Bob Murphy

Author Archive

Privatize the Borders!

I argue that Bryan Caplan isn’t radical *enough* when it comes to immigration. An excerpt: First let me deal with the question of the libertarian ideal. If politics weren’t an issue, and we could get the society we really want, I think both Bryan and I would want all real estate held in private hands. […]

Canadian Budget Cuts Didn’t Rely on “Offsetting Monetary Expansion”

I manage to take on both Keynesians and Market Monetarists in this blog post, while sparing David R. Henderson. It’s like in the arcade when you shoot the bad guys without hitting the civilians. (David R. Henderson might even call himself a Market Monetarist; I’m not sure. Don’t ruin my joke.) The conclusion: The experience […]

Using IPCC’s Own Numbers to Defeat UN Climate Policy Agenda

In honor of the summit in NYC, I used the latest IPCC report to show that a popular policy goal fails a global cost/benefit test. Now you know why they are moving the goalposts.

Emanuel Derman FTW

Tyler Cowen linked to this symposium in the Guardian on Piketty’s success. Emanuel Derman’s response is awesome; here’s the latter half: [Economists] can’t agree on the efficacy of money printing or austerity. They keep changing their minds every few years about conventional wisdom while at every instant appearing to be certain that they are right. […]

Fear & Loathing in Secondary School

I have to keep this vague so as not to even remotely implicate specific people, but over the weekend I went to my 20th high school reunion. I talked to some people who flabbergasted me with the complimentary things they said; I would have previously guessed that they kinda sorta knew who I was, but […]

Potpourri

==> David R. Henderson gives a comprehensive response (with the help of Scott Horton) to Richard Epstein’s case for a libertarian intervention against ISIS. ==> Speaking of Syria, check out my old post on “More Middle East Map Fun!” ==> Robin Hanson has an interesting post that suggests economists don’t actually care about changing the […]

“Hang on Sloopy” in the Hometown

I’m back in Rochester for my 20th high school reunion (this weekend). While here I decided to treat this group of strangers to a classic tune from the McCoys. The crowd really gets into it at the end.

Climate Change Activists Move Goalposts Yet Again

My latest IER post. An excerpt: In the present post, I’ll walk through yet another example of this phenomenon, in this case a recent ThinkProgress article that complains that GDP (Gross Domestic Product) isn’t a good metric when it comes to the debate over climate change. As we’ll see, when confronted with very compelling arguments […]