Mises Institute

Ludwig von Mises Institute

Motto	Tu ne cede malis, sed contra audentior ito Latin: Do not give in to evil but proceed ever more boldly against it
Founder(s)	Lew Rockwell, Jr. Burton Blumert
Established	1982
Mission	To advance the Misesian tradition of thought through the defense of the market economy, private property, sound money, and peaceful international relations, while opposing government intervention as economically and socially destructive.
Focus	Economics, Libertarianism
President	Lew Rockwell, Jr.
Faculty	19 (Senior Fellows)
Adjunct faculty	64
Staff	21
Key people	Lew Rockwell, Jr. (President} Joseph Salerno (Editor Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics)
Endowment	$17,862,528
Slogan	"Advancing the scholarship of liberty in the tradition of the Austrian School"
Location	Auburn , Alabama , United States
Coordinates	32°36′24″N 85°29′28″W
Website	mises.org

The Ludwig von Mises Institute (LvMI), or simply "Mises Institute", located in Auburn, Alabama, is a non-profit American organization named for Austrian School economist Ludwig von Mises (1881–1973). Its website states that it is dedicated to advancing "the Misesian tradition of thought through the defense of the market economy, private property, sound money, and peaceful international relations, while opposing government intervention." Critics have called it "right wing" and compared it to a cult.

The Mises Institute was founded in 1982 by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. following a split between libertarian economist Murray Rothbard and the Cato Institute, of which Rothbard had been a founder. Rothbard and Burton Blumert were co-founders.

Background and location

The Ludwig von Mises Institute was established in 1982 by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr in the wake of a dispute which occurred in the early 1980's between Murray Rothbard and the Cato Institute, another libertarian organization co-founded by Rothbard. Rockwell has stated that the Mises Institute met strong opposition from parties affiliated with the Koch family, Rothbard's former backers at Cato. Rothbard was the Mises Institute's vice president and head of academic programs until his death in 1995.

In a discussion of the early years of the Mises Institute, Austrian economist Steven Horwitz criticized the Institute for what he describes as its "numerous connections with all kinds of unsavory folks: racists, anti-Semites, Holocaust deniers". In Horwitz' analysis, the association of these people was due to a strategy, articulated by Llewellyn Rockwell, and based on Rothbard's "paleolibertarian" views formulated in the 1980s after his separation from the Koch brothers and the Cato Institute. Horwitz and political scientist Jacob Levy state that Rothbard identified the need to attract social and religious conservatives to establish a libertarian-conservative fusion constituency, distinct from the more socially progressive followers of Cato and the Koch Brothers. In Horowitz' view, "the paleo strategy was a horrific mistake, both strategically and theoretically...There was the Rothbard-Rockwell Report, which was another major place publishing these sorts of views. They could also be found in a whole bunch of Mises Institute publications of that era", which Horwitz calls "really unsavory garbage that the paleo turn produced back then."

Citing and concurring with Horwitz' view of the libertarian movement of the era, Jonah Goldberg referred to the "sinful strategy adopted by so-called paleolibertarians in the 1980s. The idea was that libertarians needed to attract followers from outside the ranks of both the mainstream GOP and the libertarian movement – by trying to fuse the struggle for individual liberty with nostalgia for white supremacy. Thinkers such as Murray Rothbard hated the cultural liberalism of libertarians like the Koch brothers (yes, you read that right) and sought to build a movement fueled by white resentment."

Early after its founding, the Mises Institute was located at the business department offices of Auburn University, later moving to an unused shed behind the school's football stadium. The institute relocated nearby to its current site in 1998. According to a story in the Wall Street Journal, the Institute claims to have chosen its Auburn location for low cost of living and "good ol' Southern hospitality". The article goes on "to make an additional point", that "Southerners have always been distrustful of government," making the South a natural home for the organization's libertarian outlook. The institute has a staff of 16 senior scholars and about 200 adjunct scholars from the United States and other countries. The Institute houses an on-site library of nearly 35,000 volumes.

