Bob Murphy

Author Archive

Wealth of Nations Bask

I’m sorry to ask such a silly thing, but does any reader have a physical copy of Wealth of Nations on hand? I’m trying to get the exact citation for this famous quote: “The things which have the greatest value in use have frequently little or no value in exchange; on the contrary, those which […]

You Can’t Ruin God’s Plan

Because I was raised Catholic (and thus lack detailed knowledge of the various Protestant sects), I am not confident in describing my current Protestant views with quick labels. A lot of what people mean by “Calvinist” applies to me, but then again on certain doctrinal issues I think that both the Calvinists and their opponents […]

Taxes Are Theft?

…he asked innocently. I am guessing I will have more to say on this topic, but here’s the first swing. Notice this part where I point out something ironic in Sumner’s discussion of Hiroshima: It’s also interesting that we can use Sumner’s rhetorical device against him. Notice in the beginning of his passage, he says […]

Milton Friedman Bask

Did Friedman ever write directly on a carbon tax in the context of climate change? I’ve seen people cite general principles he had, but did he ever himself take a stand on carbon taxes (or other government measures) to mitigate climate change?

Krugman the Shill

[UPDATE: I keep forgetting that not everyone grew up in a household that had succumbed to the British invasion. I didn’t write the Krugman tribute song from scratch; I parodied this Buckingham’s classic. I love it when Krugman’s fans tell me my song “sucks,” apparently thinking I wrote the whole thing. They need to realize […]

If You Can’t Trust the BLS, Who Can You Trust? Grocery Store Edition

I don’t often harp on this topic–though many of my correspondents get mad at me for “ignoring” it–because it looks like I’m moving the goalposts. Having said that, has anyone noticed how the amount of food is getting cut way back in the packaging at the grocery store?! I get sushi a lot, in a […]

Another Miraculous Post

Last week we talked miracles. I managed to upset both atheists and Bible-believing Christians, which tells me to persist in this line of thinking. ==> For the standard Christian who gets nervous that I am somehow diminishing God’s magnificence, let me make sure you at least see where I am coming from. In my view, […]

McCarthy on Secession

Dan keeps surprising me. Here’s his article responding to libertarians who had hoped Scotland would secede. I have neither the time nor the knowledge of history to do anything more than drop my jaw at this line: “Successful Southern secession would have entailed results even more illiberal than the outbreak of the Civil War, which […]