Consulting by RPM || Free Advice Blog

BMS Ep. 7: Godel Made Easy

My latest episode is the podcast equivalent of the narrator/Tyler Durden telling the guys to get off the porch because they’ll never be in Fight Club. This is surely way too hard for you. You can’t understand mind-blowing math at this level of amazingness. Don’t even try.

Murphy Twin Spin

At IER. I let loose on these, don’t miss them.

==> The climate interventionists won’t stop with a carbon tax. How do I know? Because I read what they write and believe them when they say they won’t stop with a carbon tax.

==> The National Climate Assessment allows the media to mislead Americans on cost/benefits of climate change policy.

BMS Ep. 6: Steve Landsburg on Learning Economics From Friedman and Stigler

Oh this is another good one, folks. Steve talks about grad school at Chicago. Beyond economics, we also talk about the time he was picketed by campus feminists.

You’re Gonna Have to Serve Somebody

From the Contra Cruise 2018. The audio is just from a camera set up in front of the stage but it gets the job done…

Why Is the Stock Market So Shaky?

The latest Lara-Murphy Show episode.

The Law vs. Personal Morality

In his commentary on Deuteronomy 19, David Guzik writes:

c. Eye for eye, tooth for tooth: In Matthew 5:38-39, Jesus quoted this passage in His teaching on the true interpretation of the law. He does not say that the eye for eye principle is wrong; rather, He simply condemns the use of it to make it an obligation to exact revenge against someone who has personally offended me.

i. Many Rabbis in Jesus’ day taught that the eye for eye law meant you were obligated to avenge yourself of a personal insult or attack brought against you. Jesus rightly disallowed the application of this law in our personal relationships; it was a law intended to guide the judges in the law courts of Israel, not to guide our personal relationships.

ii. “Jesus’ criticism of this law (Mt. 5:38f.) arose from its use to regulate conduct between individuals. He did not reject it as a principle of justice which should operate in the courts of the land. For private relationships He proposed the ideal of brotherhood, a strong principle throughout the book of Deuteronomy. To extend the lex talionis to this interpersonal domain was to destroy the law of God.” (Thompson)

I thought this was very interesting as it dovetails with my own views regarding libertarianism and (Christian) morality. I think “armchair reasoning” as well as market-driven case law precedent would mean that the surviving heirs of a murder victim would have the legal right to capital punishment. However, I think in practice an advanced society would quickly move away from such a tradition, and that most murder convicts would simply pay a (large) fine as compensation to the heirs. (Perhaps a third party insurer or fraternal organization would pay the heirs, and then the criminal would pay back the third party in order to get back on better terms with them.)

Or for another example, I think the legal code in a libertarian society would allow you to shoot a home invader, but I personally as a Christian would feel awful if I had to cause lasting physical harm on someone. Just like, if your literal brother for some reason was breaking into your house at night, and you ended up killing him, you’d feel sheepish around your parents and would be wondering, “Could I have handled that better?” Likewise, we are all God’s children and should do everything we can to defuse situations before they escalate into violence against our spiritual brothers and sisters in Christ.

“Liberty Classroom” Master Subscription BONUS for U.S. Residents

Hey boys and girls, if you’ve always wanted to subscribe to Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom but have been hesitating to pull the trigger, now’s your chance. If you subscribe to the MASTER membership anytime during November 2018, then in addition to all the great benefits you get from Tom, I’ll send you any two (2) of the following books autographed to the person of your choice:

(For more details about each book, click the relevant link on the left margin of this post.)

Note, you must get the MASTER membership at Liberty Classroom to be eligible for my bonus, and you have to designate a U.S. mailing address for your 2 books.

At Liberty Classroom with the Master membership, you receive lifetime access to all of the courses, plus a whole lot more. (Scroll down the main page to see the extra features.) As far as the content I created for Liberty Classroom, you are getting my two courses on the History of Economic Thought, which cover the classical economists, the Marginal Revolution, and 20th century economics. The economists range from David Hume to Eugen von Bohm-Bawerk to Irving Fisher to Robert Lucas. Here’s a sample lecture from my mini-series on Bohm-Bawerk.

C’mon, you always hear people talking about “the Coase theorem” but you don’t know what it is. (Chances are, they don’t either.) Join Liberty Classroom to get the inside scoop.

Just be sure to use my link when you go to Liberty Classroom to be eligible for my extra promo.

Note, you’ll want to act now because Tom himself has a special BLACK FRIDAY pricing deal (there’s a countdown at the bottom of his main page).

Murphy Triple Play

==> My recent LMR blog post on price inflation.

==> The Bob Murphy Show ep. 5 features Scott Horton on Waco, foreign policy, and Trump’s electoral strategy.

==> My latest IER post highlights the impact on state budgets from the new Capital Alpha carbon tax study.