Brownstone Institute for Social and Economic Research

The Brownstone Institute was founded in May 2021 by Jeffrey Tucker, an author and editor who previously worked for the libertarian think tank American Institute for Economic Research. ^{1 2}

Background

Brownstone Institute for Social and Economic Research is a libertarian-leaning think tank founded in response to government policies regarding the COVID-19 pandemic that the group says demonstrated “a willingness on the part of the public and officials to forego freedom and fundamental human rights in the name of a public health crisis.” ¹

The group says its mission is not limited to COVID-19, but to any future crisis that would prompt the public to give up freedom and governments to enhance their power. The institute says it “rejects the rights of the legally privileged few to rule over the many under any pretext” and supports “preserving freedom, free speech, and essential rights even in times of crisis.” ¹

Brownstone Institute is closely aligned with the Great Barrington Declaration, in which epidemiologists from Harvard, Oxford, and Stanford universities challenged the prevailing view that lockdowns were the best way to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. ³ In this declaration, Harvard’s Martin Kulldorff, Oxford’s Sunetra Gupta, and Stanford’s Jay Bhattacharya favored what they called “focused protection” of high-risk populations instead of broad lockdowns of the entire population. ⁴ Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases, condemned the Great Barrington Declaration. ⁵

Brownstone Institute contends the COVID-19 lockdowns set a precedent in the modern world, and it says it wants to try to prevent future lockdowns under other rationales. The institute says it wants to generate new ideas in public health, scientific discourse, economics, and social theory to defend liberty. ¹

The institute was founded in May 2021 by Jeffrey Tucker, author of Liberty or Lockdown, a book that contends lockdowns are ineffective. ^{1 6}

Policy and Goals

The group took the name Brownstone Institute from the long-lasting building stone, also called “Freestone,” that was used in 19th-century American cities. The name symbolizes that it wants to “rebuild” the “core values of human rights and freedom as non-negotiables for an enlightened society.” ¹

The institute says its primary focus includes a post-lockdown recovery for small businesses and entrepreneurial opportunity; academic freedom and the free exchange of ideas; prosperity, freedom, and health for people in society “especially its less privileged members”; and the well-being of school-age children whom the institute says were hit hardest by the lockdowns. ¹

The institute says the “fundamental misunderstanding” of human rights is “alive in all countries around the world today.” ¹

The institute held what it plans to be the first of future annual conferences in November 2021. ⁷

Leadership

Jeffrey Tucker is the founder and president of the Brownstone Institute. He is the author of 10 books in five languages, most recently Liberty and Lockdown. He is also the editor of The Best of Mises, on economics and culture. ¹ Tucker is a columnist at Forbes. He is also the founder of the Atlanta Bitcoin Embassy, and a senior distinguished fellow of the Austrian Economics Center in Vienna, Austria. ⁸ He is the former editorial director for the libertarian think tank American Institute for Economic Research. ²

Martin Kulldorff is the senior scientific director of the Brownstone Institute. Previously, he was a professor at the Harvard Medical School for ten years. He is an epidemiologist and biostatistician specializing in infectious disease outbreaks and vaccine safety and was a co-author of the Great Barrington Declaration, which questioned the need for lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic. Kulldorff is the developer of Free SaTScan, TreeScan, and RSequential software. ¹