Bob Murphy

Author Archive

An Excellent Question From Steve Landsburg

When he’s not working on the great American novel, Steve Landsburg poses some excellent questions to his readers: Scientists at CERN have found apparent evidence that neutrinos can travel faster than light. Suppose that tomorrow historians at Harvard find apparent evidence that the South won the American Civil War — not in some metaphorical “they […]

A Whiny Student

Once I had a student Stevie Seasburg who slept through intro micro. Then he slept through intro macro. Then he slept through intermediate micro. Then he slept through intermediate macro. In his senior year, as an econ major with a C+ average (he was a very clever kid who could bluff his way through the […]

Meeting My Brothers and Sisters in Slovakia

Due to an email introduction that frequent commenter Brian Shelley made a while back, over the past few days I have been staying in Slovakia with Jozef Abrman, a missionary working with a Christian church in Trencin, Slovakia. Jozef holds a lecture series in which he brings in Christians from all over the world who […]

Caitlin Long Surprises Talking Heads By Suggesting Low Interest Rates Could Be Bad

Caitlin Long works at Morgan Stanley and was at the Mises event in Vienna. She doesn’t really get a chance to say much in this clip. I mostly find it funny that the smartest guys in the room (well I don’t know if the camera person is a man) have never heard the idea that […]

Mises Rolling Over in His Grave

The glib blurb from The Economist’s blog: About Free exchange In this blog, our correspondents consider the fluctuations in the world economy and the policies intended to produce more booms than busts. Adam Smith argued that in a free exchange both parties benefit, and this blog’s aim is to encourage a free exchange of views […]

“The Good One Versus the Evil One”

Such is the title given to this Mises Institute of Sweden article on my debate with Karl Smith. And here’s the accompanying photo: (I can’t read it, but Klaus Bernpaintner assures me they were otherwise respectful to Smith.)

Operation Distract

Whoa! Everybody is getting all bent up about the bond duration aspect of Operation Twist, but I just noticed this in the Fed’s official statement: To help support conditions in mortgage markets, the Committee will now reinvest principal payments from its holdings of agency debt and agency mortgage-backed securities in agency mortgage-backed securities. This is […]

Arnold Kling Being Too Kind to Scott Sumner?

Arnold Kling has mood swings on his posts over at EconLog. When he wants to blow somebody up, it’s best to duck and take cover because he can really let the guy have it, especially if it involves housing and mortgage finance (since Kling really knows what he’s talking about). On the other hand, Kling […]