Bob Murphy

Author Archive

Even Without Tom Woods, I’m Still Contra Krugman

Because of the hurricane, I had to host episode 103 by myself. The issue was Krugman’s column discussing Jeff Sessions’ statement about DACA. Some highlights: 6:00 From the media and pundit reactions, you’d think Trump announced women couldn’t vote anymore. But in truth, this was a 5-year-old policy that Obama himself said was a temporary […]

Amplifying Oren Cass on a Carbon Tax, Part 2

Even professional economists, take note. Cass makes a great point that I haven’t seen stressed anywhere else. I’ll quote him first, then I’ll quote from my article to elaborate on his insight. CASS: Nor does describing a carbon tax as “revenue neutral” do anything to improve its appeal. Promising to use the revenue for tax […]

“That’s the Story of the Hurricane”

I am always happy to read a defense of the person receiving a Two Minute Hate, even if it’s a Fed official who seemed to subscribe to the Broken Window Fallacy. In that spirit, here is David R. Henderson defending William Dudley’s remarks about the hurricane. (Also notice Scott Sumner’s caveat in the comments.) To […]

A 500-Year Protest Event

(Like a 500-year flood event? Work with me people.) At my church they are starting a Bible study on Luther. The news hook is that 2017 marks the 500th anniversary of the posting of the 95 Theses, which started the Protestant Reformation. Having been raised Catholic but now being a Protestant, let me say that […]

Our Culture’s Touching Faith in Science

I am not saying that sarcastically. I mean every bit of that title literally. First, our culture has (non-scientific, which is not the same as unscientific) faith in science. And second, I find it touching. My recent Twitter commentary on (physicist) Brian Greene motivated this post: I’m guessing many of you read Greene’s post and want to […]

More on Flood Statistics

In my previous post, there was still some confusion in the comments. And on Twitter, I got the sense that even trained economists didn’t understand what the big deal was. So remember, the claim is that the phrase “100-year flood event” or “500-year flood event” is very misleading. When the government data agency gives such […]

Amplifying Oren Cass on a Carbon Tax, Part 1 of 2

My latest post at IER amplifies some of the points Oren Cass made in a fantastic essay he wrote (two years ago) on the case for a US carbon tax. (I just came across the essay recently.) Here’s an excerpt: Let me paraphrase Cass’s remarks to make sure the reader appreciates them. Cass was studying […]

A Surplus of Articles on Price Gouging

I pile on. However, all modesty aside, I think I collected everybody’s good points into a one-stop-shop for you and your normal co-workers/relatives. I also hit an issue related to philanthropy that many standard “economistic” defenses of price gouging miss. Two excerpts: In the path of an incoming storm, where thousands of people want to […]