The Ludwig von Mises Institute, more formally the Ludwig von Mises Institute for Austrian Economics and referred to in shorthand as the Mises Institute, is an institution located in Auburn, Alabama, devoted to the Austrian school of economics. Bob Zadek introduced it in those terms when he welcomed its president, Jeff Deist, to the show, describing Ludwig von Mises as one of the founders and icons of the school and the institute as bearing his name Austrian Economics Triumphs (2021). The excerpts identify the institute chiefly through its officers, its publications and the positions it takes.
Leadership and affiliation
Jeff Deist appeared as President of the Mises Institute. Zadek noted that before going to the institute to lead it, Deist had been very active in Ron Paul’s presidential campaign in 2008, a campaign in which the existence of central banks was an important theme Austrian Economics Triumphs (2021). Deist’s own account of the institute’s foreign-policy stance, and his description of its publishing output, are the substance of that episode’s treatment of the organization.
A second figure connected to the institute in the excerpts is the economist Thomas DiLorenzo, who taught economics at Loyola University Maryland and was, at the time of his appearance, on the faculty of the Mises Institute. Zadek introduced him in those terms and listed among his books Problems with Socialism, How Capitalism Saved America and The Politically Incorrect Guide to Economics Lies, Damned Lies & the Inflation Reduction Act (2022). DiLorenzo’s blog posting on the Inflation Reduction Act, which Zadek characterized as explaining that the misnamed act was nothing other than a Trojan horse for Green New Deal socialist policies, was the reason Zadek invited him on the program.
Austrian economics and method
The institute’s intellectual commitments were described by Deist in contrast to mainstream economics. Zadek framed the episode around the difference between Austrian economics, with its focus on human action and deductive reasoning, and the mathematical modeling of mainstream economics, and around how those principles apply to the 2008 housing crisis, COVID-19 stimulus packages, wealth creation and non-interventionist foreign policy Austrian Economics Triumphs (2021). Zadek recounted his own first encounter with the subject through Paul Samuelson’s standard textbook, which he described as big and fat and heavy and full of graphs, and said he discovered Austrian economics only later, after finding his political home in libertarianism.
Deist, for his part, said that The Big Short pointed toward a second major difference between what Austrian economics focuses on and what a lot of professors today focus on: how to think about money, how money comes into society and how central banks work. He argued that the mania underlying the housing crisis happened not entirely, but in large part, because of central banks Austrian Economics Triumphs (2021). Zadek had earlier proposed that the film could have been titled Austrian Economics Triumphs, on the ground that its protagonist made his money by going into the field and interviewing homeowners rather than by relying on graphs and charts.
Foreign policy and trade
Zadek asked Deist to summarize the founding principle governing the institute’s approach to foreign policy, noting that the institute often takes a strong and clear position on the subject and that its writings, blogs and books do so as well. Deist answered that the institute is against interventionism in foreign affairs as much as against interventionism in the domestic economy, and for many of the same reasons, because there are unintended consequences and blowback frequently Austrian Economics Triumphs (2021). He said the bright-line distinction between foreign and economic policy is misguided, since every dollar taken in taxes and applied to foreign policy is a dollar not spent in the domestic economy or in some more productive use, and he criticized the hubris of the idea that governments can remake other countries, decide who ought to be their political leaders, or invade them and impose a political system.
Zadek drew attention to Deist’s choice of the word intervention rather than isolation, arguing that the institute promotes the opposite of isolation: active economic engagement between American companies and individuals and foreign trading partners. Deist agreed that the notion America is going to be isolated is absurd, that free trade reaches the whole world, and that what isolates the United States is a belligerent foreign policy; he said the emphasis should be on trade, since people do not go to war with their customers or their suppliers as a general rule Austrian Economics Triumphs (2021).
Publications and outreach
Toward the end of the 2021 episode, Zadek asked Deist how listeners could follow the institute and what products were available. Deist directed listeners first and foremost to Mises.org, saying the site holds a lifetime’s worth of reading in the form of free books, free ebooks and free downloads Austrian Economics Triumphs (2021). He singled out Henry Hazlitt’s Economics in One Lesson, which he called perhaps the single best introductory book ever written — very short, very easy to read, with discrete little chapters — and said visitors to the website could sign up to receive a free box of that book. He also invited listeners to follow the institute on Twitter or find it on Facebook and consume as much or as little as they wanted, and said that for those who find the economics they learned was not right or who need to unlearn it, the institute has books, videos and articles that would last a lifetime.
Zadek closed that segment by telling listeners that all of it is readable, and thanked Deist and the people who write for the institute. In the 2022 episode, the institute appears again as an institutional affiliation rather than as a subject: DiLorenzo is identified as being on its faculty, and his blog posting for it is what brought him onto the program Lies, Damned Lies & the Inflation Reduction Act (2022).
Across episodes
The Mises Institute is touched on in three episodes spanning 2021 and 2022 — Austrian Economics Triumphs, Lies, Damned Lies & the Inflation Reduction Act, and, in passing, The Rent Control Bomb, where Charlie Deist mentions that the economist Walter Block writes for Mises and can be found at walterblock.com The Rent Control Bomb (2019). The excerpts show no development in the treatment of the institute between the earlier and later episodes: the 2021 episode supplies the institutional description, the foreign-policy position and the publishing resources through Jeff Deist, and the 2022 episode adds only Thomas DiLorenzo’s faculty affiliation and his blog posting. No excerpt revisits or revises what an earlier one said.
What the sources do not cover
The excerpts do not state when the Mises Institute was founded, by whom, or with what funding, nor do they describe its governance, its board, its membership or its relationship to any university. They give no account of the institute’s internal operations beyond the website, the free books and the social-media presence Deist mentions, and they do not say what the institute’s positions are on any subject other than foreign policy and central banking. Nothing in the excerpts indicates the institute’s size, budget or legal status, and the 2019 mention of Walter Block is a passing reference by a guest rather than a description of the organization.
Guests and episodes
2 appearances by 2 guests, 2021–2022.
- Jeff Deist (President of the Mises Institute) — Austrian Economics Triumphs (2021) — Principles and applications of Austrian Economics.
- Thomas DiLorenzo (Mises Institute) — Lies, Damned Lies & the Inflation Reduction Act (2022) — Politically Incorrect Economics and the Inflation Reduction Act.