Bob Murphy

Author Archive

Does Krugman Know How to Balance a Checkbook?

For a while now, it has been clear that Krugman becomes the anti-economist during a liquidity trap. In this strange alternative universe, government projects coming in under budget are bad, protectionism can be good, imposing costly new mandates on business can jumpstart the economy, and a sudden decision by China to invest in euros instead […]

Pushing the Analysis Deeper on Social Security

I have been feeling quite smug the last few years, since I knew that the projections of the date at which Social Security “runs out of money” were wildly optimistic. The latest projection is 2036, but that relies on the mythical “trust fund.” The true crisis point occurs much earlier, when payroll taxes put in […]

Awkward Thoughts on Memorial Day

Yesterday in church I was very uncomfortable. Because it was Memorial Day weekend, and because I am in a pretty conservative area (replete with McCain-Palin and “Nobama” bumper stickers), it was not surprising when the pastor took several minutes to talk about military veterans. I am truly not trying to rile up those who think […]

Correcting Quiggan on Austrian Business Cycle Theory

In today’s Mises Daily I defend Austria from the Australian. An excerpt: I am not here to tell you the Mises-Hayek theory of the business cycle is a work of art that has no flaws. If I said that, then I would be living up to Quiggin’s caricature. What I will say is that the […]

The Smugness of a Liberal

Sometimes I really am just taken aback by Paul Krugman’s condescension. Look at this, from a post called “Gratuitous Ignorance”: The PEN/New York Review panel discussion on the economy is online. I’ll outsource the discussion of what went down to Brad DeLong. Just this to add: it’s bad enough to have people resurrecting 75-year old […]

An Amazing Chapter from Deuteronomy

In my (intended) nightly reading of a Bible chapter, I was paying extra special attention to the book Deuteronomy. When Jesus was tempted by Satan, His defense consisted of quoting scripture. And every single quotation came from Deuteronomy! (What’s really interesting is that the Devil uses scripture too, by quoting from Psalms.) So if (the […]

Rachel Maddow Actually Gets It Right On Obama’s Newly Claimed Powers

This is indeed spooky, and Maddow nails it. (HT2 Chris Brunner.) President Obama wants to lock people up indefinitely against whom we do not have enough evidence to prosecute, but whom we believe pose a threat to society. He doesn’t give too many details, but it sounds like he’s saying such people could be held […]

Winners and Losers in the Waxman-Markey Stealth Tax

I was the lead author in this IER blog post. The main thing in this one was to explain (to a first approximation) why handing free allowances to emitters will not lower energy prices, but instead represents a simple transfer of wealth from the general public to the emitters. Here’s the meat of it: It’s […]