Bob Murphy

Author Archive

More on Krugman and Marginal Product, Sans Calculus

By popular request, my new article at The American Conservative makes the same basic point that Karl Smith made back in November, but I think I spelled it out here very clearly to isolate Krugman’s mistake. Contrary to some of you guys in the comments, I don’t think the issue on this one was nominal […]

The Myth of Wartime Prosperity

This ran a while ago but I forgot to blog about it. Half of my piece is just the standard case against World War II “prosperity,” with a link to Steve Horwitz’s co-authored piece drawing on primary sources to show how tough things were on the homefront. However, after that I take Krugman et al. […]

I Got the Blog Host Blues, Baby I Got the Blog Host Blues

OK apparently what happened is that the business credit card on file with HostGator expired, and they were sending warning emails to a different account. So I called up HostGator today and did a quick manual payment to get the blog back. Then they told me how to go into my account settings and (a) […]

Krugman, Karl, and Kalculus

I want to follow-up on my initial thoughts on Krugman saying that rich people don’t add anything (net) to the economy, since I personally am seeing this whole thing much more clearly now, largely thanks to you guys and (believe it or not) my working through a mathematical model that is standard in grad programs. […]

Two Keynesians vs. Two Austrians

Brad DeLong thinks Mario Rizzo is a “psychopath” (actual quote) for recommending that people don’t tip NYC cab drivers; DeLong recommends (obviously tongue in cheek) strip-searching “these people” (by which he means Austrians, I think, and not Italians) whenever visiting one’s house. Brad DeLong also thinks I’m nuts for saying that it would be immoral […]

Potpourri

==> David R. Henderson, clearly jealous of my notoriety, points out that he debated Paul Krugman when I was an undergrad. ==> Scott Sumner and von Pepe go toe-to-toe. Von Pepe tells Sumner that the word “market” doesn’t mean what he thinks it means. ==> After that warm-up, for something even more surreal: Joseph Fetz […]

Why Don’t I Spend All My Time Reading About Church History?

Thorn-in-my-side Ken B. made a comment earlier in the week that I’ve seen in several places, in varying forms. So I will quote him here, but realize the point goes beyond Ken B.’s particular question. Here’s Ken: So a question Bob: I refuted the historicity of the story of the woman taken in adultery, showing […]

Entrepreneur Hero Worship and Calculus

How’s that for an obscure post title? I’m referring to Krugman’s accusation that right-wingers are hypocrites. (I hope you were sitting down for that one.) Their latest abomination refers to their claim that people with high incomes are engines of job creation and therefore we don’t want the government to drop the hammer on them. […]