05 Apr 2010

Three Murphy Items

Shameless Self-Promotion 5 Comments

* In this op ed I discuss the history of the federal income tax, and make the very modest proposal that we abolish it.

* At EconLib this month I do the grunt work and make a quick case that Big Government destroys at least $8,500 in real income per year, for every man, woman, and child in the United States.

* This guy has the right attitude:

How awesome is this!

The Mises Institute has decided to open up an online academy to teach Austrian economics.  The first series of online classes will be taught by Robert Murphy (a personal hero of mine) on understanding the business cycle.

Taking a class from Bob Murphy is like being personally taught by Einstein.  Only Einstein is dumber that Murphy, so really its like being taught by Hannes Alfvén.  The time will come when Keynesian theory is relegated to the dust bin of history and men like Murphy will reign supreme over economic theory.  Now is your chance to learn from a future Nobel Laureate and someone who isn’t a statist tyrant scumbag.

I have high hopes for my future, but I think I will win the Nobel Peace Prize before I win the Nobel (Memorial) Prize in Economics.

5 Responses to “Three Murphy Items”

  1. Evan says:
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    Dr. Murphy,

    In your opinion, all other things being equal, is it more economically destructive long term for a government to finance its spending through progressive taxation or through inflation?

  2. Jack says:
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    On the econlib article, you say that government spends 35% of GDP. This is incorrect. The White House puts out a bunch of crap numbers that don’t count various things. Total government spending is 6.5 trillion for FY 2010 (http://usgovernmentspending.com/). That puts the burden at 45% of GDP.

    • bobmurphy says:
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      Jack, that was actually my original source, but the editor balked. I think the 45% figure might be double counting. E.g. the federal government spends a bunch of money by giving it to the states, and then they spend it.

      I’m not positive that’s what happened, but I couldn’t prove for sure that the 45% didn’t involve double counting, so we went with the safer number.

  3. Ash Navabi says:
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    “Not a statist tyrant scumbag”

    That’d look good on a tombstone.

  4. Martin says:
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    Bob,

    The link to your op-ed links to page 2 of the story.