Bob Murphy

Author Archive

Tom Woods and I Rip Each Other

In the latest Contra Krugman, the official topic is the Graham-Cassidy health insurance bill, but Tom and I make fun of each other. Make sure to keep listening for the Easter egg at the end. Older listeners: Which song am I quoting?

Bursting Erdmann’s Bubble

[EDIT: I’ve added Erdmann’s second graph below.] In a previous post I was talking about Austrian business cycle theory and the housing bubble. Kevin Erdmann thought he blew us up by posting these two charts: and Erdmann asked, “Would anyone care to make an ABC interpretation of those two graphs? Did low rates cause […]

Wealth vs. Annual Output: It Depends on the Context to Know Which One Free Market Economists Support

Recently with the endorsements of the claim that hurricanes might be “good for the economy,” free market economists took to the airwaves to explain that this “broken window fallacy” foolishly focuses on the flow of output, while ignoring the stock of wealth. In other words, just because a natural disaster might boost official GDP, that […]

“Libertarian Law and Military Defense”

You just thought I’d sit back and phone in episodes of Contra Krugman from now on? Nope, I’m still pushing forward the boundaries of an-cap theory, baby. For real, there is some new stuff in here that isn’t in my earlier work.

Potpourri

There are some old links on here, because Internet pages accrue on my iPhone when I’m traveling, and then I forget to post them on the blog when I’m at a computer. So this is a house-cleaning of sorts… ==> Obviously I’m biased, but something doesn’t sit right with me regarding Scott Sumner’s “I told […]

Potpourri

==> In the latest Contra Krugman, Tom and I bring Scott Horton on the show to talk about foreign policy post-9/11. ==> Scott Sumner shows how no matter what, everything is just what the Efficient Markets Hypothesis predicts. This time, it’s about Bitcoin. ==> Ryan Murphy pointed out to me that in the past he’s […]

Neeley vs. Murphy on Carbon Tax

We take our blog feuding to the big lights. An excerpt: Suppose some mobsters go around killing people who owe them money on their gambling debts, and I point out to them, “Excuse me, fellas, if you just broke their legs with a baseball bat, more of them would be able to pay you off.” […]

Potpourri

==> I was on Mark Edge’s show to talk about price gouging. ==> In the latest Lara-Murphy Show, we talk about tax implications from surrendering a policy with large outstanding policy loans. It’s inside baseball but make sure you listen, if you are interested in IBC. ==> I really loved this essay by Russ Roberts. […]