Bob Murphy

Author Archive

Christians and Warfare

Today in church the pastor asked veterans to stand, then people with a veteran in the family, and then asked us to applaud them. It was pretty awkward but I sat there doing nothing; I wasn’t “making a point” but I also could not in good conscience applaud for people carrying out what I thought […]

Krugman: Austerity Is Bad, Unless It’s Taxing Rich People

Krugman is up in arms over the faux austerians: All along they’ve been worrying about the budget deficits in Europe, but when France goes and raises taxes on rich people, they complain about that too! The nerve of these people. Yet as usual, Krugman doesn’t know when to keep his mouth shut. In his zeal […]

O’Driscoll vs. Sumner

There is just too much good stuff to excerpt from Gerald O’Driscoll’s lead essay at Cato Unbound on central banks. OK fine, here’s just a taste: Does the literature make an intellectual case for ending the Fed? The 19th century economic journalist and Economist editor Walter Bagehot thought it would have been better if the […]

The Government Should Not Legislate Colors, or Morality

Suppose you heard the following: BOB: The government shouldn’t legislate colors! GENE: You don’t really believe that. You think it’s OK for Maxwell to go around bashing people’s heads in with his silver hammer? Replace “colors” with “morality” and you’ll see what’s wrong with Gene Callahan’s recent post.

I Was Wrong on “Opting Out”

Even though complaining about the TSA is the new libertarian pastime, I had never gotten that worked up about it. Of course, I agreed with the intellectual arguments that the TSA and their policies were a horrendous violation of liberty that didn’t make us safer. But since I personally travel a lot for business, I […]

Krugman on Government Fiscal Hole: “Death panels and sales taxes is how we do this.”

In 1984, one of the minor characters early on disappears because he was just too enthusiastic in his zeal for Big Brother. I always think of this guy when Paul Krugman unfurls his refreshing candor and explains the full implications of his brand of political economy. The below clip is from a talk Krugman gave […]

Blimey Cow Recognizes Talent

The main video is entertaining as usual, but starting at 3:00 they incorporate a Status Update I posted on Facebook. You can see I got writing credit.

Libertarian Christians

(The more typical phrase is “Christian libertarians” but I think we would all agree that our faith is more important than our [anti-]political views.) I am still in Chile and do not have a long time to blog, so let me just say this: There is a perception that most libertarians are atheists. There even […]