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Antony Fisher (1915 - 1988) was one of the most influential background players in the global rise of libertarian think-tanks during the second half of the twentieth century, founding the Institute of Economic Affairs and the Atlas Economic Research Foundation. Through Atlas, he helped establish up to 150 other think-tanks worldwide. The most promininent include: The Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) is a London-based conservative think tank. ...
The Fraser Institute is an economically conservative Canadian think tank. ...
The Manhattan Institute for Policy Research is an influential conservative think tank based in New York, and established in 1978. ...
The National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA) is an American public policy research organization. ...
The Adam Smith Institute is a think tank based in the United Kingdom, named after the father of modern economics Adam Smith. ...
History
Eton-educated Fisher had always been a strong critic of "statism". In 1945, he read F. A. Hayek's Road to Serfdom which profoundly influenced him. He sought out Hayek that year in London and talked enthusiatically about politics. Hayek, however, convinced him that think-tanks were the best medium for effecting change in society. Statism is a term to describe an economic system where a government implements a significant degree of centralized economic planning or intervention, as opposed to a system where the overwhelming majority of economic planning occurs at a decentralized level by private individuals in a relatively free market. ...
Friedrich Hayek Friedrich August von Hayek (May 8, 1899 – March 23, 1992) was an economist and social scientist of the Austrian School, noted for his defense of free-market capitalism against a rising tide of socialist thought in the mid-20th century. ...
The Road to Serfdom is a book written by the economist Friedrich A. Hayek and originally published in 1944. ...
After serving in the Air Force during the Second World War, Fisher moved to farming. In 1952, he took a study trip to the United States, where he visited the still-new Foundation for Economic Education. F. A. Harper of the FEE introduced Fisher to former colleagues from the Agriculture Department of Cornell University, who showed him intensive chicken farming techniques with which Fisher was very impressed. Fisher returned home to start England's first battery chicken farm, Buxted Chickens, which eventually made him a millionaire. The Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) was the first modern think tank established in the United States specifically to promote, research and promulgate free-market and libertarian ideas. ...
Consequently, Fisher used his money to set up the hugely influential Institute of Economic Affairs with Ralph Harris in 1955. Despite losing his fortune in several ill-advised business ventures (including a turtle-farming operation), in 1971 he founded the International Institute for Economic Research, which went on spawn both the Atlas Economic Research Foundation in 1980 and the International Policy Network in 2001. The Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) is a London-based conservative think tank. ...
Through these operations, Fisher provided financial and operational support for a huge number of fledgeling think-tanks, most of which would not exist without his influence.
It was through the Atlas Economic Research Foundation that Fisher was able to extend his beliefs worldwide. By 1984, Fisher was watching over eighteen institutions in eleven countries. [1] (http://www.libertyhaven.com/theoreticalorphilosophicalissues/history/earlyhistory.html) Today, Atlas supports and works with around 150 libertarian think-tanks.
In his book Thinking the unthinkable, Richard Cockett sketched Fisher's role in supporting other emerging think-tanks around the world. "On the strength of his reputation with the IEA, he was invited in 1975 to become co-director of the Fraser Institute in Vancouver, founded by the Canadian businessman Pat Boyle in 1974. Fisher let the young director of the Fraser Institute, Dr Michael Walker, get on with the intellectual output of the Institute (just as he had given free reign to Seldon and Harris at the IEA) while he himself concentrated on the fund-raising side," Cockett wrote. There are several people with the name Michael Walker: Dr. Michael Walker, headmaster of King Edward VI Grammar School in Chelmsford - see Michael Walker (headmaster) Michael Walker, a councillor in Canada who advocates a Province of Toronto - see Michael Walker (politician) Michael Walker, a Canadian economist who founded the Fraser...
Cockett explained that after his success at the Fraser Institute, Fisher went to New York where in 1977 he set up the International Center for Economic Policy Studies (ICEPS), later renamed the Manhattan Institute. "The incorporation documents for the ICEPS were signed by prominent attorney Bill Casey, later Director of the Central Intelligence Agency". The Manhattan Institute for Policy Research is an influential conservative think tank based in New York, and established in 1978. ...
William D. Casey (born February 19, 1945 in Amherst, Nova Scotia) is a Canadian politician. ...
Cockett comments that "under the directorship of William Hammett the Manhattan Institute became probably Fishers greatest success after the IEA".
In 1977 Fisher moved to San Francisco "with his second wife Dorian, who he had met through the Mont Pelerin Society, and founded the Pacific Institute for Public Policy in 1979," Cockett wrote. According to Cockett Fisher and Milton Friedman lived in the same apartment block in San Francisco during the 1980's. The Mont Pelerin Society (MPS) is an international organization composed of economists, intellectuals, business leaders, and others who favour economic liberalism. ...
Milton Friedman Milton Friedman (born July 31, 1912) is a U.S. economist, known primarily for his work on macroeconomics and for his advocacy of laissez-faire capitalism. ...
In the late 1970's Fisher assisted Greg Lindsay in the development of the Centre for Independent Studies in Sydney.
"In 1981, to co-ordinate and establish a central focus for these institutes that Fisher found himself start up all over the world, he created the Atlas Economic Research Foundation which in 1987 joined up with the Institute for Humane Studies (IHS) founded by the Mont Pelerin member F.A. Harper in 1961) to provide a central institutional structure for what quickly became an ever-expanding number of international free-market think-tanks or research institutes," Cockett wrote. The Institute for Humane Studies (IHS) is a libertarian organization that assists students at the undergraduate and graduate levels. ...
According to Cokett, as the international think-tanks proliferated "Fisher used the local and international gatherings of the Mont Pelerin Society to find personnel, fund-raisers and donors for many of the Atlas Institutes".
Fisher died in 1988, only four weeks after being knighted.
External links - John Blundell, "[ Hayek, Fisher and The Road to Serfdom (http://preterhuman.net/texts/literature/books_in_PDF/F.%20A.%20Hayek-Road%20to%20Serfdom.pdf)] in Friedrich A. Hayek, The Road to Serfdom: the condensed version of the Road to Serfdom by F.A. Hayek as it appeared in the April 1945 edition of Readers Digest, Institute of Economic Affairs, 1999.
- Richard Cockett,Thinking the unthinkable: think-tanks and the economic counter-revolution, 1931-1983, Fontana Press, 1995, ISBN 0006375863
- John Blundell, Waging the War of Ideas (http://www.atlasusa.org/toolkit/waging_war.php?refer=toolkit), speech to the Heritage Foundation, January 1990
- Gerald Frost, Antony Fisher, Champion of Liberty, Profile Books, Great Britain, 2002.
This article uses content from the SourceWatch article on Antony Fisher (http://www.sourcewatch.org/wiki.phtml?title=Antony_Fisher) under the terms of the GFDL. Friedrich Hayek Friedrich August von Hayek (May 8, 1899 – March 23, 1992) was an economist and social scientist of the Austrian School, noted for his defense of free-market capitalism against a rising tide of socialist thought in the mid-20th century. ...
The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank located in Washington, DC, is widely regarded as one of the worlds most influential public policy research institutes. ...
SourceWatchs logo features a magnifying glass through which its name, somewhat distorted, can be seen. ...
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