Bob Murphy

Author Archive

Oil Production: We’re #1! We’re #1! USA USA!

When I was growing up, we had it constantly drilled into our heads how awful the 1970s had been because the U.S. was “dependent on foreign oil.” That was the (ostensible) reason for the energy conservation campaigns and government policies to encourage the switch to non-fossil fuels. I remember seeing statistics talking about how the […]

Robin Williams on Golf

Lots of naughty words, proceed with caution.

More on “Risky Business”

Part 2 at IER of my commentary on “Risky Business,” the climate change analysis co-chaired by Michael Bloomberg, Hank Paulson, and Thomas Steyer. An excerpt: Thus we see the fundamental flip-flop: Rubin’s long quotation from page 44 can only make sense if the Report is urging a globally-coordinated government crackdown on carbon emissions. Yet on […]

The Importance of Willpower and Wisdom

My son and I were discussing spiritual matters and came up with these observations, which may interest some of you: ==> If you give your soul to the Lord, you may suffer greatly in this life (look what happened to Jesus, who obeyed His Father perfectly), but you will receive eternal bliss. ==> If you […]

A Question on Computer Chess

My son and I were discussing how computers can play certain games. I explained that a computer can easily “solve” Tic Tac Toe–meaning it can consider every possible future state of the board before making a move, and hence will never make a mistake. However, with chess this is not possible (at least yet). I […]

Potpourri

==> Tom Woods had some great guests on for his “World War I” week. (Tom was against.) You can browse the full archives of his show, but don’t miss the interview with David R. Henderson. Also check out Anthony Gregory talking with Tom about how awful George W. Bush was. ==> I don’t know what else to say […]

How Would a Free Society Handle Quarantines?

I tackle this weighty issue at my latest LibertChat post. An excerpt: In my view, the answer here is not to try to “deduce” the blanket answer from first principles, and declare that in a free society, we would necessarily see either outcome X or outcome Y. Instead, I think we should be humble and acknowledge that […]

Krugman Wants the Press to Take Sides in Debates, So Long as They Side With Him

As usual with this stuff, I only blog about Krugman and his inner Kontradictions because no one else will have such insight as I… Now before we jump into Krugman’s latest post, you need some background. Daniel Okrent was the New York Times ombudsman, or what the Times calls the “public editor.” Here is how […]