Bob Murphy

Author Archive

Dan Carlin’s “Hardcore History”

I’ve only started listening to my first episode, but I’m 3 hours in (sic) and it’s amazing. This episode–which is 5 hours long–is ostensibly on the Cuban Missile Crisis, but so far we’re just up to the Bay of Pigs. If you’re interested in politics and history I strongly recommend it. Even if you don’t […]

Glenn Greenwald on Deep State vs. Trump

GG is perfect for this position. If someone like me says this, people assume it’s because I hate poor people or immigrants. But when GG says he is not defending Trump, but rather is pointing out the huge dangers of letting the CIA take over the government, I hope progressives listen. (Plus some of the […]

Latest Lara-Murphy Show and Contra Krugman

I can’t remember if I posted this already, but in ep. 34 of the LMS, we talk about the general economic prospects of a Trump Administration. In ep. 73 of Contra Krugman, Tom and I talk about tariffs and the wall. A quick highlight reel: 7:15 I suggest the layout of the show: We first […]

Contradictory Trump Criticisms

Trump could be a bad president even if the vast majority of his critics are often making silly arguments. So my present post should not be construed as me saying, “Why’s everyone so upset?” However, lately I’ve noticed that a lot of the criticisms of Trump aren’t even internally consistent. What’s even weirder is that […]

“The System Is The Beast”

Dan Hagen (my musician friend from Nashville) and I have released another single… If you’re dying to throw money at me, I think it’s now available at iTunes and other online stores; let me know if that’s not the case.

Scott Sumner on Taxes

I had urged him to write up an “explainer” type piece, summarizing key lessons on taxes. He came through. So far, his is the single best piece I’ve seen on the issue of border tax adjustment. I am working on some blog posts / podcast episodes to walk through these things as well. I’m not […]

Potpourri

==> I haven’t had time to look at this, but two mathematicians claim Godel’s results prove God. ==> Federal spending grew more under Reagan and George W. Bush than under Obama. ==> This Elon Musk guy is starting to give me the creeps. When he starts work on SkyNet, we’ll know what’s up. ==> Two […]

Contra Krugman-Feldstein

[UPDATE below with more (apparent) mistakes.] I’ve been studying this chapter by Feldstein and Krugman on VATs/income taxes (from a 1990 NBER book). It’s excellent, as far as a mathematical model goes. I highly encourage academic economists to check it out. I think I found a typo, if that motivates some of you to look […]