Bob Murphy

Author Archive

More on Adapting to Climate Change

Blackadder was keeping me/us honest in the comments of my previous post on adapting to climate change. In particular, he thought I was being flippant in saying people could just move inward if sea levels started rising. It devolved (among him and other commenters) into an argument about the relatively pace of the increase, leading […]

Was Bernanke Able to Create More Money?

Since I usually agree with David R. Henderson, I like to highlight times when I think he is either wrong or (at least) paints a misleading picture for his readers. In this post David was reviewing Alan Blinder’s new book, and wrote (quoting himself from his WSJ review): So once the financial crisis happened, what […]

Adapting to Climate Change

David R. Henderson recently wondered what’s so special about current global temperatures, such that moderate warming will allegedly prove so damaging? After all, there have been larger swings in global temperatures in the past. In the comments, the popular answer was that humans have adapted to the current climate. Thus, if the global average temperature […]

Christianity Is Either Brilliant or Foolish

Sometimes I am astounded at how vehemently people argue when it comes to religion, but it actually does make sense. Take Christianity for example, which is usually the context for the arguments I see. If it were just a bunch of recommendations like “turn the other cheek” or “love your neighbor as yourself,” it wouldn’t […]

Waldman Thinks Bernanke Will Go for (Flawed) Exit #1

Way back in March 2011, I had an article at Mises.org critiquing three “exit strategies” people had discussed for the Fed. The first was paying higher interest on excess reserves. Here was my analysis: The option that Bernanke himself frequently mentions is the Fed’s ability to offer higher interest rates on excess reserves. Currently, if […]

Friday Night Magnanimity

I just posted this comment over at The Money Illusion: Scott, I don’t hope to convince you on this point, but for any innocent reader: I want to say for the record that Paul Krugman–my nemesis–has, since the late 1990s, consistently said that what Japan needs to do, to escape from the zero-bound liquidity trap, […]

Potpourri

==> An interesting inventory at IER of “federal assets above and below ground.” I didn’t do this particular blog post, but I think it draws on some numbers I compiled in the past. This notion that if the feds don’t get to raise the debt ceiling, they have no choice but to cut PBS and […]

Daniel Kuehn, Like Krugman, Has Advice to Improve Jon Stewart’s Show

I know a lot of you ask, “Bob, why do you waste so much time on a Keynes-friendly grad student?” But it’s my blog. Go do something “important” on your blog, if you like. Anyway, Daniel rushed to Krugman’s defense vis-a-vis Jon Stewart. The odd thing is, Daniel actually agrees with Stewart that the platinum […]