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

[Occam's Banana]

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

If this rhetorical equivalent of "I know you are but what am I?" is the only manner of reply or rebuttal that you can muster (or even just the only kind you care to go to the trouble of making), then it's just as well, and I hope you don't forget again.

Meanwhile, for those who are actually capable of considering Mises (the man and/or Institute) without reflexively indulging a fetish for pissing at Lew Rockwell ...

Ludwig von Mises Is Winning
https://mises.org/library/ludwig-von-mises-winning
Tho Bishop (15 December 2015)

As a young man Alexander Hamilton once wrote, “There is a certain enthusiasm in liberty, that makes human nature rise above itself, in acts of bravery and heroism.” While it is tragic that Hamilton would grow up to advocate all sorts of government policies contrary to liberty — America would be better off had he read Cantillion — there is a power in these words that has always resonated with me.

No man better embodies this heroic nature of liberty than Ludwig von Mises.

My favorite example of Mises’s legendary dedication to his principles is his experience during WWI.

Even though he was already an accomplished scholar, his masterpiece Theory of Money and Credit was published in 1912, the Great War brought Mises to the field of battle. As a commanding officer of an Austrian artillery regiment, Mises and his men were tasked with defending the Northern Front of the Austro-Hungarian Empire from the marching Russians.

Not only were Mises and his men outnumbered, but manning the cannons meant being the prime targets of Russian fire. The result was horrific. As Guido Hülsmann details in Mises: Last Knight of Liberalism, “In the first few weeks and months of the war, almost no day went by that did not see entire [Austrian] batteries (about 100 men each) and even regiments (about 500) being wiped out.”

Mises and his men held the line and the Russians were driven back in December of 1914.

After receiving honors for his actions on the battlefield, First Lieutenant Ludwig von Mises was extended an invitation to join a team of fellow economists on the Viennese war council. Though glad to be away from the canons of war, Mises was horrified by what he found — his nation’s greatest minds, men who knew better, becoming apologists for a bureaucratic government seeking to tighten its grip on the economy.

Writes Hülsmann:

Montesquieu once said that although one had to die for one’s country, one was not obliged to lie for it. This seems to have been Mises’s maxim too. He had already demonstrated his readiness to give his life for his country. Now he showed his will to honor the truth even if it brought him in conflict with powerful opponents. ... Mises argued that, “from a purely economic standpoint,” the case for free trade and against protectionism was unassailable.

The power of the argument ... made it impossible for the war party to ignore Mises. Trouble lay ahead.​

The trouble came in the form of orders to return back into combat. The government’s message was clear — Mises needed to go. Not for the last time, his decision to stand firm in his defense of liberty put his very life in danger.

Luckily for us all, Mises survived the war and went on to live a life that fundamentally altered the world. He overcame the Nazis, academic blacklists, and the personal hardships that tends to haunt any man who refuses to sacrifice his principles.

While some like Milton Friedman viewed Mises intransigence as a burden to Mises’s influence, I believe his example is vital to the resurgence of Misesian thought today.

We see this on the streets of Brazil, where earlier this year young Brazilians took to the streets demanding “Less Marx, More Mises”! Thanks to the work of people like Helio Beltrão, Mises is now the most popular economist in the country.

We see this in China, where translations of Mises and fellow Austrians have made it into the hands of students and scholars. Even Murray Rothbard is openly discussed in influential circles.

We see it in the incredible growing international network of young Austrian scholars, complete with university programs dedicated to Austrian insights in topics such as entrepreneurship.

Though it rests far away from the halls of power, and apart from any larger political machine, the Mises Institute stands today the most influential libertarian organization in the world, a testament to the power of Mises’s ideas and a commitment to stay true to principle.

Though there is still much to be done, we should never lose sight of the gains we have made — nor lose hope for the future.

In the words of Lew Rockwell:

Mises never tired of telling his students and readers that trends can change. What makes them change are the choices we make, the values we hold, the ideas we advance, the institutions we support.

Unlike Mises, we do not face obstacles that appear hopelessly high. We owe it to his memory to throw ourselves completely into the intellectual struggle to make liberty not just a hope, but a reality in our times. As we do, let us all adopt as our motto the words Mises returned to again and again in his life. “Do not give in to evil, but proceed ever more boldly against it.”​

For as little as $7 a month, you can become a Sustaining Member of the Mises Institute and be a part of this movement. Together, we can follow Mises’s example and change the world.

https://mises.org/giving/campaigns/mises-daily


​

 

[r3volution 3.0]

^^^

ignore list

No hard feelings, you're just a waste of my time.

 

[Occam's Banana]

[...] ignore list

No hard feelings [...]

No offense taken. Res ipsa loquitur. Thank you.

