Bob Murphy

Author Archive

Don’t You Dare Show Scott Sumner This Rothbard Excerpt

I’m working on tomorrow’s lecture from Chapter 11 of Man, Economy, and State, and came across this passage on page 849: It is thus clear that the exchange-value of money cannot be quantitatively separated from the exchange-value of goods. Since the general exchange-value, or PPM, of money cannot be quantitatively defined and isolated in any […]

An Interesting Zinger From Tom Woods

I’m sure this is partly confirmation bias, and that the regulators amongst us will hasten to point out the flaw in the argument. But anyway I really liked this zinger from Tom Woods (HT2 Robert Wenzel): The Glass-Steagall-did-it crowd is the same crowd that likes to claim Canada avoided the worst of the U.S. crisis […]

Scott Sumner Is Hot, But Breaks His Own Rule

John Carney is starting to appreciate my fascination with the Bard* from Bentley. Carney reproduces the results a poll apparently suggested by Sumner: I thought we weren’t using the i-word anymore? No wonder Scott’s policy won–I bet it would get more votes than limiting the unicorn population to 8% growth, too. * I’m saying Scott […]

If We Give Up Our Cool, Then the Inflationists Will Have Already Won

UPDATE: Sorry, I forgot to include the money (ha ha) quote, to explain the purpose of Scott’s post. Scott Sumner thinks he can play me like a game of classic Donkey Kong: Some days I want to just shoot myself, like when I read the one millionth comment that easy money will hurt consumers by […]

An Economist With a Cool Accent Explains Quantitative Easing

The bored von Pepe sends this one:

Banking Practices in Early 20th Century Bask

(BTW for new readers, “bask” is my abbreviation for “blog ask” since I am too proud to beg.) This is going to be a weird one: I have agreed to be a sort of economic consultant for a relative who is a working on a novel that involves characters working in a bank in Ireland […]

Spreading the Love: Wenzel and Gordon Edition

I loved the first Cars movie because I could really identify with Lightning McQueen’s narcissism. In an effort to combat that, let me point you to two other people’s ventures to spread the word on the dangers of the State: ==> Robert Wenzel’s first podcast is up. He’s got a funky beat and a professional […]

Faith Is Not Opposed to Reason

This short video is a great analogy for why religious faith is not at all a euphemism for “turning your reason off.” Watching this guy makes me consider going back to Catholicism. A simple request: If you feel called to write things like, “I don’t believe in superstitious mumbo jumbo,” etc., please be clear on […]