Views espoused by founders and organization scholars

Main articles: Lew Rockwell and Murray Rothbard

The Institute is critical of democracy, which authors in Mises Institute publications have called coercive, incompatible with wealth creation, replete with inner contradictions, and a system of legalized graft. Writers associated with the Mises Institute typically take a critical view of most U.S. government activities, foreign and domestic, throughout American history. The Institute expresses non-interventionist positions on foreign policy, asserting that war tends to increase the power of government. The Institute's website offers content which is explicitly critical of democracy, collectivism, fascism, socialism, and communism.

Mises Institute scholars hold diverse views on the subject of immigration. Walter Block argues in favor of open borders. Hans-Hermann Hoppe argues that in a stateless society individuals would only be able to travel with permission of individual land owners.

Mises Institute Scholars' views on the Confederacy

Institute scholars have condemned Abraham Lincoln's conduct of the American Civil War (e.g. suspending habeas corpus), asserting that his policies contributed to the growth of statism in the United States. Senior faculty member Thomas DiLorenzo, in his critical biographies The Real Lincoln and Lincoln: Unmasked, argues that the sixteenth president substantially expanded the size and powers of the federal government at the expense of individual liberty. Adjunct faculty member Donald Livingston shares a similar view, blaming Lincoln for the creation of "a French Revolutionary style unitary state" and "centralizing totalitarianism."

LvMI's Thomas DiLorenzo's references to the American Civil War as the "War to prevent Southern Independence" and Mises faculty member Thomas Woods's presence at the founding of the League of the South were cited by James Kirchick, writing for the New Republic, as suggesting a "disturbing attachment to the Confederacy." Woods has stated that he was present at the meeting at which the organization was founded, and later contributed to its newsletter, but that his involvement was limited.

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has categorized the Institute as "Neo-Confederate." Lew Rockwell responded to the criticism: "We have published revisionist accounts of the origins of the Civil War that demonstrate that the tariff bred more conflict between the South and the feds than slavery. For that, we were decried as a dangerous institutional proponent of “neoconfederate” ideology. Why not just plain old Confederate ideology."

Criticisms

The institute has been characterized by some writers as "right-wing," a label which Lew Rockwell and others affiliated with the Institute deny. David Boaz wrote:

The fact is, there’s a small band of self-styled “libertarians” who over the past two decades have associated the great ideas of Austrian economics and libertarianism with bigotry, reflexive anti-Americanism, and vitriol directed at everyone from the Trilateral Commission to Cato and Reason. They have very little association with the larger libertarian movement or with such libertarian-inspired movements as the Tea Party, the drug reform movement, or the school choice movement. Virtually their only point of contact with the broader constituency for smaller government is through Rep. Ron Paul, who, for whatever reasons, has unfortunately continued his association with the people who have tarred him and the causes that are drawing many voters to him.

Julian Sanchez and David Weigel have examined the paleo libertarian movement which supported the founding of the Mises Institute:

The most detailed description of the strategy came in an essay Rothbard wrote for the January 1992 Rothbard-Rockwell Report, titled "Right-Wing Populism: A Strategy for the Paleo Movement." Lamenting that mainstream intellectuals and opinion leaders were too invested in the status quo to be brought around to a libertarian view, Rothbard pointed to David Duke and Joseph McCarthy as models for an "Outreach to the Rednecks," which would fashion a broad libertarian/paleoconservative coalition by targeting the disaffected working and middle classes.

The Southern Poverty Law Center classifies the Mises Institute as a far-right organization, but not a hate organization. It has noted the neoconfederate and anti-lesbian views of senior Mises scholars.

Mises Scholar Robert Murphy wrote in support of the Institute's founder, Llewellyn Rockwell. He called the critics of Rothbard and Rockwell "hyenas" and defended Rockwell's refusal to respond to the controversy surrounding the racist content in the Ron Paul newsletters. In the opinion of former Mises Institute Scholar Gene Callahan, "I think the truly racist time at LVMI had passed by the time Bob [Murphy] and I got there" around 2001. Callahan states, "Rothbard, in the late 80s or early 90s, had decided that an appeal to racists was just the ticket for his movement. He published articles saying things like blacks weren't doing very well because they weren't so smart, got involved with Neo-Confederate causes, and so on. I think by 2000, Lew Rockwell sincerely regretted that time". Callahan rejected Robert's Murphy's denial that the Mises Institute is a cult, and compared it to Scientology.

