Mises Institute

{{further|Austrian economics#Split among contemporary Austrians}}

File:Blumert Rockwell Gordon Rothbard.jpg, Lew Rockwell, David Gordon, and Murray Rothbard]]

The Mises Institute was founded in 1982 by Lew Rockwell, who was chief of staff to Texas Republican Congressman Ron Paul; previously Rockwell had been editor for the conservative Arlington House Publishers and had worked for the far-right John Birch Society and the traditionalist Hillsdale College.{{Cite book |last=Dallek |first=Matthew |title=Birchers: How the John Birch Society Radicalized the American Right |publisher=Basic Books  |year=2023 |location=United States  |quote=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.}} Rockwell 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.{{cite news |date=December 31, 2011 |title=Heterodox economics: Marginal revolutionaries |newspaper=The Economist |url=https://www.economist.com/node/21542174 |url-status=live |access-date=February 22, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120222004727/http://www.economist.com/node/21542174 |archive-date=February 22, 2012}} 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 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.{{cite book |last=Raimondo |first=Justin |title=Enemy of the State: The Biography of Murray Rothbard |date=2000 |publisher=Prometheus}}

The original academic vice president of the Mises Institute was Murray Rothbard, an influential right-wing libertarian activist and writer who had studied under Ludwig von Mises; Rothbard was a leading figure in the development of anarcho-capitalism and had also been a Cato Institute co-founder.{{cite book |last=Leeson |first=Robert |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_pQ4DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA180 |title=Hayek: A Collaborative Biography, Part IX: The Divine Right of the 'Free' Market |publisher=Springer |year=2017 |isbn=978-3-319-60708-5 |pages=180 |quote=To the original 'anarchocapitalist' (Rothbard coined the term) [...].}}{{Cite journal |last=Jensen |first=Jacob |date=April 2022 |title=Repurposing Mises: Murray Rothbard and the Birth of Anarchocapitalism |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/855169 |journal=Journal of the History of Ideas |language=en |volume=83 |issue=2 |pages=315–332 |doi=10.1353/jhi.2022.0015 |pmid=35603616 |s2cid=248985277 |issn=1086-3222}} Ron Paul, the Texas Republican congressman who would later run for president of the United States, was named a distinguished counselor{{Cite magazine |last=Zengerle |first=Jason |date=2010-06-10 |title=Paleo Wacko |url=https://newrepublic.com/article/75252/paleo-wacko |magazine=The New Republic |issn=0028-6583 |access-date=2023-09-02}} and assisted with early fundraising. A timber company owner also contributed funds.

Judge John V. Denson assisted in the Mises Institute becoming established at the campus of Auburn University.{{cite web |url=https://mises.org/library/why-mises-institute-auburn |title=Why the Mises Institute Is in Auburn |date=October 9, 2018 |website=Mises Institute |access-date=November 23, 2021 |archive-date=October 10, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181010081024/https://mises.org/library/why-mises-institute-auburn |url-status=live }} 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.{{cite web |url=https://mises.org/library/mises-and-liberty |title=Mises and Liberty |date=September 15, 1998 |website=Mises Institute |access-date=November 23, 2021 |archive-date=June 19, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150619062747/https://mises.org/library/mises-and-liberty |url-status=live }}{{Primary source inline|date=November 2021}}

The Mises Institute aligned itself with what Rothbard called the Old 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.{{Cite journal |last1=Olsen |first1=Niklas |last2=Slobodian |first2=Quinn |date=April 2022 |title=Locating Ludwig von Mises: Introduction |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/855166 |journal=Journal of the History of Ideas |language=en |volume=83 |issue=2 |pages=257–267 |doi=10.1353/jhi.2022.0012 |issn=1086-3222 |pmid=35603613 |s2cid=248987154 |url-access=subscription |quote=... the Mises Institute differed from Cato and Heritage through its self-avowed proximity to what Rothbard called the "Old Right" ...}} It started the Review of Austrian Economics in 1986.

