Bob Murphy

Author Archive

"If God Exists, Why Doesn’t He Reveal Himself?"

This is a typical challenge from smug atheists. (BTW I am not using that term as a pleonasm; I am referring to atheists who happen to be smug.) However, in the comments to my previous post about donning the armor of God, Aristos said: I’ve always enjoyed the “whole armor of God” metaphor, but whenever […]

Preparing For Spiritual Warfare

One of the “coolest” things about being a Christian knight (a term I prefer to “soldier in God’s army”) is that you get all the excitement of being a warrior, without having to engage in a morally dubious use of violence. C.S. Lewis wrote that because Satan rules this world, Christians are behind enemy lines. […]

This Tuesday…Vote Elvis for King!

My friend “Aristos” was a monarchist during our undergraduate years. (What’s funny is that I think I am more sympathetic to this system than he now is.) On a recent blog post, he paid tribute to Elvis who made more money this year than Madonna did, despite her advantage of a beating heart. Wiseguy that […]

Russ Roberts in WSJ: Don’t Just Do Something, Stand There.

This is an awesome op ed from Friday’s WSJ. (See, I am physically capable of praising a George Mason economist.) Some excerpts: Today, President George W. Bush plays the role of Hoover, the so-called free market ideologue who is trying anything to avert disaster. He signs a $700 billion bill putting Treasury in charge of […]

Murphy Interview on the Mike Beitler Show

Mike Beitler interviewed me on Thursday [mp3]. We actually talked mostly about my book. (There might be a discreet ad to the left if you’re not sure which book I mean.) The main topics were rent control, minimum wage laws, and the Fed. It’s pretty basic stuff for you overachievers, but it might soothe you […]

Accounting Basics & the Financial Crisis

I’ve had a few conversations with “Pepe,” my man on Wall Street. It had been many years since my undergraduate class in accounting, and I just wanted to clarify a few things to make sure I really understood the typical press stories about the financial crisis. It occurred to me that some Free Advice readers […]

"How Did This Happen?"

I saw an ad for this website about the causes of the financial crisis at–ironically–my own blog. (True to my contract with Google, I didn’t click on my own ads, but rather just typed in the URL.) I hate to judge on something like this before all the facts are in, but I’m thinking I […]

Marketplace Video Explainers

Here are some pretty useful and quick explainers, provided by the Senior Editor of NPR’s Marketplace. (HT2MR) I only watched two of them, namely the one on short selling and the one on credit default swaps. The CDS one seemed pretty good to me. However, I should warn you that I think the guy didn’t […]