Bob Murphy

Author Archive

If I Lived in England I Might Buy a TV Again

This is a neat game show clip I picked up from Scott Sumner. I will post my commentary (from Scott’s thread) as the first comment here. You should watch the clip first.

Former Fed Official Calls for Audit

William Barnett–who’s not the Fed-watching William Barnett of Loyola College, I checked–calls for an audit of the Fed in the NY Times (HT2 Jeff Hummel). Barnett made me feel less of an idiot when he wrote: Consider the data the Fed presented last year on nonborrowed reserves. Nonborrowed reserves are total bank reserves minus money […]

British Satirists Discuss Banks, Bailouts, and Bonuses

The translucent von Pepe sends this link. The video is 9:52 long, and when I clicked it, I thought I’d just watch a few seconds. I kept thinking that until about 6:00, when I realized I was going to just watch the whole thing.

Who’s Being Dogmatic?

My op ed in the San Diego Union-Tribune generated some hate mail. The best was this: Mr. Murphy, in your article published in the San Diego Union Sunday Oct. 25,2009 the first conclusion you come to is that the Obama economic stimulus was a failure and you use the predictions of the administration to support […]

Is the Recession Really Ending?

My answer is “no” in the San Diego Union-Tribune. I’ve gotten some hate mail on this one. My favorite so far was a guy telling me to read up on the Great Depression so I’d see the beneficial effects of government intervention. An excerpt: The government and media analysts should stop talking as if the […]

Elijah Speaks Truth to Power

Last week I noted that Solomon’s son tried to exact higher taxes from the Israelites, leading them to revolt and split the kingdom in two. From there it was all downhill. The two Books of Kings just chronicle successor after successor who was even worse than the last guy. And I don’t mean they cheat […]

The Problem With Pigou

From an email I wrote to a group of colleagues who were arguing over whether it was really true that fossil fuel use only had negative externalities. (One of the guys was arguing that cheap energy confers benefits on society, just as surely as an opera house.) Sorry I’m late replying to this; swamped with […]

Corporatists 237, Bob Murphy 3

Wow I’m sorry that I missed this, loyal readers. I really need to stop outsourcing my financial news gathering to places like CNBC. It was only after watching a video interview with “special master for executive compensation” (that’s actually his title, which is hardly less worrisome than “pay czar”) Ken Feinberg that I realized his […]