Bob Murphy

Author Archive

In Defense of David R. Henderson

David R. Henderson has the enviable task of being the Wall Street Journal’s go-to guy every year when the Nobel (Memorial) Prize in economics is announced. For this year’s recipients, David said the award was given to people whose work put “a sizable chink in the Keynesians’ armor.” Now David gives a bunch of evidence […]

Krugman Bask on Bond Vigilantes

Krugman today yet again gives IS-LM all the credit for leading to his good predictions on interest rates. (I’m not being sarcastic; Krugman publicly was saying interest rates wouldn’t spike, when others were.) But I would like someone to show me where Krugman has actually used the IS-LM model to explain two different things: (A) […]

Jesus the Great Storyteller

It recently struck me that among His other superlative traits, Jesus was a great storyteller. There was no reason it had to be so. Moses wasn’t a storyteller, nor were any of the other giants from the Old Testament (at least not that I can think of). Daniel would tell some amazing tales, to be […]

Twin Spin From Silas Barta

Silas Barta is not so sure he trusts the White House committee that decides which Americans will die based on criteria that are classified, and so he has created a Do Not Kill list. On a more serious note, Silas has an interesting suggestion for those who take seriously the signalling model of education: You […]

Aggregate Demanders Once Again Hit Below the Belt

In the same spirit as Scott Sumner’s “if we eventually get high inflation, it will probably be due to tight money over the past few years,” I must also call the referee’s attention to this throwaway line from Krugman. After reminding readers that the Obama stimulus was in no way a “test” of actual Keynesian […]

Krugman Accounting Bask

I’m being serious in this post (for once), I want someone to explain exactly where Krugman is coming from when he writes: [Martin Wolf is] reacting to Cameron’s statement, semi-withdrawn but not really, that what Britain needs is for everyone to pay down debt, said in obvious obliviousness to the fact that if everyone cuts […]

Thoughts on the Econ Nobel Laureates

David R. Henderson is, as usual, much more courteous than I am. He argues that this year’s awards should be construed as “non-Keynesian,” and maybe he’s right. Yet here was my take: This year’s Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics goes to two Americans, Thomas Sargent (NYU) and Christopher Sims (Princeton). Officially the award is for […]

Yglesias Wants to Abolish the EPA!!

(Hint: At least skim this whole post. There’s a surprise at the end.) Wow, I stand corrected. I recently implied that on the great scientist/ideologue divided, Matt Yglesias came down on the side of Krugman. Yet in a recent post on Pigovian theory, Yglesias totally proved me wrong (HT2 Daniel Kuehn): Against Pigovian Taxes, For […]