Mises Institute ranked 9th most influential "think tank" by TheBestSchools.org

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Mises Institute Ranked 9th Most Influential US Think Tank
https://mises.org/blog/mises-institute-ranked-9th-most-influential-us-think-tank
Mises Institute (14 December 2015)

TheBestSchools.org, a leading online resource for campus and online education, has named the Mises Institute the 9th Most Influential Think Tank in the United States.

The article goes on to note:

Named for the famous Austrian School economist, the Institute's stated mission is to promote "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 such it has become, perhaps more than any other institution on this list, the darling of myriad Young Conservative groups.​

We want to thank all of our incredible donors who make the work we do possible.

Click here if you'd like to learn more about becoming a member of the Mises Institute.

A note from Lew Rockwell, founder and chairman of the Mises Institute:

Although the Mises Institute is not, strictly speaking, a think-tank—scheming plans to be imposed by the state on society—I very much appreciate this ranking. In the 50 most influential think-tanks in America, we rate #9. I will note that the other organizations have bigger—often vastly bigger—budgets than the Mises Institute. But being smaller, quicker, and anti-bureaucratic pays.

It doesn't hurt to have the examples of Mises and Rothbard always before us, and the help of our wonderful donors, board, faculty, and staff. Oh, and one other point: no organization in America gets more out of a buck.​


The Best Schools on the Mises Institute
https://www.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog/best-schools-mises-institute/
David Gordon (14 December 2015)

The Best Schools website has just published a list of the “50 Most Influential Think Tanks in the United States.” On this list, the Mises Institute ranks ninth, ahead of the American Enterprise Institute, the Rand Corporation, the National Bureau of Economic Research, the Hoover Institution, and far ahead of the Acton Institute and the Mercatus Center. The high ranking is especially noteworthy, if one considers the vastly greater endowments and annual revenues of these other think tanks. Billionaires do not control the Mises Institute, nor does it receive government funding. How then is its success to be explained? I am hardly a disinterested observer, but a well-known quotation from Spinoza comes to mind, one which Mises liked: “Even as light makes manifest both itself and darkness, so is truth the measure of itself and of falsehood.”


The 50 Most Influential Think Tanks in the United States
http://www.thebestschools.org/features/most-influential-think-tanks/

9. Ludwig von Mises Institute
(Auburn, AL)

Ludwig von Mises Institute is a Libertarian academic think tank that specializes in researching and promoting Classical Liberal viewpoints about subjects such as economics, philosophy, and political economy. Named for the famous Austrian School economist, the Institute’s stated mission is to promote “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 such it has become, perhaps more than any other institution on this list, the darling of myriad Young Conservative groups.

The Ludwig von Mises Institute resists being labeled as “conservative” by any standard. Specifically, their foreign policy views, their position on the US Constitution, and their views on social policy are all either non-conservative or anti-conservative. The only place where conservatives may overlap with them is in market economics, but only in America is that considered to be a “conservative” position.

The Institute publishes a large number of books, journal articles, and online articles each year, including the Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics and the Mises Review.
  • Political Orientation:Libertarian/Classical Liberal
  • SEMrush Ranking: 17.3K
  • Monthly Traffic: 66.2K
  • Monetary Value of Monthly Traffic: $39,700
  • Average Yearly Revenue: $4.7 million
  • Average Media References per Year (by Others): <100
  • 2014 Global Go To Think Tank Index Report Rankings: None
  • Notable Figures: Andrew Napolitano, Ron Paul, Murray Rothbard (former)
 
Nice. AEI, Cato, Heritage also in the top 10. Not too shabby, even if none are perfect, that's still some pretty good libertarian to libertarian-leaning representation.
 
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Isnt that grossly overestimating their influence?


Their criteria:

The popularity of a think tank’s official website, ranked against all other websites, as determined by the average number of monthly visitors (specifically, organic search traffic), number of keywords/phrases for which the site ranks, and the monetary value of the traffic as gauged by those keywords. All these numbers come from SEMrush, and this is our master criterion.

