Ludwig Von Mises Institute - Mission and Activities

Mission and Activities

The Institute is generally critical of statism and democracy, with the latter being described in Institute publications as "coercive", "incompatible with wealth creation" "replete with inner contradictions" and a system "of legalized graft."

With 80 academic staff and affiliates (fellows,) the Institute has sponsored numerous conferences and seminars on subjects ranging from monetary policy to "Lincoln and the Growth of Statism." The Institute has published dozens of books, hundreds of papers and thousands of articles covering economic and historical issues.

The Institute's website went online in 1995. The Institute has also produced several documentary films, including Liberty and Economics: The Ludwig von Mises Legacy, The Future of Austrian Economics and Money, Banking, and the Federal Reserve.

Institute scholars typically take a critical view of most U.S. government activities, foreign and domestic, throughout American history. The Institute characterizes itself as libertarian and expresses antiwar and non-interventionist positions on American foreign policy, asserting that war is a violation of rights to life, liberty, and property, with destructive effects on the market economy, and tends to increase the power of government. The Institute's website offers content which expresses support of individualism and is explicitly critical of democracy, collectivism, fascism, socialism, and communism.

The website offers an array of articles and books by Ludwig von Mises, Murray N. Rothbard, and many other scholars who write in the tradition established by Carl Menger in 1871 with the publication of his Principles of Economics. The Institute's current campus was built in 1998; its main building is a Victorian-style villa. Before that, the Institute's offices were located in the business department at Auburn University. A 2006 article in The Wall Street Journal discusses the rationale behind its strategic placement in rural Alabama. The author suggests that "a charming downtown, low prices for room and board, easy access to Atlanta's international airport, and good ol' Southern hospitality" were among the reasons for locating in Alabama. In addition, he suggests that "Southerners have always been distrustful of government," making the South a natural home for the organization's paleolibertarian outlook. Despite its location, the institute is not affiliated with Auburn University.

In 2007, the Institute's annual revenues were $3,583,575 and its expenses were $2,852,751. These expenses went to programs (75.5%), administration (13.6%) and fundraising (10.7%); it does not receive public money.