Bob Murphy

Author Archive

Walter Block–and Special Guest!–at Vanderbilt Law School

Unfortunately you can’t hear my jokes. I would’ve asked them to mic me if I realized Walter was going to be dishing so many questions my way.

The Breakdown of Bretton Woods

Here’s a great article on Mises.org discussing the sickness and finally death of the Bretton Woods world monetary system. It was always awkward for me to discuss this, because the conventional graphs of gold prices make it look as if the Fed did a good job for a few decades: But if you read the […]

American Idol: Critique of Democracy?

Here is an email I sent to a Listserv: Dear List, On the way to work this guy on the radio was talking about American Idol, and it reminded me of a possible paper topic. I don’t even have a TV and I can proudly say I never watched the show, but for those of […]

That’s Not Me Baby, Really

All right this confusion with multiple Bob Murphys is really getting out of hand. I was just talking to my boss about media training and he said, “Of course, we really need to polish the karaoke.” So I just laughed, figuring he’d heard of my antics at Mises University. But then he said, “For one […]

Obama’s Mortgage Plan: Do They Think We Can’t Multiply?!

Folks, it’s no fun being a critic of the government when they do stuff like this. C’mon people, you need to wake up and start asking questions, so that I can turn up the investigative reporting. In the meantime, I am reduced to pointing out the absurdities of this CNBC article: President Obama unveiled his […]

Not So Silent Cal

Holy cow, it’s Calvin Coolidge railing against Big Government. But guess what? Coolidge actually slashed taxes enormously and ran a surplus every year in office. (HT2PB) In the beginning it’s a bit slow, but then it picks up. And be sure to watch Coolidge’s smooth delivery in the beginning. You almost forget the note cards […]

Glenn Greenwald Is Not Happy With Obama on Rendition Position

Despite a campaign that certainly led you to believe otherwise, the Obama Department of Justice has not altered the Bush position on whether victims of rendition could sue the Boeing subsidiary that facilitated their torture. GG is fuming, and rightly so. (HT2SR) Here’s a great part in one of the updates: It’s really remarkable what […]

Talking to a Brick Wall: Jan Helfeld Interviews Politicians

David Henderson tips us off to these hilarious interviews by some guy Jan Helfeld. Two of David’s favorites are below. The first is Nancy Pelosi explaining why she doesn’t pay her interns minimum wage, and the second is Harry Reid explaining that taxes are voluntary. (Note: If you get bored during the first one, at […]