Bob Murphy

Author Archive

Potpourri

* My critique [.pdf] of William Nordhaus’ “DICE” model (arguing for a carbon tax) in The Independent Review is now online. Also of interest is Dan Shahar’s article (summary here) in the same issue on “Climate Change and Justice.” * Speaking of climate change, here’s an odd post where Joe Romm excoriates the Saudis for […]

Taking a Random Walk

Many experts will tell you to stop studying the economy and the markets, that the best thing to do is “buy and hold.” Apropos that advice: Congratulations investors. The Dow has hit 10,000 on October 14th, 2009. You now have made officially 0 percent return if you invested in this index when the Dow first […]

Free Free Advice

In response to numerous complaints, I have removed the one remaining Google ad from the left margin. Please tell me if that solves the problem of ads blocking the text. If that does the trick, I’m happy to leave things like this for a while. I will adopt the strategy of drug dealers on government-produced […]

BLS Reports a Modest Increase in CPI for September

Well, I purposely went on record yesterday before seeing the numbers, so that I could have some semblance of objectivity. I said, “If it’s relatively tame, then I think Bernanke will have successfully tamed the domestic inertia in prices.” Today the BLS reports that the actual CPI went up 0.1% from August to September, and […]

Middle East Map Fun!

I am knowledgeable in many diverse fields, but one of my obscenely blind spots is geography. I am not kidding, once in Hillsdale (as a student) we had a map quiz for a history class. There was a map of the US that didn’t have the state names; I can’t remember if the borders were […]

The $850 Billion Question

You know how a few months after you first get a GPS system in your car, you no longer can find your way to the grocery store on your own? Well that’s what Robert Wenzel’s site EPJ has done to me, in terms of staying abreast of the government’s financial shenanigans. In this post Wenzel […]

Robert Reich’s Straight Talk on Health Care Reform

Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich gives us the lowdown on how he (and presumably his buddies in the Obama Administration?) really think about things, when they don’t have pesky political considerations to worry about. The beginning gives you the context. Be sure to hang in there, trust me you will want to hear what Reich […]

Did Bernanke Really Fix the Banking Problem?

The quixotic Von Pepe and I have been discussing the fact that Bernanke has quite literally papered over the huge problems in the banking sector. We both expect not merely another “dip” but a full-blown crash at some point. (I think it could happen any day, but I don’t want to put words in Von […]