Mark D. Hughes

Mark D. Hughes is a Causal-Realist (Austrian) economist in the Menger/Mises/Rothbard tradition. He is founder and Executive Director of the Institute for the Study of Privacy Issues (ISPI), a small, entirely member-funded organization which promotes interdisciplinary research and reporting on personal, financial, and electronic privacy so as to help ordinary people understand the degree of privacy they have with respect to government, industry and each other. In 1997, Hughes founded ISPI in response to concerns about the world-wide explosive growth of interconnected data-base technology and the widespread use of this technology by government, business and ordinary people to snoop into the private lives and finances of unsuspecting citizens.

From 1986 to 1989, Hughes was Academic Coordinator of the Ludwig von Mises Institute - Lawrence Fertig Student Center. The LFSC was the Fairfax, Virginia (George Mason University) satellite office of the Ludwig von Mises Institute. It functioned as a student resource center and conference location for the advancement of "Misesian" Austrian Economics in Northern Virginia.

From 1991 to 1996, Hughes was owner of Ama-gi Dolphin Distribution, which provided direct and network-retail marketing of household environmental products, preschool educational tools and consumer electronics. From 1995 to 1997, Hughes was owner of Ama-gi Dolphin Offshore Financial Research, which provided independent and unbiased research and reporting on publications and businesses dealing with privacy, asset protection, and financial planning through offshore banking centers.