Bob Murphy

Author Archive

Laffer Excoriates the Bailout

My ex-boss has an uncharacteristically harsh op ed in today’s WSJ. When I worked at Laffer Associates a couple of years ago, he would sometimes have to tell his critics, “I’m not always an optimist, I just happen to be right now.” Well, I don’t think he’ll need to worry about that particular caricature for […]

I Have a Hard Time With the Story of Noah’s Ark

I think a lot of people are shocked to discover that I believe that, say, Jesus really healed the lame, and that He really did walk on water. Well I do, and if you think that I must not understand modern science, then I think you must have way too much confidence in your understanding […]

Stephen King on the Financial Panic

The byline says it’s Stephen King, “managing director of economics at HSBC,” but it’s got to be the famous novelist. This piece (HT2 Jeff Tucker) is weirder and scarier than Firestarter. There’s no point in me even excerpting it; let’s just say, the author implies that Alan Greenspan ignored the warnings–given by both Keynes and […]

Megan McArdle & ABCT: The Silly Woman Theory of Error

Reader Bashkim Rrahmoni notified me of a Megan McArdle attack on Austrian business cycle theory. I was going to cut her some slack, but the more I thought about it, the more ridiculous her post struck me. In “The evil man theory of failure,” she tries to play it above the fray, transcending the foolishness […]

Greenspan Surrenders in the Battle Over Narrative

I hope this post doesn’t disillusion some of our younger readers, but we don’t hold back here at Free Advice: Ever since the financial crisis became obvious to all, many other free marketeers and I have been consciously trying to make sure government gets the blame for this, not “laissez-faire capitalism.” Obviously we are doing […]

"If You’re So Scared, Why Don’t You Stockpile Water?"

So asks Pete Leeson in a provocative blog post (see the opening thread, and then in this one a bunch of us [ex] Hillsdale profs tag team the poor pirate pedant*). In response, I pointed out that we don’t need to do that yet, because so far (except for gasoline) the government hasn’t imposed price […]

Hollywood Behind the Drug War?

When I was much younger, I was shocked to read that mobsters might favor gambling and drug prohibition, since they were involved in those areas. I.e. I still clung to the naive view that actual businesspeople longed to be left alone by the government. In that spirit, it occurred to me the other day–after watching […]

Arnold Kling Is Not Impressed With Mainstream Macroeconomics

This guy might be crankier than me! He quotes from a widely circulated Blanchard paper that summarized the state of macro and concluded it was “good.” Kling merely paraphrases Blanchard’s observations (fairly, too–i.e. Kling isn’t putting words into Blanchard’s mouth), and then points out that one might easily have concluded that mainstream macro is in […]