Bob Murphy

Author Archive

Don’t you hate it when…

…you call a business and the answering machine tells you to call back during normal business hours, which include the time at which you’re hearing the message? I also get mad when the self-checkout stations at the grocery store boss me around. (“Please put the item in the bag.”) Like I’m trying to steal a […]

Scratch Brad DeLong Off the List

This is all I’m looking for, no big requirements on my end. Brad DeLong quotes Robert Lucas who argued that nobody saw this train wreck coming, and then comments: some economists did indeed forecast the financial crisis of 2008–or, rather, forecast that Alan Greenspan’s low interest rate policies of 2002-2004 (policies I approved of and […]

Glenn Greenwald the Most Dangerous Blogger in the World for Keith Olbermann

Uh oh GG is stirring up more trouble. For months, Olbermann and Bill O’Reilly had been sniping at each other (on their respective shows). But then on June 1, Olbermann announced that he would no longer crack jokes about the creator of the No Spin Zone, because (he claimed) O’Reilly had endorsed the murder of […]

There Oughta Be a Video…

Tell me this wouldn’t go viral on YouTube: You show a brief clip from CNN or some other official news network, announcing the release of the two journalists from North Korea, and how they flew back to the United States with Bill Clinton. Then the screen changes showing a Bill Clinton impersonator with two Korean […]

The Apple Doesn’t Fall Far From the Tree

Aristos posted a video of his six-year-old’s teeball game. If you are a father, watch the first 1:45 of the video. It is hilarious. (BTW Aristos and I were very competitive in college. [He was better in pickup football, I was better in chess.] So that’s partly why I was laughing out loud. But even […]

Waiting on the IRS

Argh… I am working on a payment plan with the IRS. (For a while my business wasn’t incorporated, and so I just got checks made out to me personally. You’re supposed to file quarterly tax payments as that income rolls in. Well, I was always going to do it, next month. And then it was […]

Something New to Fret About: The U.S.’ "Green Trade Deficit"

Just when you thought the “green recovery” plans couldn’t get more inefficient: Green investment is a major pillar of the president’s economic recovery plan. Yet, America’s dependence on foreign countries to produce green technologies may undermine this recovery strategy. Using a list of green goods derived from the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) […]

It’s For a Good Cause…

Recently I discovered this great public radio station. (It’s 98.9 FM in the Nashville area; I don’t know the call letters.) The first time I stopped on it, there was a guy who didn’t sound insane, talking about how all the Osama bin Laden videos after a certain date were obvious fabrications. Then a few […]