Bob Murphy

Author Archive

Disrupting the Equilibrium on Rizzo’s Discussion

The March 2017 “Liberty Matters” discussion was very nice, featuring contributions from several Austrian economists who are all my acquaintances/friends. Mario Rizzo was my dissertation chair at NYU. Because my time is brief, I am not going to talk about the more important issues everybody discussed. Instead I am going to quibble with one little […]

Internet Atheists on Science vs. Religion and Women’s Rights

I recently came across this meme on Twitter, from the “Atheist Republic” account: Now I grant you this is somewhat untestable, since I probably don’t think to tell you all the times my hunches are wrong, but for what it’s worth, I had a very strong suspicion when I saw this picture, that the woman […]

Murphy Wearing Flowers On His Scalp

I’ll be speaking (along with Patrick Byrne and others) for the Independent Institute in San Francisco this Friday…

Contra Krugman Episode 80: The Time Krugman Responded to Bob on ABCT

Krugman was talking about health care again in his op eds, so Tom and I discussed this blast from the past. An outline: 3:00 Bob summarizes a really old Krugman column on “hangover theories” of the business cycle: why isn’t there a consumption boom during the “recession”? 4:15 Bob then summarizes Tyler Cowen’s related objection: […]

Murphy on Tax Policy on Energy Markets

The greatest hits (of me) from the House Subcommittee on Energy hearing on Wednesday. The video has a short intro by the Chair of the Subcommittee, then my 5 minute opening statement, then the back-and-forth anytime a Congressperson asked me a question in the Q&A.

Would a Carbon Tax+Dividend Scheme “Financially Benefit” Poor Households?

I point out that such claims can be misleading, even on their own terms. Excerpt: Suppose gas is originally $3 per gallon. Our poor household in a typical week buys 10 gallons. In contrast, the rich household in a typical week buys 20 gallons, because they drive more and because they drive an SUV. Now […]

The Origin and Structure of the Universe

I saw “Is Genesis History?” a few weeks ago and thought it was very well done. Given its heroic (some would say impossible) task–namely, to interview a string of PhDs to say that it’s not crazy to believe in the Genesis account–I thought it was very impressive. I’m not saying it is a slam dunk […]