Bob Murphy

Author Archive

One More Attempt to Understand Aliens vs. Hurricanes

I am completely unsatisfied with the responses in the comments of my previous post. Let’s try this again. I’m going to use numbers. Please answer me with respect to the numerical examples provided. If you want to step outside my thought experiment and tell me why it’s unfair, missing the point, etc. etc., that’s fine, […]

“Hurricanes Are Nature’s Keynesianism”

I didn’t choose that title for my latest article at The American Conservative–it’s a bit too provocative for my tastes–but I don’t think it’s out of line. I don’t see why our Keynesian friends here (and even in the comments of my article) bristle so much at linking the two. Look at this earlier piece […]

Did Matt Yglesias Just Refute Keynes and Krugman?

It used to be the case that after a natural disaster, we could expect the following: 1) Pundits and even some economists would say that despite the human tragedy, the silver lining was that the disaster would be “good for the economy.” Then, due to the efforts of Henry Hazlitt, it used to be the […]

Notes on Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem

Someone ran across my CV and asked me if I could send anything I’d written on game theory. So I dug up my class notes (for an undergrad class at Hillsdale) on Kenneth Arrow’s famous “Impossibility Theorem” regarding social choice. I haven’t looked at these in 7 years, so I hope they’re right: ============= NOTES […]

Krugman Has Trouble Parsing Robert Samuelson

This is really astounding, even for Krugman. If you have 10 minutes, and you’re the kind of person who loves to see Krugman executing a mob hit on an ideological opponent, then first read Krugman discussing Robert Samuelson’s piece on government job creation. Based on Krugman’s commentary, imagine what you think Samuelson’s actual article must […]

Keynesians Believe In Confidence Fairy–Provided He’s a Democrat

Christina Romer apparently doesn’t keep tabs on Krugman’s blog. She often refers to the jump in GDP after the election of FDR as a sign that stimulus spending works–even though Krugman has, on at least two separate occasions, specifically used this “hypothetical” argument to show how silly right-wingers are, for gauging recessionary policies relative to […]

Gold Money Apparently Existed Before the Big Bang

It is hilarious to me that even the harshest critics of the Mengerian account of the origin of money, end up relying on anthropological evidence that is in total agreement with his story, and makes little sense with the rival State narrative. For a recent example, consider the following extraordinary passage from Ambrose Evans-Pritchard: It […]

Let’s Delve a Little Deeper Into Krugman’s Newfound Respect for Liquidity Trap Economics in Japan

Krugman often tells of how he is a true scientist because he didn’t believe in the liquidity trap, until faced with the problem of Japan in the 1990s. Then he realized that unconventional monetary policy–the promise to be irresponsible in the future–was something the Bank of Japan could do. All of this serves as a […]