Bob Murphy

Author Archive

China Stimulus Versus US Stimulus

In an earlier post, I remarked on Brad DeLong’s failure to reflect on the (reported) fact that China has booming economic growth even as its consumer prices are falling. Instead of dealing with that problem (since it is rather inconvenient for those warning about a deflationary trap), DeLong simply titled his post, “China’s Larger Stimulus […]

Krugman Tri-blechta

I told Jeff Tucker (editor of Mises.org) that I would lay off Krugman for a while, since I don’t want the Austrians to be the Party of No. But I didn’t make any promises about Free Advice. Today Krugman has three contiguous blog posts that really set me off. In this one Krugman says “Matthew […]

Another Krugman Non Sequitur, This One on Health Care

Look at this: A trivial but telling example Example of what? Of the absurdity of the US health care system. Today’s mail brought a letter from Princeton: all faculty members must supply copies of their marriage licenses and of their 2008 tax forms if they want to have their spouses continue to receive health benefits. […]

Believing Is Seeing, Economics History Edition

Tom Woods defends his honor against what was apparently a hit piece in Liberty magazine. Bruce Ramsey was reviewing Woods’ book Meltdown, as well as a book by two other authors, and wrote: “You immerse yourself in the facts, see what the connections are, and let the story itself tell you what the explanation is. […]

"Hmm, the Russian president is showing the press a new global currency? That’s kind of frighten–LOOK! BOOBIES!!"

Now kids, I realize some of you may think I’ve gone off the deep end lately. But let’s suppose for the sake of argument that we really are getting close to some major financial action, and that the elite need to keep everybody distracted RIGHT NOW. So you’ve got the Michael Jackson stuff, which–come on–is […]

Another Month, Another Big Price Spike, Another Seasonal Adjustment Downward

And the beat goes on. Two days after having a bunch of fair weather friends tell me, “Normally I love your stuff Bob, but Mish is right–we can’t have inflation until the deleveraging is complete,” the media tells us “Inflation Remains Tame” even though prices went up 0.7% from May to June. (Since when is […]

The Big Picture

While it’s fun, geeky, and necessary to argue about credit vs. money, I think we should also occasionally take a big step back and look at the broad themes. In a recent post, I said that the best way to predict what was coming–and how to protect your household–was to imagine that you were in […]

Potpourri

* Scott Sumner calls for the Fed to create “the mother of all stock bubbles, permanently.” Sumner can be provocative, but this time he’s gone too far. * In a spooky post, Roger Koppl explains that we are all fascists now. * I don’t have time to read this right now, but Bob Roddis sends […]