Bob Murphy

Author Archive

You Get What You Give

Or so I hear. I’ve added my version of a Blog Roll to the left. I am surely leaving out plenty of blogs that I visit often, so I’ll be adding to it in the near future. But it’s a start for me to join the wonderful world of mutually beneficial linking.

Why Military Spending Didn’t Get Us Out of the Great Depression

In a thread at ThinkMarkets, the ubiquitous question of WWII spending and the Great Depression came up. I realized that I don’t think I’ve ever succinctly summarized Bob Higgs’ research on this point. (I explain all of this in great detail in my book.) OK so here is what the limited-government, anti-Keynesian is up against: […]

Human Action Cannot Be Predicted

I can’t predict my actions, so I really doubt that anybody else is going to, anytime during my lifetime. For example, I just about never give money to panhandlers; in fact I once wrote an LRC article titled, “Stop Giving Money to Bums!” My argument was that you’re not helping them by making their lifestyle […]

Rachel Maddow Opposes "Treason" Against US Government

What a tool. Although Glenn Greenwald and a few other progressives are willing to admit that the US government didn’t become cleansed of its sins with the inauguration of Barack Obama, Rachel Maddow certainly doesn’t qualify. Watch her discussing Jim DeMint and Honduras. I only watched about the first three minutes of the clip, but […]

Manzi on Evolution

Jim Manzi is by far my favorite writer on the nuts-and-bolts of the climate models. After reading relevant sections of the IPCC AR4, I thought I had a pretty good idea of how the simulations actually worked, but I wasn’t totally confident until reading this Manzi piece. Anyway, I recently checked out his archives at […]

Two Items on Cap-and-Trade

* Here I elaborate on Krugman’s chastisement of Martin Feldstein’s allegedly bogus numbers on the costs of Waxman-Markey. (Hint: When you use the number Krugman recommends–and translate it back into a per-household figure–it’s much higher than the number Feldstein had been using.) * Here’s my hit on Fox Business Live, talking about a new IER […]

Crimes vs. Sins: Letterman’s Blackmailer

I actually haven’t seen the full clip yet; I’ve been traveling like crazy and my internet connection in this hotel is slooooooow. But I’m sure you all know about David Letterman’s recent announcement. I don’t know all the details, so there might be something specific to the story that really shows the producer engaged in […]

Job Losses "Far Worse Than Expected" in September

I don’t want to be the jerk who makes a pessimistic prediction and then gloats when it comes true, so I’ll just give you a link and not say anything more about it. I don’t get into all the “leading and lagging indicators,” consumer sentiment, and all that jazz. All I know is that if […]