Robert P. Murphy

Articles

Book Review: The Gold Standard: Retrospect and Prospect

08/26/2025 Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics Robert P. Murphy

Bob Murphy reviews The Gold Standard: Retrospect and Prospect. This is a useful collection for those who want an evenhanded analysis of the gold standard that extends to modern topics such as cryptocurrency and currency boards.

The CBO Isn’t Allowed to Forecast an Inflationary Debt Crisis

07/10/2025 Mises Wire Robert P. Murphy

The CBO‘s forecasting restrictions prevent it from predicting an inflationary debt crisis, despite rising US debt and deficits. This limitation hinders proactive policy-making, risking economic instability.

Private Business and State Power in an Age of Bailouts, Censorship, and Easy Money

02/24/2025 The Misesian Robert P. Murphy

How can we determine if a private company is a true partner of the state—truly benefiting from state power—or if the private company is really a victim of the state?

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

What Makes Economics Scientific?

11/17/2025 Robert P. Murphy

Prompted by an online debate about whether economics belongs with the hard sciences, Bob reviews common defenses of mainstream practice and explains why they don’t settle the scientific status of the field.

Rethinking “Sticky Prices” and Monetary Disequilibrium

11/11/2025 Robert P. Murphy Jonathan Newman

Bob Murphy and Jonathan Newman walk through his claim that real‑world exchanges clear markets—even with supposedly “sticky” prices—and what that implies for money, contracts, inventories, and unemployment statistics.

Is Paying Down Government Debt Bad for the Economy?

11/02/2025 Robert P. Murphy

Is paying down the federal debt a recession trigger? Bob takes on the MMT claim and checks the record, citing US debt payoffs, Canada’s 1990s reforms, and ECB case studies.

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.

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