Bob Murphy

Author Archive

Hyperinflation?

Tim Swanson sends me this article saying hyperinflation is impossible. I’m not convinced. Let’s not forget, folks, that during 2008 the narrow M1 money supply rose by 17 percent. The public expanded its demand for cash balances and sopped it up, that’s true. But I think Bernanke has more than offset the “second order deflation” […]

Waxman-Markey: Staring Into the Abyss

One of the “joys” of my job with IER is that I have to comb through the actual bills that the great deliberative body in DC generates. For example, try sifting through the Waxman-Markey climate and energy bill [pdf], a 648-page monstrosity that got dumped on us yesterday. If you open it, check out “SEC. […]

Physics and Government

Before reading this NYT article on Freeman Dyson, I had never really thought much about how close physicists and the government became during World War II. But it seems the physicists learned the subtleties of procurement quickly: Dyson has been hostile to the Star Wars missile-defense system, the Space Station, the Hubble telescope and the […]

Amazing Article on Freeman Dyson

A few people sent this NYT article on physicist and jack-of-all-trades Freeman Dyson, but it was the enigmatic von Pepe’s email that pushed me over the top. It is really amazing. This is one interesting guy. The article focuses on the climate change stuff, but I find it more interesting that the government (?) would […]

The AIG Bonus Brouhaha

I didn’t catch this when it ran, but it is now in my archives at Townhall and there are a dozen comments, so it must have… Anyway here is my take on the AIG bonus stuff. An excerpt: The public was right to be outraged. But the real problem was the bailout in the first […]

Hannan Says Nannah to British PM

Robert Wenzel linked to this; it is really sweet. What diction!

Shhh! Don’t Tell Anyone, but the PIG to the Great Depression and the New Deal Exists

Yesterday I got a box of 10 copies of my new book. Longtime readers know that I am nothing if not modest, but I have to say that this book is sweet. In all seriousness, it used to terrify me when people suggested I give a talk at a bookstore for my first PIG book, […]

"What’s Bernanke Thinking?!"

Since I’m speculating on motives, let’s turn to the Fed chairman. Let’s drop the super conspiracy theory and assume for the sake of argument that Bernanke really does call the shots. (In reality, I think it is entirely possible that Bernanke knows he can’t do such-and-such or else he might accidentally take too many sleeping […]