Bob Murphy

Author Archive

The Difference Between Milton Friedman and Paul Krugman

Friedman famously said (though apparently didn’t coin), “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.” Krugman, on the contrary, believes: (A) There is such a thing as a free lunch, and (B) It costs $2.57. Thanks to von Pepe for pointing out the column and the money quote. Incidentally, this whole argument involving school lunches […]

Ron Paul Educates the Talking Heads

Folks, I only post about 10% of the Ron Paul stuff that comes my way. It is my filtering service, for you. The clip below is about 10 minutes but it’s really good. Paul fields all the questions fired at him, and not only gives sound answers but usually packages them fairly sleekly as well. […]

Response to 60 Minutes Hit Piece on Oil Speculation

We had to wait for the coronation coverage to die down before running this piece, which is a response to the 60 Minutes hit job on oil speculation. If you want to truly appreciate my talents as defense counsel, first watch the 60 Minutes segment below (it’s not that long). Then read the IER piece […]

The Difficulties of Price Fixing

I am getting really sick of hearing all these bank experts explain the difficulties in government “bad bank” programs to buy “toxic” assets from the frozen lending institutions. They sound so serious and aware of the problems when they explain, “If the government pays too little for these troubled assets, then the banks will still […]

Another Strike Against Friedman’s Theory of the Depression

This is too technical for the book, but check out the difference in monetary base growth rates during the 1920-1921 depression versus The Great One. If Friedman is right, then it’s odd that the 1920s weren’t awful. (Incidentally, the Fed hiked rates way up in the beginning of 1920, and kept them there for almost […]

Another Austrian Website

Established as a reaction against those of you drawing bushy mustaches on poor Friedrich, or pitting him against Salma.

The Mish-Schiff Tiff

I haven’t had time to read any of this, but I bring to your attention Mike “Mish” Shedlock’s criticism of Peter Schiff. Both EPJ and Tim Swanson rush to Schiff’s defense. But more important than the financial issues is this: Is that Tim Swanson in the last photo of his article?! And did he lose […]

Robert Lucas’ Strange Faith in Bernanke

Details here. The intro: Lately the Mises Daily may have given the impression that we just bash Paul Krugman. In the interest of balance, today I will cast aspersions on another Nobel laureate, the Chicago School economist Robert Lucas. As is typical among many “promarket” economists, the undeniably sharp Lucas inexplicably sees no problem with […]