Bob Murphy

Author Archive

Christina Bianco Sings “Oh Holy Night” as Divas

This was too funny and would distract from the serious subject matter, but now that it’s Monday how can I resist? Just start it at 0:45. I would pay a lot to go to a sparsely populated karaoke bar with Ms. Bianco.

Crime Bask

Does anyone know where I can get disaggregated crime data that would show how many homicides were related to various types of drugs? Ideally, I’d like to be able to say that during such and such a period, X homicides were due to cocaine-related drug deals, while Y homicides were related to heroin-related drug deals, […]

My Favorite Christmas Song Lyric

“Long lay the world / in sin and error pining” I love every word of that. It reminds me of my favorite Bible verse (Job 28:28): And to man He said, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, And to depart from evil is understanding.’” Sorry kids if you can’t stand her, but […]

Where Are the Rothbardian Defense Agencies?

I answer Gene Callahan’s objections in this post at Mises Canada. An excerpt: As I said upfront, Callahan’s mistake here is forgivable, because even many Rothbardians have probably made it when discussing prohibition. So let me explain that intellectual error, then circle back to deal with Callahan. We all have the empirical evidence in front […]

When “Force” Ceases to Have Meaning

I’m only shining a spotlight on this guy because he represents a broader pattern. Check this tweet out: Now I looked and thought, “That has to be complete BS. They are passing a law forcing women to buy rape insurance? Huh?!” They’re making it sound like the police are forcing women to have such insurance […]

Illustrating “the Collapse” in Government Spending

[UPDATE below.] Frequent commentator MajorFreedom linked to this, and I thought it worth highlighting. Remember, I had linked to David R. Henderson’s critique of Paul Krugman, who put up a graph–in a post titled “Unprecedented Austerity”–showing percentage changes in (a three-year average of) total government spending at all levels in the U.S. Krugman then said […]

Potpourri

==> I’m being serious: Mark Spitznagel sent me this, and neither of us can tell if this is a complete fabrication about “Krugman’s response.” Thoughts? I’d call in the world’s leading forensic expert on the writing of Paul Krugman, but that would present a conflict of interest. ==> What kind of crazy upside down world […]

If Bitcoin Is a Bubble, Is All Money Always In a Bubble?

I by no means am an expert on Bitcoin. The more I hear the experts talk about it, the more I realize I don’t know. (And as an aside, when I hear a proponent of Bitcoin say on NPR, “This isn’t even version 1.0 yet,” it doesn’t make me want to rush out and embrace […]