Time Magazine and the National Review each noted that William F. Buckley, Jr. compared the Mises Institute to a cult in his obituary of Rothbard. It discussed the Mises Institute's aggressive promotion of Rothbard and Mises and its denigration of other Austrian views.

Economist George Selgin wrote about the agenda of Murray Rothbard and Llewellyn Rockwell's to promote their views and denigrate the views of other Austrian and Chicago School economists. He notes that Rockwell stated that Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman "is almost nobody outside of mainstream economics." Selgin goes on to state that, unlike Friedman, "Rothbard, on the other hand, was only too determined to identify himself with the Austrian School and, more than that, to both take part in a personality cult, built around von Mises, and attract such a cult himself. One sign of the presence of such a cult is precisely the scorn its members heap on potential rivals to the cult figure." Selgin, who had at one time considered himself an Austrian economist wrote: "To add to the record, I had the privilege of getting to know both Murray and Milton. Like most people who encountered him while in their "Austrian" phase, I found Murray a blast, not the least because of his contempt for non-Misesians of all kinds. Milton, though, was exceedingly gracious and generous to me even back when I really was a self-styled Austrian. For that reason Milton will always seem to me the bigger man, as well as the better monetary economist." Friedman's son, libertarian economist David D. Friedman discussed Rockwell's remark: "I do not usually waste my time defending my father, a job he did more than adequately for himself, but this seemed like a striking example of one prominent Austrian – Lew Rockwell founded the Mises Institute, which publishes several of the Rothbard books I listed – who appears to be living in a fantasy of his own invention."

Catholic journalist Christopher Ferrara discussed the disparagement of his recent book by Llewellyn Rockwell and Mises Fellow Thomas Woods. In Ferrara's words: "Clearly the cult of Murray Rothbard, of which Woods and Rockwell are the most prominent Catholic spokesmen, is concerned about the impact [Ferrara's recent book about Catholicism and libertarianism] is having." Ferrara wrote: "One thing is certain, however: “Austrian economics” is never just “Austrian economics.” The cult’s radical libertarian baggage is always there, ready to be unpacked whenever an opportunity presents itself." Ferrara calls Rothbard and von Mises "two philosophical and ethical bunglers".

Publications, conferences, and awards

Murray N. Rothbard Medal of Freedom

Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics

The Mises Institute has published nearly 50 books and pamphlets and archives various writings on its website. Its Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics is dedicated to the promotion of Austrian economics. It published the Journal of Libertarian Studies from 1977 to 2008. The "Are You An Austrian?" quiz is designed to test an individual's economic reasoning. It has been criticized by economists such as Arnold Kling, who wrote, "the 'Are you an Austrian?' quiz does not distinguish between knowledge of doctrine and belief in doctrine. To me, this is symptomatic of a sect, which focuses on doctrinal purity above all else. For a sect, to know is to believe, and to believe is to know." The Austrian Scholars Conference is an annual event which presents lectures and moderated panels on diverse subjects, for example "The Continuing Relevance of Austrian Capital Theory" and "Judaism and Capitalism: Friends or Enemies?" Mises University, started in 1986, is a week-long summer program.

Each year the Institute rewards several individuals for their accomplishments. The annual Schlarbaum Prize for lifetime defense of liberty, presents $10,000 to a public intellectual or distinguished scholar. Laureates have included Ron Paul, Ralph Block, and Otto von Habsburg. Other honors include the Murray Rothbard Medal (also won by Block and Paul, as well as by Christian Reconstructionist Gary North) The Elgin Groseclose Award (a $20 Liberty Head Double Eagle) for money writing, and the Fertig Prize.

See also

• Economic liberalism

External links

• The Ludwig von Mises Institute
• The Circle Bastiat (blog) (since March 2012)
• Mises Economics Blog (archive) (up to March 2012)
• Online Archive of the Rothbard-Rockwell Report