 

[Occam's Banana]

Bionic Mosquito comments:

From Alejandro Chafuen at Forbes:

TheBestSchools.org, an online resource for campus and online education, has just released a ranking of the 50 most influential think tanks in the United States.​

From this list, Mr. Chafuen has culled the subset that he considers the “Leading Conservative / Libertarian Think Tanks.” On the list are the likes of the Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute, American Enterprise Institution, and Hoover Institution – each with annual revenues from about $30 million to over $110 million.

TheBestSchools.org, some of the results are similar, especially the top four free market groups: Heritage Foundation, Cato, Mises Institute and American Enterprise Institute.

Like other rankings, this new effort treats “think tanks as principally in the business of selling their ideas.” But it focuses on social media more than any other previous ranking.​

Third on Mr. Chafuen’s subset is the Mises Institute (which I would not necessarily call a “think tank”), with annual revenue below $5 million – found to be more influential than a dozen other entities with budgets as much as 10 times larger.

Mises Institute is the one with the smaller budget ($4 to 5 million), and they can rightly claim that, at least in social media measurements, they provide more “bang for the buck.” In addition to the superb collection of scholarly books and studies in the Austrian tradition, especially by Ludwig von Mises, Murray Rothbard, and their disciples, Mises Institute sometimes releases provocative articles, defying politically correctness and attracting wide readership.​

Yet, on this same list, Mises receives the lowest ratings for average media references per year. To demonstrate that he “gets it,” Mr. Chafuen notes:

This increases its social media impact, but who is to say that think tanks were only created to influence the academic and policy elites?​

Today’s academic and policy elites draw support from the established media, and the established media draws its support from the academic and policy elites. But with the internet, they are all fighting a losing battle.​

 

[Occam's Banana]

From the Forbes article referenced in the previous post:

The Most Influential Think Tanks In The United States: A New Social Media Ranking
http://www.forbes.com/sites/alejand...the-united-states-a-new-social-media-ranking/
Alejandro Chafuen (16 Decermber 2015)

TheBestSchools.org, an online resource for campus and online education, has just released a ranking of the 50 most influential think tanks in the United States. I have written that the think tank and university worlds are beginning to overlap. Some universities are creating internal think tanks, some think tanks are offering university-type programs, and there is an increased number of efforts where think tanks and universities collaborate in educational products and services. It does not come as a surprise, at least for me, that this “school web portal” decided to devote some time to focus on U.S. think tanks.

Like other rankings, this new effort treats “think tanks as principally in the business of selling their ideas.” But it focuses on social media more than any other previous ranking. The authors reason that “in this age of the Internet, in which every think tank has a website,” we “can regard think tanks as in the business of search engine marketing, i.e., as attempting to market their ideas over the Internet and especially through their website.”

Early each year I compile statistics and write about the impact of conservative and libertarian think tanks in social media. Fourteen such groups appear in this list. Although my analysis of social media impact uses more measurements than TheBestSchools.org, some of the results are similar, especially the top four free market groups: Heritage Foundation, Cato, Mises Institute and American Enterprise Institute. Mises Institute is the one with the smaller budget ($4 to 5 million), and they can rightly claim that, at least in social media measurements, they provide more “bang for the buck.” In addition to the superb collection of scholarly books and studies in the Austrian tradition, especially by Ludwig von Mises, Murray Rothbard, and their disciples, Mises Institute sometimes releases provocative articles, defying politically correctness and attracting wide readership. This increases its social media impact, but who is to say that think tanks were only created to influence the academic and policy elites?

Despite the claim in the title of the ranking that these are the “50 most influential US think tanks,” the organization recognizes that they do not measure the “intrinsic merit of a think tank and its intellectual program” but its “cash value” measured by 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.” This is the key measurement of SEMrush.com. TheBestSchools.org, uses that web tool to determine how well their portal was doing “in attracting and holding visitor traffic” so they decided to measure think tanks.

Although they state that in preparing the ranking they considered the average yearly revenue; the average number of printed media references per year by outside organizations; and the number of categories in which a think tank was ranked by the 2014 Global GoTo Think-Tank Index, a simple analysis of their ranking shows that those elements were not weighed. They just relied on one SEMrush measurement. The top two groups in the list, the Belfer Center at Harvard, and the Earth Institute at Columbia, do not merit their ranking. Those who prepared the data took the entire traffic of Harvard and Columbia as the traffic for these centers. The Heritage Foundation, ranked third, should be really ranked first. In addition, the information for some of the think tanks is incomplete or wrong. Acton Institute, for example, appears on several categories in the 2014 GoTo Think Tank Index, but the analysis mentions none. Another issue of the rankings is that it does not provide information on when the data was compiled and does not include many think tanks, like Hudson Institute, which beats several on the list. TheBestSchools.org will be correcting its analysis.

