Posts by Robert Murphy
Ep. 48 Bob Explains the Highlights of His New QJAE Article on Fractional Reserve Banking
Bob goes solo to explain some of the most important points in his new QJAE article on the fractional reserve banking debate. Bob shows why Mises thought *any* issuance of fiduciary media caused the boom-bust cycle, and he points out a major flaw in George Selgin’s defense of fractional reserve banking. Mentioned in the Episode…
Ep. 47 Economist Ben Powell Reports on His Worldwide Tour of Socialist Countries
Ben Powell, head of the Free Market Institute at Texas Tech, discusses his newly released book Socialism Sucks (co-authored with Robert Lawson). Powell and Lawson toured countries around the world to observe firsthand life under ACTUAL socialism–in places like North Korea and Venezuela–versus places that merely have large welfare states (like Sweden). They concluded that, well, socialism…
Ep. 46 Bob Murphy Lectures on Private Military Defense
On July 19, 2019, Bob gave a talk on private military defense at Mises University. It was an elaboration of his standard talk from previous years on “The Market for Security.” Mentioned in the Episode and Other Links of Interest: Bob’s frequent Mises U lecture that includes private law, “The Market for Security.” Bob’s pamphlet,…
Ep. 45 Michel Accad, MD, Leads Bob on a Critical Analysis of Kenneth Arrow’s Health Care Paper
Michel Accad practices cardiology and general internal medicine in San Francisco, and holds a part-time clinical faculty appointment at the University of California San Francisco.This episode continues the discussion that Bob had with Dr. Michel Accad back in ep. 43. There, Bob reviewed the development of concepts like “efficiency” and “market failure,” so that now…
Ep. 44 Steve Patterson Challenges Rothbardians: Economic Theory Is More Empirical Than You Think
Steve Patterson–host of “Patterson in Pursuit”–talks to Bob about one of his recent essays, in which Patterson challenged the standard Misesian/Rothbardian view on economics. Specifically, Patterson claims that you can’t get very far with pure a priori reasoning–even pretty basic economic laws rely on empirical assumptions. Mentioned in the Episode and Other Links of Interest:…