Bob Murphy

Author Archive

Murphy Twin Spin (Kinda Sorta)

==> Here’s my recent IER post on the Fed and oil prices. And here’s a comparable one from David Beckworth. ==> I’m a scholar contributing to the marketplace of ideas. First Phil Magness and I get published, and now we get cited in another economist’s article! Quick somebody get me a pipe and a smoking jacket.

Potpourri

==> Are people criticizing Trump for the same reason that Bible-believing Christians speak out against the corruption of the world? I.e. just to say they officially tried even though the know it won’t change the (near-term) course of history? I’m being serious, I saw this HuffPo piece on Facebook and it has 110k views. It […]

Potpourri

==> I tell people on The Hill how much they’ve painted us into a corner. ==> Krugman thinks you’re stupid (except not you, LK). ==> Carlos scares the )#(%)#(*$ out of people in this episode of the Lara-Murphy Show. ==> You can have a field day with this quotation from Hillary Clinton. ==> Imagine that, […]

Why Does God Let Really Bad Stuff Happen?

I purposely worded the question in this way, to show what (I think) is wrong with the usual framing. People will often say, “Why would a good God have permitted institutional slavery, children dying from cancer, the Holocaust…etc.?” But nobody says, “Why would a good God have allowed me to stub my toe this morning?” […]

Questions for Keynesians and Market Monetarists

In my never-ending quest to achieve total magnanimity, I gently ask the following questions to make sure I understand how rival camps view the world. (1) To the Keynesians: I understand the point that “Ricardian Equivalence,” even if true, would not undermine the boost to current Aggregate Demand from a large government budget deficit. For […]

Potpourri

==> I’m not going to post it here every time, but check out Lara-Murphy.com because now I’m doing a daily financial post. ==> This cartoon by David Beckworth is pretty funny if you’re an econ geek. ==> An interesting post from Bryan Caplan on adultery.

Tyler Cowen Joins Murphy in Sumner Bashing

[UPDATE at the end.] I really liked this recent post from Tyler, where he writes (all formatting in original): [Tyler Cowen quotation:] To get more specific yet, I am very much a fan of the ngdp rule approach to monetary policy, but I am uncomfortable with one strand in market monetarist thought. I worry when […]

Krugman’s Climate Alarmism Is Juuuuust Right

My latest at IER. An excerpt: Again I point to the tightrope Krugman is walking here: He wants his readers to get on board, cheerleading these “green” power sources because they keep getting so efficient. Yet on the other hand, if the government doesn’t support them, everybody dies. How does that make any sense? If […]