Bob Murphy

Author Archive

Krugman Rejects Fear-Based Rhetoric, Except for Climate Change

This is my post at IER that went along with the commentary on Episode 10 of Contra Krugman. For the best line, first I need to set up Krugman’s claim: Finally, terrorism is just one of many dangers in the world, and shouldn’t be allowed to divert our attention from other issues. Sorry, conservatives: when […]

From the Comments, Quoting Myself on the Gold Standard and Scott Sumner

Apparently I do a great impression of a sphinx. This comment might clarify what I was trying to get across in my previous post: E. Harding now we go from “the monetary deflationary shock so obviously caused the Great Depression that it’s hard to deny it” to “it didn’t matter”? That’s a lot of goalpost […]

Sumner, the Gold Standard, and the Great Depression

Scott Sumner’s new book on the Great Depression is coming out December 1. This is definitely something I will get and digest next year, as I’m swamped. I believe the blurbs when they say this will be a classic in the field. Among other things, Scott has (apparently) interspersed newspaper clippings and real-time financial market […]

Potpourri

==> No other economist comes up with stranger blog ideas than Nick Rowe. ==> These people are shameless. ==> Rob Bradley pushes back against climate alarmism. (If you’re thinking, “C’mon Murphy, who are these ‘alarmists’ you keep talking about?”–see the previous link.) ==> David Beckworth wants Congress to rein in the wild Fed (sort of).

Contra Krugman Episode 10: Terrorist Attacks Aren’t Good for the Economy

Oh this was a fun one, with guest Scott Horton. I didn’t work it into the episode, but let me take the time here to note that my refined analogy (about you trying to decide whether to fix your car or cut the lawn, and then someone sets your house on fire and snaps you […]

The Problem of Pain

That of course is the title of a famous CS Lewis book. Here let me make two observations: (1) For believers, suppose that when you die, you realize that all the bad things in your life steered you into the type of person you yourself wanted to become. (2) Given that humans were going to […]

Drone Operator Whistleblowers

I heard this episode of “Democracy Now!” during my trip to Houston today. Some serious stuff, I encourage you to have this playing at least in the background.

A Revealing Misunderstanding

This is actually kind of interesting. I made this wiseguy FB post: What I meant was, it puts you in such a good mood to hear “Merry Christmas Darling” or “Walking in a Winterland,” that it would make the fighters chill out and lay down their arms. The extra joke of course was that they […]