Robert P. Murphy

Articles

The Inverted Yield Curve, Austrian Business Cycle Theory, and the True Money Supply

12/15/2021 Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics Ryan Griggs Robert P. Murphy

Griggs and Murphy show that the Rothbard-Salerno measure of the "true money supply" tracks Treasury bond spreads well, supporting the Austrian business cycle theory's explanation of yield curve predictive power.

Book Review: _The Gold Standard: Retrospect and Prospect_

01/10/2022 Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics Robert P. Murphy

Robert Murphy reviews Earle and Luther's _The Gold Standard_, finding it a balanced and useful defense of an underappreciated monetary institution.

Putting the Economics Back in Christmas

12/25/2025 Mises Daily Robert P. Murphy

Consumer spending does not drive the economy. On the contrary, saving, investment, and entrepreneurship are the critical components of economic growth.

Publications

Understanding Money Mechanics

Robert P. Murphy

The Understanding Money Mechanics series by Robert P. Murphy, is a comprehensive overview of the theory, history, and practice of money and banking, with a focus on the United States. The complete book is available both as an html and a pdf.

Understanding Money Mechanics

12/08/2021 Robert P. Murphy

This book provides the intelligent layperson with a concise yet comprehensive overview of the theory, history, and practice of money and banking, with a focus on the United States. Although the author considers himself an Austrian school economist

The Sizzle of Economic Freedom

08/30/2018 Robert P. Murphy Lawrence J. McQuillan

Freedom lovers have long tried to win converts — and especially voters — by appealing to first principles of classical liberalism embraced by the Founding Fathers: above all, the inalienable right of an individual to chart the course of his own life

Media

How Future Supply Moves Today’s Prices

05/22/2026 Robert P. Murphy

This week, Bob walks through three thought experiments to show how expectations of future supply changes ripple into present prices and production decisions in ways that purely mechanical monetary frameworks like MV=PQ can't capture.

Why Socialism Fails: From Mises’s 1920 Article to Today

05/19/2026 Robert P. Murphy Jonathan Newman

Bob sits down with Dr. Jonathan Newman to discuss his Mises Academy course for homeschooling families based on Lessons for the Young Economist, using it as a starting point to walk through the full Austrian case against socialism.

Making Sense of the Trump Administration’s “Hail Mary” on Iran

05/14/2026 Robert P. Murphy

Bob argues that many Austro-libertarians (himself included) have been too quick to dismiss the Trump administration's foreign and economic policy as mere incompetence or corruption, without grasping the strategic logic behind it.

The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.

Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.