Bob Murphy

Author Archive

CPI Officially Fell At 1.2% Annualized Rate in March (!)

Well hmm. If today’s CPI numbers had shown a positive (seasonally adjusted) growth rate, I was all set to trumpet from the mountaintops: “WAKE UP PEOPLE!! Bernanke et al. keep warning us of ‘deflationary’ pressures when there were three straight months of price hikes higher than the Fed’s alleged ‘comfort zone’ throughout the whole first […]

Capitalist Critics Called the Crisis

In a Slate article, Daniel Gross debates whether bankers or economists deserve more blame for the boom/bust. After saying that most economists missed the ball, he has a link to this sidebar in which he declares: Among the economists who kept their heads during the boom and spoke sensibly throughout: Nouriel Roubini of New York […]

I Didn’t Tell You So

OK folks, in the interest of getting to sleep at night, let me be honest and admit that I was very surprised at the reported outcomes of the captain being held hostage and also at today’s PPI report. Assuming the official accounts are accurate–i.e. that three snipers really all had head shots on a bobbing […]

Can You Have Inflation With Low Utilization?

For some time I have been meaning to complain about all the analysts–and not just talking heads on CNBC but even professional economists quoted in the WSJ–saying that, “The Fed’s worry right now isn’t inflationary pressures, because of the low capacity utilization rates.” In other words, they are saying that prices can’t possibly start rising […]

My Qualified Defense of George Will’s Sea Ice Gaffe

In this MasterResource blog post I explain the controversy over George Will’s botched point about global sea ice area. I first point out that much of his error is due to the simple change in calendar year, rather than the passage of time (as his critics suggest), meaning that Will got unlucky. I then argue […]

Chicago Economists Catching Up to the Austrians

On April 8 Casey Mulligan blogged about the perverse effects of the looming government bailout of those holding toxic–excuse me, legacy–assets: Last fall the public learned that banks were not selling many of their legacy mortgages and mortgage-backed securities, despite the impression that ownership of the assets were hindering the banks’ lending. A variety of […]

A Man a Plan No Bank Panama

(For those perplexed by the title, I am alluding to the coolest palindrome ever.) I met this guy at my talk in Boston to Suffolk Law students. He told me that Panama had no central bank, and its macroeconomic performance has been just fine, thank you very much. In fact the Panamanian constitution says: “There […]

I Tell the Indians to Adopt a Gold Standard

I am quoted in this Times of India piece on the gold standard: Robert Murphy, Adjunct Scholar at the Ludwig von Mises Institute in Alabama, USA, says, “A gold standard is essential today because it would force central banks to raise interest rates to their correct levels. In fact, it would work as a very […]