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Mises Institute

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Ludwig von Mises Institute for Austrian Economics, Auburn, Alabama

The Ludwig von Mises Institute is a foundation, based in Auburn, Alabama, dedicated to research on economics and political economy. It subscribes to a view of government and economics inspired by the Austrian School economist Ludwig von Mises. The Institute's founder and current president is Llewellyn Rockwell Jr. Murray Rothbard was a major influence on the Institute's activities, and he served as its vice president until his death in 1995.

The Institute's goal is to "undermine statism in all its forms." It opposes both communism and the American System school of economics. The Institute runs various seminars and a comprehensive Web site aimed at teaching about the Austrian School of Economics. In addition, it funds scholarly research in the area of Austrian Economics all over the world through various endowments and fellowships.

In addition to its commentary on Austrian economics, the Institute takes a critical view of all U.S. government activities, foreign and domestic, in American history. Unlike some neoconservative organizations, the paleolibertarian Institute takes an antiwar, anti-interventionist stand on American foreign policy, and considers war to be an ultimate violation of rights to life, liberty, and property, for Americans and foreigners, with destructive effects on the market economy and empowering effects for the government. The Mises Institute's website offers a large number of writings in support of individualism, and explicitly critical of collectivism, fascism, socialism, and communism. An upcoming seminar, for example, explicitly condemns fascism.

Dispute with the Southern Poverty Law Center

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The Institute has drawn criticism from the Southern Poverty Law Center, itself a controversial group. Citing some mutual affiliations between the Institute and the League of the South, the Center called the Mises Institute a Neo-confederate organization. . The Institute's web site frequently criticizes Abraham Lincoln's handling of the American Civil War and supports a right of secession. Further, the Mises Institute has sponsored talks by columnist Joseph Sobran, who himself has spoken at holocaust denial conferences. Its president, Lew Rockwell, has published Sobran, and Christian Reconstructionist Gary North also publishes from time to time on lewrockwell.com.

Myles Kantor has denounced the SPLC, stating that it engages in fear mongering and the smearing of legitimate, non-racist groups in pursuit of profitable financial contributions and ideological goal. According to Kantor, the SPLC's labelling tactics make the "egregious" and "defamatory" implications that "the Center for the Study of Popular Culture and Mises Institute seek to restore Hitlerian policies." Gail Jarvis, writing for Rockwell's website, accuses the SPLC's Morris Dees of using scare tactics including "hate group" labelling to solicit and accumulate financial contributions. Tibor Machan asserts that the SPLC and Dees are "not fighting poverty but they were a major threat against the First Amendment and the presumption of innocence in our criminal justice system." Karen DeCoster writes that Dees and the SPLC "have made zillions from anti-free speech, anti-free press hate campaigns" by making false allegations of racism.

Individuals associated with the Mises Institute

External links

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