Bob Murphy

Author Archive

Two Movies and a Bad Pun

(1) I recently re-watched the original Austin Powers to see how good it was. Eh, I only laughed out loud in the bathroom scene with Tom Arnold (“Who does #2 work for?”). The other funny part I had forgotten was when Austin is trying to do an 84-point turn in the narrow corridor with the […]

Tim Swanson Can’t Make Up His Mind on Treasurys

I am not mocking Tim, I really can’t figure out what his thesis is in this piece. He does some sort of “I’m explaining what the Chinese official is thinking–no wait, this is Tim talking, no wait, this is Tim discussing Schiff’s views” stream of consciousness. (I didn’t get Finnegan’s Wake either.) But as always, […]

Greenspan Admits There Is No Fed Independence

One of the central myths of our financial system is that the Federal Reserve enjoys “independence” from the federal government. The public can trust Bernanke to create hundreds of billions of dollars out of thin air, and give them to whomever he pleases without even telling Congress the details, because the Fed chair is a […]

"Nationalization Is…As American as Apple Pie"

So says Paul Krugman. Here’s the context: And the argument that our culture won’t stand for nationalization — well, our culture isn’t too friendly towards bank bailouts of any kind. Yet those bailouts are necessary; and even in America they may be more palatable if taxpayers at least get to throw the bums out. Oh, […]

Total Borrowing From Fed Collapses?

I don’t know if this is just some kind of blip, but I was checking the latest numbers and saw this: I’m not sure what it means. How’s that for Free Advice? Anyone? Bueller?

Someone Make It Stop: Rachel Maddow Sums Up Krugman

Sheldon Richman links to the below video, but advises his readers against watching it. But I must disagree; Rachel Maddow’s commentary is beautiful in its clarity, its confidence, and its idiocy. It’s about 8 minutes, and I know that sounds like a long time, but I urge you to just click the thing and watch […]

Tom Woods Is "Fed Up" (with the Fed)

He explains the can of whoop-butt that Ron Paul opened. Incidentally, I am troubled at Tom’s growing sophistication with monetary matters. When working on my book regarding the Depression and New Deal, I justified my efforts by saying, “Well, it’s true that I’m not a historian, but these are really technical matters and you can’t […]

Gerald Celente on Glenn Beck

For some reason, this guy really struck a chord with me. (HT2LRC) Make sure you watch long enough to hear his discussion of Katrina and the World Trade Center. That’s something I have been trying to get across to people, is that it’s wrong to be arguing “stimulus” in terms of Keynesian diagrams. Do you […]