Rothbard and Rockwell coined the name "paleolibertarians" for socially right-wing libertarians like themselves.Ronald Hamowy, ed., 2008, [https://books.google.com/books?isbn=1412965802 The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism], Cato Institute, SAGE, {{ISBN|1-41296580-2}} They forged a "paleo alliance" between paleolibertarians and paleoconservatives in the form of the John Randolph Club in 1989, which allied the Mises Institute and the paleoconservative Rockford Institute. In the early 1990s, Austrian economist Steven Horwitz called the Mises Institute "a fascist fist in a libertarian glove."{{Cite web |title=Michael Levin |url=https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/individual/michael-levin |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160806080649/https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/individual/michael-levin |archive-date=August 6, 2016 |access-date=2022-04-09 |website=Southern Poverty Law Center |language=en}}{{undue weight inline|date=April 2023}}

Figures at the Mises Institute were associated with neo-Confederate positions, and the institute held conferences about secession, including one in 1995 in Charleston, South Carolina, where the American Civil War had begun.{{Cite book |title=Neo-Confederacy: A Critical Introduction.  |publisher=University of Texas Press |year=2009 |editor-last=Sebesta |editor-first=Edward H. |location=United States |pages=33–34 |editor-last2=Hague |editor-first2=Euan |editor-last3=Beirich |editor-first3=Heidi}}{{Cite news |last=Weiner |first=Rachel |date=July 10, 2013 |title=The libertarian war over the Civil War |newspaper=The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2013/07/10/the-libertarian-war-over-the-civil-war/}}{{Cite book |last1=Lee |first1=Michael J. |title=We are Not One People: Secession and Separatism in American Politics Since 1776 |last2=Atchison |first2=R. Jarrod.  |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2022 |location=United States |pages=58–60}} After Rothbard's death in 1996, his protege Hans-Hermann Hoppe became a leading anarcho-capitalist figure of the institute and is known for his anti-democratic writing.{{Cite magazine |last=Heer |first=Jeet |date=2016-10-24 |title=The Right Is Giving Up on Democracy |magazine=The New Republic |url=https://newrepublic.com/article/138019/right-giving-democracy |access-date=2023-09-02 |issn=0028-6583}}

In a 2000 report, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) said that the Mises Institute had shown "recent interest in neo-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.'"{{cite web |date=Summer 2000 |title=The Neo-Confederates |url=https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2000/neo-confederates |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160222010852/https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2000/neo-confederates |archive-date=February 22, 2016 |access-date=August 29, 2018 |work=Intelligence Report |publisher=Southern Poverty Law Center |issue=99}}

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."{{cite news |last=Wingfield |first=Kyle |date=August 11, 2006 |title=Von Mises Finds A Sweet Home In Alabama |language=en-US |work=Wall Street Journal |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB115526621313033079 |access-date=December 19, 2020 |issn=0099-9660 |archive-date=October 20, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201020205701/https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB115526621313033079 |url-status=live }}

By 2011, The Economist said, the Austrian School economics championed by the Mises Institute had "won few mainstream converts". But it noted the think tank's growing presence on the internet as well as its facilities in Auburn including an amphitheater, conservatory, recording studio and library.

The political scientist George Hawley described the Mises Institute in 2016 as "the intellectual epicenter of the radical libertarian movement in the United States".{{Cite book |last=Hawley |first=George |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/925410917 |title=Right-wing critics of American conservatism |date=2016 |publisher=164–171 |isbn=978-0-7006-2193-4 |location=Lawrence |oclc=925410917 |quote=... the Ludwig von Mises institute is the intellectual epicenter of the radical libertarian movement in the United States ...}} As of 2022, about 30 Mises Institutes had been created worldwide; some had died off but others, especially Brazil's, had gained influence.{{Cite book |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1vbd2mv |title=Market Civilizations |date=2022-05-24 |publisher=Zone Books |doi=10.2307/j.ctv1vbd2mv |isbn=978-1-942130-68-0 |s2cid=249073465 |editor-last=Slobodian |editor-first=Quinn |editor-last2=Plehwe |editor-first2=Dieter}}

{{Libertarianism US}}

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."{{cite web |date=18 June 2014 |title=What is the Mises Institute? |url=https://mises.org/about-mises/what-is-the-mises-Institute |access-date=2022-01-24 |archive-date=November 20, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141120231825/https://mises.org/about-mises/what-is-the-mises-Institute |url-status=live }}

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.{{cite web |url=https://mises.org/edu |title=Graduate Program |date=March 26, 2020 |website=Mises Institute |access-date=November 23, 2021 |archive-date=April 16, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200416220431/https://mises.org/edu |url-status=live }} It publishes the Journal of Libertarian Studies, which it took over in 2000 from the Center for Libertarian Studies.{{Cite web |title=Center for Libertarian Studies records |url=https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt4290334k/entire_text/ |access-date=2023-07-01 |website=oac.cdlib.org}}

