of the Cato Institute.[non-primary source needed][5] It was funded by Ron Paul.[3]

The Ludwig von Mises Institute was founded in 1982 by Lew Rockwell. Rockwell, who had previously served as editor for Arlington House Publishers, received the blessing of Margit von Mises during a meeting at the Russian Tea Room in New York City, and she was named the first chairman of the board.[6][7][self-published source?] Early supporters of the Institute included F.A. Hayek, Henry Hazlitt, Murray Rothbard, Ron Paul, and Burt Blumert.[4][non-primary source needed] According to Rockwell, the motivation of the institute was to promote the specific contributions of Ludwig von Mises, who he feared was being ignored by libertarian institutions financed by Charles Koch and David Koch. As recounted by Justin 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.[8]

Rothbard served as the original academic vice president of the institute. Paul agreed to become distinguished counselor and assisted with early fundraising.[4][non-primary source needed]

Judge John V. Denson assisted in the Mises Institute becoming established at the campus of Auburn University.[9] Auburn was already home to some Austrian economists, including Roger 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.[10][non-primary source needed]

Kyle Wingfield wrote a 2006 commentary in The Wall Street Journal that the Southern 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."[5]

Its academic programs include Mises University, Rothbard Graduate Seminar, the Austrian Economics Research Conference, and a summer research fellowship program. In 2020, the Mises Institute began offering a graduate program.[11] It has led to the creation of spin-off organizations around the world, including Brazil,[12][bettersourceneeded] Germany,[13] South Korea,[14][bettersourceneeded] and Turkey.[15][non-primary source needed]

A defining philosophy of the institute is Misesian praxeology ('the logic of human action'), which holds that economic science is deductive rather than empirical. Developed by Ludwig von Mises, following the Methodenstreit opined by Carl Menger, it opposes the mathematical modeling and hypothesis-testing used to justify knowledge in neoclassical economics. Misesian economics is a form of heterodox economics.[16] This emphasis on Misesian methodology is distinct from other scholars in the Austrian tradition, including Hayek and those associated with George Mason University.[17]

The Mises Institute has been criticized by some libertarians for the paleolibertarian and right-wing cultural views of some of its leading figures, on topics such as race, immigration, and the presidential campaigns of Donald Trump.[18][19][20][21]

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Rockwell and Rothbard embraced racial and class resentments to build a coalition with populist paleoconservatives.[18] This rhetoric appeared at the time in newsletters for Ron Paul that Rockwell was later identified as writing, including statements against black people and gay people that later became controversies in Paul's congressional and presidential campaigns.[18][3] Separately, Rothbard's writing opposed "multiculturalists" and "the entire panoply of feminism, egalitarianism".[3]

A 2000 report by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) categorized the Mises Institute as Neo-Confederate, "devoted to a radical libertarian view of government and economics."[22] In 2003, Chip Berlet of the SPLC described the institute as "a major center promoting libertarian political theory and the Austrian School of free market economics", noted Rothbard's disgust with child labor laws, and wrote that other institute scholars held anti-immigrant views.[23]

When a New York Times reporter requested a tour of the institute in 2014, Rockwell asked him to leave, saying he was "part of the regime."[3]

Candice Jackson, who served as acting head of the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights during the Trump Administration, was previously a summer fellow at the Mises Institute.[24]

The Mises Institute makes available a large number of books, journal articles, and other writings online, and archives various writings on its website. Its Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics discusses Austrian economics. It published the Journal of Libertarian Studies from 1977 to 2008.[citation needed]

Notable figures affiliated with the Mises Institute include:[25][non-primary source needed]

Coordinates: 323624N 852929W / 32.60664N 85.49128W / 32.60664; -85.49128

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Mises Institute - Wikipedia