Bob Murphy

Author Archive

Norm MacDonald Tells the Moth Joke

I heard Bill Burr mention this–in the context of saying that many comedians act like they don’t care if people like them, but NM is the real deal–and I had to look it up.

Further Thoughts on Fractional Reserve Banking and Simple Theft

Again, it looks like I’m loading the deck by saying “FRB is like a mugger,” but that’s not the motivation for this analogy… If you haven’t already read it, you should check out my previous post, where I set up a thought experiment to work through the mechanics of FRB, and how it might (or […]

Potpourri

==> This is an old but very interesting post from Mark Bahner on atmospheric CO2 and how quickly it could be removed if need be. ==> A very interesting post from David Beckworth on the yield curve (HT2 Scott Sumner). But most important–look at this analysis from Ben Bernanke back in 2006!! Not only was […]

No, Brett Kavanaugh Doesn’t Think Killer Whale Shows Are a Professional Sport

People I respect like Judge Napolitano have raised serious concerns about Brett Kavanaugh because of his rulings on privacy issues related to the Patriot Act etc.; see Judge Nap’s appearance on the Tom Woods Show for more details. But what is a completely bogus criticism is that in his (in)famous dissent in the SeaWorld case, Kavanaugh had […]

David, Goliath, and Gladwell

Say what you will about him, Malcolm Gladwell is a great storyteller. In conjunction with his 2013 book, here he gives a 15-minute TED talk on a new perspective regarding the famous underdog story: As some of the outraged people in the comments brought up, the one glaring omission here is David’s faith. (Even if […]

Contra Cruise 2018 Contest Winners

I can’t remember if I posted these already? Anyway, here is the runner-up video, and then the two winners for this year’s contest:

A Thought Experiment on Fractional Reserve Banking

Enrico in the comments of my FRB lecture writes: “if someone lends 100$ to a bank for a fixed time period, and then the bank makes a loan of 90$, no boom&bust cycle will happen. The reason is that the 90$ loan granted by the bank is “backed” by (at least) 90$ real savings from […]

Is It Intellectually Honest to Chortle About This?

Major Freedom tipped me off to this Bloomberg interview with Krugman, which aired in March 2017: So in the interview, Krugman says 3% growth is not possible, even if they made him dictator. (Really.) Krugman goes on to say that 2% growth is the reality we now face, for various reasons (like demography), unless there […]