Bob Murphy

Author Archive

Keynesian Civil War on CBO Report

[UPDATE below.] Paul Krugman, May 20: Where Are the Deficit Celebrations? For three years and more Beltway politics has been all about the deficit. Urgent action was needed to avert crisis. A Grand Bargain absolutely had to be reached. Fix the Debt, now now now! So where are the celebrations now that the debt issue […]

Krugman: Government Policy Has Always Been at War With the Deficit Scolds

At this point I have whiplash from reading Paul Krugman’s blog. I am swamped with stuff so I won’t document the below claims with links; perhaps I’ll come back and do it for posterity. In any event, for the last several years, Krugman has been complaining: (1) Europe and the US are engaged in “unprecedented” […]

Mystery Right-Winger Sneaks Into an NPR Story on ZIRP

I was pleasantly surprised by this NPR story this morning, which said that the Fed’s zero-interest-rate policy was turning savers into collateral damage. But if you listen closely, around 3:30 you’ll recognize a familiar voice.

IRS Scandal Bask

I actually haven’t looked into it too closely, being of the “dog bites man” flavor. Here’s my main reaction to it, but I want to give people here a chance to correct me: This scandal isn’t so much that the IRS was harassing political opponents, like forcing them to hire legal teams and spend a […]

Potpourri

==> Some people complained to me when this came out, but I thought Russ Roberts did a good job keeping Sumner honest in this interview. At the very end, Russ says something like (not exact quote), “You tell interesting an interesting story, Scott, it might even be true.” ==> Joe Salerno on the Fed realizing […]

Relax, Everyone, Krugman Sees No “Signature” of an Asset Bubble

In a recent post Krugman wrote: Antonio Fatas is annoyed at Gillian Tett, who talks to the I-see-bubbles crowd and assumes that they have The Truth — namely, that those crazy central banks are flooding the world with liquidity, driving asset prices to crazy levels, and it will all end in terrible grief. Pretty much […]

The IRS Scandal

Help me out here. The only reason this IRS scandal has any traction, is that the IRS itself admitted it had targeted Tea Party and other groups. There were lots of conservative types complaining about special scrutiny before, and nobody cared. So why did the IRS come forth with this? And doesn’t it seem weird […]