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 billionaire August von Finck (1930–2021). Many gold dealers from the von Finck company Degussa Goldhandel are active on the board of the institute; they reject intergovernmental fiscal policy and promote gold as a "safe currency".{{Citation needed|date=September 2022}} Von Finck was active in economic policy and criticized the EU.{{Cite web |title=Milliardär August von Finck kaufte sich die neurechte und liberale Szene Deutschlands {{!}} Recentr |date=May 18, 2020 |url=http://recentr.com/2020/05/18/milliardaer-august-von-finck-kaufte-sich-die-neurechte-und-liberale-szene-deutschlands/ |access-date=2022-07-14 |language=de-DE |archive-date=May 22, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200522122247/http://recentr.com/2020/05/18/milliardaer-august-von-finck-kaufte-sich-die-neurechte-und-liberale-szene-deutschlands/ |url-status=live }}

The Mises Institute describes itself as libertarian, and as promoting the Austrian School of economics.{{Cite web |last=newvalleymedia |date=2014-06-18 |title=What Is the Mises Institute? |url=https://mises.org/about-mises/what-is-the-mises-institute |access-date=2023-02-27 |website=Mises Institute |language=en}} 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".{{cite web |last=Berlet |first=Chip |author-link=Chip Berlet |date=Summer 2003 |title=Into the Mainstream |url=http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2003/summer/into-the-mainstream?page=0,1#11 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100207091248/http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2003/summer/into-the-mainstream?page=0,1#11 |archive-date=February 7, 2010 |access-date=September 24, 2013 |work=Intelligence Report |publisher=Southern Poverty Law Center |issue=110}}

The Mises Institute favors the methodology of 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.{{cite journal |doi=10.1111/j.1536-7150.2010.00751.x |title=Research Quality Rankings of Heterodox Economic Journals in a Contested Discipline |journal=American Journal of Economics and Sociology |volume=69 |issue=5 |pages=1409–1452 |year=2010 |last1=Lee |first1=Frederic S. |last2=Cronin |first2=Bruce C. |last3=McConnell |first3=Scott |last4=Dean |first4=Erik|s2cid=145069581 }} It is distinct from that of other Austrian economists, including Hayek and those associated with George Mason University.{{cite web |url=https://mises.org/wire/socialism-calculation-problem-not-knowledge-problem-0 |title=Socialism: The Calculation Problem Is Not the Knowledge Problem |date=March 13, 2018 |website=Mises Institute |access-date=November 23, 2021 |archive-date=March 21, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180321191639/https://mises.org/wire/socialism-calculation-problem-not-knowledge-problem-0 |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |title=Why I Am Not an Austrian Economist |url=https://econfaculty.gmu.edu/bcaplan/whyaust.htm |access-date=2023-02-27 |website=econfaculty.gmu.edu}}{{Cite journal |last=Ebeling |first=Richard M. |date=2014-12-01 |title=Hayek e Mises |url=https://misesjournal.org.br/misesjournal/article/view/697 |journal=MISES: Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy, Law and Economics |volume=2 |issue=2 |pages=629–650 |doi=10.30800/mises.2014.v2.697 |issn=2594-9187|doi-access=free }}

The paleolibertarian economic and cultural views of some of the Mises Institute's leading figures have been influential in the presidential campaigns of Ron Paul, the presidential campaign of Rand Paul, the presidential campaigns of Donald Trump, and the candidacy of Joshua Smith for chair of the Libertarian Party.{{cite magazine |last1=Sanchez |first1=Julian |last2=Weigel |first2=David |date=January 16, 2008 |title=Who Wrote Ron Paul's Newsletters? |url=https://reason.com/2008/01/16/who-wrote-ron-pauls-newsletter/ |url-status=live |magazine=Reason |language=en-US |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190409082300/http://reason.com/archives/2008/01/16/who-wrote-ron-pauls-newsletter |archive-date=April 9, 2019 |access-date=December 28, 2020}}{{cite news |last=Sheffield |first=Matthew |date=September 2, 2016 |title=Where did Donald Trump get his racialized rhetoric? From libertarians. |language=en-US |newspaper=Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/09/02/where-did-donald-trump-get-his-racialized-rhetoric-from-libertarians/ |url-status=live |access-date=December 28, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161012131625/https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/09/02/where-did-donald-trump-get-his-racialized-rhetoric-from-libertarians/ |archive-date=October 12, 2016 |issn=0190-8286}}{{cite news |last1=Rutenberg |first1=Jim |last2=Kovaleski |first2=Serge F. |date=December 26, 2011 |title=Paul Disowns Extremists' Views but Doesn't Disavow the Support (Published 2011) |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/26/us/politics/ron-paul-disowns-extremists-views-but-doesnt-disavow-the-support.html |url-status=live |access-date=December 28, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210107100807/https://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/26/us/politics/ron-paul-disowns-extremists-views-but-doesnt-disavow-the-support.html |archive-date=January 7, 2021 |issn=0362-4331}}{{cite news |last=Welch |first=Matt |date=July 4, 2018 |title=Libertarian Party Rebuffs Mises Uprising |work=Reason |url=https://reason.com/2018/07/04/libertarian-party-rebuffs-mises-uprising/ |url-status=live |access-date=September 18, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201015193330/https://reason.com/2018/07/04/libertarian-party-rebuffs-mises-uprising/ |archive-date=October 15, 2020}}

