Bob Murphy

Author Archive

Let It Gooooo

I saw singer/songwriter Jordan Page play at a house concert in Tennessee last night. He told us a story (which I think he’d be fine with me relaying here) of how, earlier in his career, he had been playing at a bar and in between songs was telling the audience how they needed to take […]

Just to Be Clear, No An-Cap Ever DID Claim Utopia

In the comments of my lighthearted post about Gene Callahan’s Poconos gulag, K.P. wrote: “At least maybe claims of libertarian society being utopian will cease now.” Unfortunately, I don’t know whether K.P. is just being a wiseguy along with me, or he is really putting his foot down and hoping that Rothbardians, going forward, stop […]

Maybe Libertarians DO Need to Talk About “Privilege” After All?

I’m just kidding with the post title, but here’s what prompted it: Gene Callahan has bought his second (?) vacation/rental home in a private community in the Poconos, and finds that it is more oppressive than the local government he faces in the [edited to add:] rural U.S.: [T]here were a number of small trees […]

Mises on Empire and Liberalism

To repeat, I really like Dan McCarthy. He knows a ton more about history and politics than I do. But in his recent article in The American Conservative, he made the case that the British and now U.S. empires were necessary for a domestic liberal society. I have already linked you to my general response […]

A Free Society Must Give Up Empire

I want to go out of my way to say this isn’t an “attack” on Dan McCarthy. (It would be ironic to launch an airstrike from an antiwar website.) I respect Dan’s views greatly, and frankly was somewhat shocked when I read his article making a qualified case for U.S. empire. In any event, here’s […]

Responding to Bryan Caplan on Why Government Enterprises Are So Good

My newest LibertyChat article takes on Bryan Caplan’s surprising argument that Rothbardians can’t explain why government enterprises work so well. Here’s my conclusion, so you can see where I took the argument, but you should read the whole thing; I even talk about ice-pick lobotomies. (Yes, I went there.) We see that the spirit of […]

The GAO’s Whitewash on “Social Cost of Carbon”

I know some of you may be vaguely interested in the climate change policy debate, but you realize there’s a lot of reading to get up to speed you would have to decide which person is fudging the facts etc. If that’s you, I’ve got just the blog post you’ve been waiting for. In this […]

I Call Krugman’s Bluff on European Austerity

I realize the novelty of this is wearing thin, but every once in a while I like to go look up the actual numbers when I know Krugman is full of it. This time, it concerns his offhand remarks concerning Germany, France, and the Netherlands.