Robert Murphy on free trade and the fallacy of reciprocating trade

In general, the case for free trade does not assume the other trading partners are reciprocating...  Just like, you're the coach of a basketball team who says, "Hey guys, I want to pass a lot.  That's how we're going to improve our competitiveness.  And we're going to be more successful on the court if we pass a lot rather than always just giving the ball to our star player and him trying to drive all by himself and just go shoot."  And you wouldn't say, "I don't know, coach, what if we're playing against some other team and they just always give it to their star players?  Does that mean we should reciprocate?"...  No, there are lots of situations where, if something makes sense to do, it doesn't matter if the other team's being stupid.  The smart thing for you to do is still the smart thing for you to do.  That's what the standard case for free trade is.  You're not making your people richer by imposing an extra tax in between them and potential sources of supply.

~ Robert Murphy, "Correcting Vivek Ramaswamy & Charlie Kirk on Tariffs," infineo, November 8, 2024

Robert Murphy on admitting that the people you hate sometimes say true things

If you allow yourself to admit that the people you hate sometimes say true things, it's extremely liberating and keeps you from painting yourself into a corner.

~ Robert P. Murphy, tweet, September 24, 2022

Kevin Duffy on the GameStop frenzy

There is a cyclical aspect of the the GameStop frenzy few are talking about.  Bob Murphy made an interesting point that this is flipping "The Big Short," which was written by Michael Lewis right after the GFC in early 2010, close to the stock market bottom.  Short sellers were held out as heroes.  A decade later, after stocks have quadrupled and short sellers practically wiped out, they're the bad guys.  And the greedy and reckless speculators dancing on their graves are the heroes! 

We've come full circle, i.e. we're probably at peak euphoria for the so-called "everything bubble." 

As for Robinhood temporarily closing the casino doors for a day, this likley had more to do with existing regulations and capital requirements which go up with increased volatility.  Robinhood apparently had to raise another $1 billion so they could fully open the casino for business on Friday (helping push GME stock up 68%). 

Btw, AOC, Ted Cruz and Donald Trump, Jr. all attacked Robinhood for the same reason.  If they're all on the same side of an issue, laissez faire types have to be suspicious.  This will end in tears for the Reddit crowd who, as Bob said, refuse to take their chips and leave the poker table because they're "mad." 

This is amateur hour at the casino, and some angry, young, ideologically-charged traders are about to learn a very expensive lesson.  Who will AOC & Co. then blame?  Will they bail these people out?  The plot sickens...

~ Kevin Duffy, comment about "Ep. 1825: The Reddit/GameStop Phenomenon," The Tom Woods Show, January 30, 2021

Robert Murphy on Stephanie Kelton’s new book 'The Deficit Myth'

Stephanie Kelton’s new book The Deficit Myth does a very good job explaining MMT to new readers. I must admit that I was pleasantly surprised at how many different topics Kelton could discuss from a new view, in a manner that was simultaneously absurd and yet apparently compelling.

The problem is that Kelton’s fun book is utterly wrong. The boring suits with their standard accounting are correct: it actually costs something when the government spends money. The fact that since 1971 we have had an unfettered printing press doesn’t give us more options, it merely gives the Fed greater license to cause boom/bust cycles and redistribute wealth to politically connected insiders.

~ Robert Murphy, "A Review of Stephanie Kelton's The Deficit Myth," Mises.org, June 23, 2020

Robert Murphy on the warlord objection to anarcho capitalism

When dealing with the warlord objection, we need to keep our comparisons fair.  It won’t do to compare society A, which is filled with evil, ignorant savages who live under anarchy, with society B, which is populated by enlightened, law-abiding citizens who live under limited government.  The anarchist doesn’t deny that life might be better in society B.  What the anarchist does claim is that, for any given population, the imposition of a coercive government will make things worse.  The absence of a State is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition to achieve the free society.

[...]

The standard objection that anarchy would lead to battling warlords is unfounded.  In those communities where such an outcome would occur, the addition of a State wouldn’t help.  Indeed, the precise opposite is true: The voluntary arrangements of a private property society would be far more conducive to peace and the rule of law, than the coercive setup of a parasitical monopoly government.

~ Robert Murphy, "But Wouldn't Warlords Take Over?," Mises.org, July 7, 2005

Robert Murphy on climate change models

A few vocal scientists and many activists are pressuring political officials and the public to support massive tax hikes and new regulations in order to mitigate the threat of catastrophic climate change. Yet one of the crucial planks in their argument—namely, that we can trust the alarming computer simulations of global warming—rely on models that have clearly been overpredicting global temperature. The fact that the defenders of the orthodoxy won’t even acknowledge their own damning charts should give any honest citizen pause.

~ Robert Murphy, "Should We Trust the Climate Change Models? Part 1 of 3," Institute for Energy Research, December 20, 2019

Robert Murphy on insider trading

To drive home just how arbitrary and non-criminal "insider trading" really is, consider this scenario: Suppose someone had been planning on buying shares of Acme, but just before doing so, he caught wind of a bad earnings report. In light of the new information (which was not yet public), the person refrained from his intended purchase. Should this person be prosecuted for insider non-trading?

~ Robert Murphy, "Is Insider Trading Really a Crime?," Mises.org, May 16, 2011