A 2014 New York Times piece described the Mises Institute as part of Rand Paul's intellectual inheritance.

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 and had collaborated on articles for Rockwell's website.{{cite web |last=Waldman |first=Annie |date=April 14, 2017 |title=DeVos Pick to Head Civil Rights Office Once Said She Faced Discrimination for Being White |url=https://www.propublica.org/article/devos-candice-jackson-civil-rights-office-education-department |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170414170156/https://www.propublica.org/article/devos-candice-jackson-civil-rights-office-education-department |archive-date=April 14, 2017 |access-date=November 23, 2021 |website=ProPublica}}

Notable figures affiliated with the Mises Institute include:{{cite web |url=https://mises.org/faculty |title=Faculty Members |work=Ludwig von Mises Institute |access-date=September 13, 2014 |archive-date=July 28, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130728094916/http://mises.org/Faculty |url-status=live }}

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• Walter Block – Austrian School economist and anarcho-capitalist; economics professor at Loyola University New Orleans
• Godfrey Bloom – British politician, former Member of the European Parliament
• Thomas DiLorenzo – economics professor at Loyola University Maryland
• Paul Gottfried – paleoconservative author, former Professor of Humanities at Elizabethtown College
• Hans-Hermann Hoppe – paleolibertarian and anarcho-capitalist business professor at University of Nevada, Las Vegas and founder of Property and Freedom Society
• Jesús Huerta de Soto – Professor of Applied Economics at King Juan Carlos University
• Jörg Guido Hülsmann – Professor of Economics at The University of Angers{{cite web | url=https://austrian-institute.org/en/authors/joerg-guido-huelsmann | title=Jörg Guido Hülsmann }}
• Peter Klein – Professor of Entrepreneurship and Senior Research Fellow with the Center for Entrepreneurship & Free Enterprise at Baylor University{{cite web |url=https://business.baylor.edu/directory/?id=Peter_Klein |title=Peter Klein |work=Baylor University's Hankamer School of Business |access-date=December 22, 2017 |language=en |archive-date=June 8, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170608014602/http://business.baylor.edu/directory/?id=Peter_Klein |url-status=live }}
• Robert P. Murphy – economist, Institute for Energy Research
• Andrew Napolitano – Fox News pundit and former judge
• Gary North (1942–2022) – co-founder of Christian reconstructionism and founder of Institute for Christian Economics
• Ron Paul – physician, author, and former congressman
• Ralph Raico (1936–2016) – historian and libertarian specializing in European classical liberalism and Austrian economics
• Murray Rothbard (1926–1995) – heterodox economist, paleolibertarian theorist, polemicist, revisionist historian, and founder of anarcho-capitalism
• Joseph Sobran (1946–2010) – journalist, contributor to American Renaissance and lecturer at the Institute for Historical Review
• Mark Thornton – Austrian School economist{{cite web |url=https://mises.org/faculty |title=Senior Fellows, Faculty Members, and Staff |work=Ludwig von Mises Institute |access-date=September 13, 2014 |archive-date=July 28, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130728094916/http://mises.org/Faculty |url-status=live }}
• Jeffrey A. Tucker – economics writer
• Joseph T. Salerno – academic vice president of the Mises Institute, Professor of Economics at Pace University, and editor of the Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics{{cite web | url=https://www.independent.org/aboutus/person_detail.asp?id=1017 | title=Joseph T. Salerno }}
• Thomas Woods – historian, political commentator, and author

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{{Portal|Capitalism|Libertarianism|Politics|United States}}

• Libertarian Party Mises Caucus
• Old Right (United States)

{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

{{Commons}}

• {{Official website|https://mises.org/}}
• [http://edirc.repec.org/data/misesus.html EDIRC listing] (provided by RePEc)
• {{ProPublicaNonprofitExplorer|521263436}}

{{Austrian School economists}}

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