Bob Murphy

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KopBusters

Jason brings to my attention this documentary project. I think these guys are nuts–meaning, I can’t believe they are screwing with cops like this. What they do is set up a room designed to look like a marijuana growing operation, but they don’t actually do anything illegal. And then they install hidden cameras to catch […]

More Subtleties in the Claim that "Free Markets" Caused the Crisis

Per Bylund passed along this video interview with Krugman. He blamed the present mess on 30 years of rigid free market ideology, and then clarified that the regulatory apparatus failed to keep up with the changing financial system. In case you’re curious, the reason he has to say it that way is that there was […]

Did Deflation Cause the Great Depression?

Yet another sneak peek at my upcoming book. The standard mythology of the Depression holds that one of the main causes was (price) deflation: Falling prices make consumers reluctant to spend, but this just feeds on itself, blah blah blah. So you probably think that the most severe deflation in U.S. history occurred in the […]

Tyler Cowen, a Sensible Central Planner

I know, I know, I’m just beating up on the guy all the time because I have impossibly high standards for my libertarian economists. I suppose the following is actually a responsible plea to limit Big Government: Here is my guest post on bank nationalization. I could have stressed further that bank nationalization works best […]

Remind Me Not to Move to South Korea

Jeff Tucker passed along this story: South Korean prosecutors indicted a blogger on Thursday who had warned of financial doom for the country with critics saying he was targeted because his gloomy forecasts upset the government battling an economic downturn. The blogger, writing under the pseudonym Minerva, became a household name for his predictions of […]

Patriotism, the Last Refuge of an Unprofitable Banker

Here is the story to which Glenn Beck was alluding on his awesome (radio) show the other night: Hours after the bank received a new government bailout to cover heavy losses at its Merrill Lynch subsidiary, [Bank of America CEO] Mr. Lewis came under fire Friday from investors wanting to know why the bank did […]

Liquidation vs. Stimulus: Lionel Robbins From 1934

Another sneak peek from my forthcoming book… Check out this awesome quote from Lionel Robbins’ The Great Depression: Nobody wishes for bankruptcies. Nobody likes liquidation as such. If bankruptcy and liquidation can be avoided by sound financing nobody would be against such measures. All that is contended is that when the extent of mal-investment and […]

Glenn Beck Is the Man

I know he dissed Ron Paul back when it mattered, but I don’t care: Glenn Beck is on fire. Unlike other “right wing” hosts who whine about liberal hypocrisy yadda yadda yadda, Beck every night keeps hammering home the fact that the government is taking over the financial sector. Tonight he gave two very specific […]