Bob Murphy

Author Archive

Pragmatic Function of Mosaic Laws

(Note to new readers: Every Sunday I try to do a post on religious themes, but sometimes it spills over into Monday.) I am working my way through the Book of Exodus. Last night was chapter 29, which concerned the sacrificial duties of Moses’ brother Aaron and the other newly anointed priests: 10 “Bring the […]

The SEC Makes Wall Street More Fraudulent

So I claim at mises.org, focusing on the Madoff scandal. An excerpt: In the private sector, when a firm fails, it ceases operations. The opposite happens in government. There is literally nothing a government agency could do that would make the talking heads on the Sunday shows ask, “Should we just abolish this agency? Is […]

Did FDR Prolong the Great Depression?

Here’s a rather silly post about the Great Depression and whether FDR hurt or helped (HT2 Bob Roddis). To be sure, you can credibly argue that the New Deal had its share of problems. But overall, the numbers prove it helped — rather than hurt — the macroeconomy. “Excepting 1937-1938, unemployment fell each year of […]

"Change the Game"

So said a billboard when I used to run laps on the rooftop of an NYU building in grad school. At the time I was struggling with a 3rd year paper topic. I was trying to do something “bold” like Nash (at least as depicted in the Ron Howard fib fest) but I ended up […]

The New & Improved Website

Thanks to Ian McDonough who revamped the site’s appearance and took the title seriously when we discussed compensation. If any of you own an Arby’s chain and are big fans of the site, we should talk. In the coming days I am going to make some other, minor changes, like adding a Blogroll etc. We […]

Murphy Praises and Criticizes James Hansen

Uh oh, another post on climate change that may stir up the hornet’s nest in the comments. Anyway, here I give a guest response to NASA’s James Hansen’s open letter to Barack Obama. An excerpt: But there’s the rub. The politicians are not going to [follow Hansen’s advice and] impose a simple carbon tax. Instead, […]

Some Common Sense From Fred Thompson

Easy stuff for Free Advice readers, but refreshing nonetheless. Another actor whose intuition is much sounder than that of our most recent Nobel laureate. (HT2 Rob A.)

Late Night YouTube Posts!!

OK as always, instead of working on whatever it is I’m supposed to be doing right now, I got sidetracked by the related links when I looked up the ending for Episode VI for the previous post. Our theme tonight is Star Wars. This one is pretty good. It reminds me of an idea I […]