Average yearly revenue (in most cases, over the course of five years) as reported by the think tanks. As non-profit organizations, think-tanks must make their revenue numbers available to the public; the greater its revenue, the more influential the think tank—other things being equal.

The average number of printed media references per year by outside organizations (according to fair.org and Nexis).

The number of categories in which a think tank was ranked by the University of Pennsylvania (Lauder Institute) in its 2014 Global Go To Think Tank Index. This report does not reflect intrinsic intellectual performance or academic accomplishment per se. Rather, it is based on the perceptions of hundreds of journalists, policymakers, and think tank employees.

Looks like their ranking comes mostly from their website ranking- their SEMrush score.

Enter the tools that online businesses, like ours, use to assess how well websites and their pages are ranking with the search engines (we use several such tools, notably SEMrush.com). At TheBestSchools.org, we need these tools to determine how well we are doing in attracting and holding visitor traffic—in other words, to determine how influential our website is.

They are very low in the number of times cited by other media (<100)

Their Global Go To Think Tank Ranking is zero.
The number of categories in which a think tank was ranked by the University of Pennsylvania (Lauder Institute) in its 2014 Global Go To Think Tank Index. This report does not reflect intrinsic intellectual performance or academic accomplishment per se. Rather, it is based on the perceptions of hundreds of journalists, policymakers, and think tank employees.

Seems like their influence is mostly restricted to those who visit their website- not professionals, policymakers, or other media.
 
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As much as I like Mises, sadly among the powerful, the public and the people who "matter" they are considered a joke... so most educational, maybe, but certainly not most influential.
 
Seems like their influence is mostly restricted to those who visit their website - not professionals, policymakers, or other media.

This statement embodies a false dichotomy - namely, that "those who visit their website" (on the one hand) and "professionals, policymakers or other media" (on the other hand) are groups whose memberships are mutually exclusive.

But even generously indulging this false dichotomy for the sake of argument, why is "their influence" among "those who visit their website" to be discounted as evidence of their influence?

:confused:

As much as I like Mises, sadly among the powerful, the public and the people who "matter" they are considered a joke [...]

This is an empty and irrelevant statement.
There are indeed people among the groups you mentioned who consider the Mises Institute to be a "joke."
There are also people among those groups who do not consider the Mises Institute to be a "joke."

Being "considered a joke" by some people and being influential according to the criteria used in this particular ranking have nothing to do with one another. The ranking profferred in the OP was not "a list of organizations that 'are considered a joke' by some people." But even if it had been, Congress (which is chock-full of people who are allegedly "powerful" and who supposedly "matter") would no doubt have been ranked number one - and if that doesn't show you that "being considered a joke" and "being influential" are entirely orthogonal to one another, then I don't know what would ...

[...] so most educational, maybe, but certainly not most influential.

Right - because being "educational" and being "influential" are two entirely different things ... :rolleyes:

And LvMI was not ranked "most influential." It was ranked "9th most influential" relative to other such organizations under a specified set of criteria (criteria under which even the least influential of all such organizations would still have some "nth most influential" ranking).

So unless either of you has some still-as-yet-unstated reason for adjudging the given criteria to have been erroneously applied (either to LvMI itself, or to some other organiziation such that that organization should have been ranked more highly than LvMI), then I don't see what either of your points is supposed to be ... (assuming that either of you even has a point ...)
 
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As much as I like Mises, sadly among the powerful, the public and the people who "matter" they are considered a joke... so most educational, maybe, but certainly not most influential.

Perhaps if you had let Kirzner take the torch (who understood economics was a science) instead of Rothbard (who bent logic to support his polictical beliefs)...well the joke would be less on you.
 
Here's a nice, little related item ...

Ludwig von Mises is the Most Searched Economist in Brazil
https://mises.org/blog/ludwig-von-mises-most-searched-economist-brazil
Tho Bishop (15 December 2015)

As I mention in today’s Daily, one of the really exciting developments in the continued growth of the Austrian school is what is going on in Brazil.

In one of his last works, Theory and History, Mises wrote:

Thoughts and ideas are not phantoms. They are real things. Although intangible and immaterial, they are factors in bringing about changes in the realm of tangible and material things.​

We are seeing in Brazil today the real impact ideas can have on a nation.

