Bob Murphy

Author Archive

A Question for Progressives

Dick Clark the Younger was IM’ing me about his crashing of a Moveon.org health care rally in Boston. Dick had an anti-government sign that is not appropriate for a family blog and somebody confronted him. Dick asked, “Why do you want the biggest murderer in the world running health care?” I guess the answer is […]

Murphy and Callahan, Military Experts

In the Chicago Tribune Steve Chapman writes (HT2LRC): On Oct. 7, 2001, the United States launched one of the most stunningly successful military operations in its history. Just four weeks after terrorists directed from Afghanistan killed nearly 3,000 people on American soil, we struck Al Qaeda and Taliban government targets with aircraft missiles and Special […]

TokyoTom Moving the Goalposts?

As longtime readers of Free Advice know, my two biggest critics (in terms of accusations, not necessarily weight) are Silas Barta and TokyoTom. They are members of the very tiny set formed by the intersection of “Extreme Libertarians” and “Global Warming Alarmists.” (And I believe they are the only two elements of the intersection of […]

Unemployment: "What goes up, must come down / spinning wheel, got to go ’round"

Apparently Blood, Sweat and Tears work for CNBC: Unemployment Jumps to 9.7%, But Pace of Layoffs Slows The pace of U.S. job losses hit a one-year low last month but the unemployment rate jumped to a 26-year high of 9.7 percent, the government said Friday in a report showing a slowly improving labor market. Suppose […]

Apologies to My Two Favorite Economic Bloggers

In an extraordinarily rare occurrence, this week I have criticized both Paul Krugman and Tyler Cowen in separate blog posts. But last night I realized I was a bit too harsh. (I am not being sarcastic here, again another extraordinarily rare occurrence.) This 8-page Krugman essay is actually really good, in terms of history of […]

An Interesting Theory of Higher Education Costs

When I got back in my car after leaving the gym–what, you thought this figure was natural?–I turned on the radio to discover a familiar voice on NPR’s “Marketplace.” The commentator gave a theory of the high price of college tuition. Out of the 310 words in the commentary, the word “government” appears 0 times. […]

A Pleasant Thought

At my request, MercedesRules (who is a serious gold bug) has been sending me some of the commentary from today. A few of the really paranoid guys are predicting that gold will break $1000 tomorrow in conjunction with an awful jobs report. Regardless, they are sure the end of life as we know it is […]

Faint Praise From Goldline

I’ve been meaning to complain about this for awhile, but with gold flirting with $1000 now’s a good time: Who were the ad wizards that came up with Goldline’s catch phrase, “And it’s never been worth zero!” ? Couldn’t Purina say the same thing about cat food? Should I go long on cases of Fancy […]