[... full article at link: http://www.forbes.com/sites/alejand...the-united-states-a-new-social-media-ranking/...]

 

[Occam's Banana]

A relevant older article by Alejandro Chafuen:

Ludwig von Mises: Inspiring Think Tanks Across The Globe
http://www.forbes.com/sites/alejand...mises-inspiring-think-tanks-across-the-globe/
Alejandro Chafuen (20 August 2014)

The free enterprise system within a rule of law is the best engine for prosperity. Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973) is recognized by many as its greatest advocate. His name was largely ignored for decades, today, however, more than 20 think tanks around the world are named after him. No other famous economist comes close.

Those who started these “Mises Institutes” were inspired mostly by the theoretical work of this Austrian scholar, books such as “Socialism,” “Theory of Money and Credit,” and “Human Action.” When I studied economics at Grove City College under Dr. Hans F. Sennholz (1922-2007), one of Mises’ disciples, these three books were required reading.

The clear logic, impeccable analysis, and consistency of Mises analysis captivated not only some economists disillusioned with Keynesianism and other interventionist dogmas, but especially businessmen. Both the Spanish and Portuguese versions of “Human Action” were translated by businessmen. I do not mean that they paid for it, they actually translated the large book (1000 pages). Joaquin Reig Albiol did the Spanish edition in 1960 and Donald Stewart Jr., founder of the Instituto Liberal in Rio de Janeiro, translated the Brazilian edition in 1990. Talented young businessmen and entrepreneurs, such as Helio Beltrão in Brazil, continue to play key roles in the Mises Institutes peppered around the globe.

Ludwig von Mises knew the importance of theory, but he also thought it was essential that “the eminent citizens, the intellectual leaders of the community,” be “in a position to form their own opinion on the basic social, economic, and political principles of policies.” For that they also need access to facts, and statistical information and analysis. There is considerable truth in the famous Kurt Lewin statement that “there is nothing more practical than a good theory,” but these theories should guide applied research and applied research should create incentives for theoretical refinements.

Few of the many Mises Institutes around the globe focus on the type of policy research that Ludwig von Mises conducted during an important part of his life. In an academic paper published by the Cevro Institut and presented at the Mont Pelerin Society in Prague in 2012, Richard Ebeling described this “other Mises.” Ebeling wrote:

From 1909 to 1934 (except during the First World War when he served in the Austrian Army), Mises worked as an economic-policy analyst and advisor to the Vienna Chamber of Commerce … he spent his working day as a ‘policy wonk.’ He immersed himself in the factual details and economic policy specifics of, first, the old Austro-Hungarian Empire and, then, the Austrian Republic between the two World Wars. His statistical knowledge of ‘the facts’ relating to Austrian fiscal policy, regulatory legislation, and monetary institutions and policy was precise and minute.​

Ludwig von Mises conducted policy research and offered practical, middle-of-the-road policy solutions. Some of his recommendations might shock those who only pay attention to his theories: from retaliatory tariffs against the enemies of Austria, to numerous second-best proposals including indexation, indirect consumption taxes, and even subsidies to the poor to help in transitions to more developed market economies.

J. Guido Hülsmann, author of “Mises: The Last Knight of Liberalism,” describes that when Mises moved to the United States there was an effort to create a university-based think tank for him to lead. Conducting research at the archives of Grove City College, which holds Mises’ correspondence, Hülsmann discovered that Frederick Nymeyer (1897-1981), an industrialist who was inspired by Mises’s books, tried to create a Liberal Institute at the University of Chicago. The Austrian professor was willing but the university declined the offer arguing that they only wanted to receive unrestricted money. If the Liberal Institute in Chicago would have been launched, would Mises have continued with his policy analysis? It is difficult to know, but what we know is that after his death, many of his great admirers, disciples and students launched several think tanks around the globe.

The U.S. based Mises Institute has the largest budget (over $4 million). Founded in 1982, it is also the oldest and most active. The groups in Belarus, Canada, and especially Brazil, are also increasingly active but have much smaller budgets.

 

[Zippyjuan]

Despite the claim in the title of the ranking that these are the “50 most influential US think tanks,” the organization recognizes that they do not measure the “intrinsic merit of a think tank and its intellectual program” but its “cash value” measured by 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.” This is the key measurement of SEMrush.com. TheBestSchools.org, uses that web tool to determine how well their portal was doing “in attracting and holding visitor traffic” so they decided to measure think tanks.

Which was my point.

 

[Occam's Banana]

Which was my point.

(1) How does one measure the "intrinsic merit of a think tank and its intellectual program" in way that is not subjective?

(2) What would such a measure have to do with "influence" (however defined) in any case?