While their appearance this week in the Wall Street Journal is a testament to the respect Mises Brasil is earning across the world, I think the best testament to the work of Helio Beltrão and the incredible organization of Austro-libertarians is the fact that Ludwig von Mises is now searched more in their country than either John Maynard Keynes or Milton Friedman.

Mises%20in%20Brazil.png


Given the current climate of political unrest and economic uncertainty facing their country, Brazil needs the ideas of Mises now more than ever. Thanks to the passion and ability of young Brazilian scholars, like 2015 Summer Fellow Mariana Piaia Abreu or the number of Brazilian students who have attended Mises University over the years, this is a battle we are winning.
______________________________

[Here's the same trend search with "Paul Krugman" added and extended to December 2015 (partial) - OB:]

Google Trends - Web Search Interest: Ludwig von Mises, John Maynard Keynes, Milton Friedman, Paul Krugman - Brazil, 2010 - 2015

Df1nrLk.png
 
And regarding the reference to the WSJ in my previous post:

Mises Brasil Parabéns Pelo Trabalho Bem Feito!
https://mises.org/blog/mises-brasil-parabéns-pelo-trabalho-bem-feito
Joseph T. Salerno (14 December 2015)

An opinion piece in today's WSJ on the collapsing Brazilian economy extensively quotes a spokesman for Mises Institute Brazil as well as citing articles from the institute's website. Just like the Mises Institute, which is ranked as the 9th most influential think tank in the U.S., Mises Brazil has an enormous intellectual influence that belies its modest size.

[To get around the "Subscribe or Sign In" prompt at wsj.com, do a google search with the terms "wall street journal mises brasil" (or just click HERE), and then follow the link for "What Really Sank Brazil" in the search results. - OB]
 
As much as I like Mises, sadly among the powerful, the public and the people who "matter" they are considered a joke... so most educational, maybe, but certainly not most influential.

Yes

And until and unless Austrians percolate into graduate and then tenured positions in the field, that won't change.

The good news is that the existing (un)intelligentsia is making such an atrocious fucking mess of everything that there's an opening.

In any event, I quite loathe Lew as a human being, for various reasons I need not get into just now, but the LvMI is the best resource for economics around, period.

See my sig.

FEE is also very good.
 

Because, of course, no celebration of indications of a growing awareness of Austrian economics, Ludwig von Mises, and the eponymous institute dedicated to promoting the work and thoughts of that great man would be complete without someone taking gratuitously petty and irrelevant potshots at Lew Rockwell ...

:(
 
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Because, of course, no celebration of indications of a growing awareness of Austrian economics, Ludwig von Mises, and the eponymous institute dedicated to promoting the work and thoughts of that great man would be complete without someone taking gratuitously petty and irrelevant potshots at Lew Rockwell ...

:(

Before I take the time to gather up the articles on LRC criticizing Rand while fellating Trump, would you agree that their existence would reflect poorly on Lew?
 
[...] gratuitously petty and irrelevant [...]
Before I take the time to gather up the articles on LRC criticizing Rand while fellating Trump, would you agree that their existence would reflect poorly on Lew?

This thread has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with any intersections between LRC, Rand Paul, Donald Trump and/or Lew Rockwell.

gratuitous: being without apparent reason, cause, or justification [this w/respect to the thread topic]

petty: of little or no importance or consequence [also w/respect to the thread topic] ["showing or caused by meanness of spirit" would also be apt]

irrelevant: not relevant; not applicable or pertinent [again, w/respect to the thread topic]
 
This thread has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with any intersections between LRC, Rand Paul, Donald Trump and/or Lew Rockwell.

gratuitous: being without apparent reason, cause, or justification [this w/respect to the thread topic]

petty: of little or no importance or consequence [also w/respect to the thread topic] ["showing or caused by meanness of spirit" would also be apt]

irrelevant: not relevant; not applicable or pertinent [again, w/respect to the thread topic]

Oh, now I remember why I don't talk to you.
 
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