Robert P. Murphy

Robert P. "Bob" Murphy (born 23 May 1976) is an Austrian School economist and free market-oriented author.

Education and personal life

Murphy completed his Bachelor of Arts in economics at Hillsdale College in 1998. He then moved back to his home state of New York to continue his studies at New York University. Murphy earned his Ph.D. in economics from NYU in 2003 after successfully defending a dissertation on "Unanticipated Intertemporal Change in Theories of Interest". [Murphy, Robert P. "Unanticipated Intertemporal Change in Theories of Interest". Doctoral dissertation, New York University. 2003. [http://homepages.nyu.edu/~rpm213/files/Dissertation.pdf] ]

Murphy is married to Rachael Murphy ("née" Fajardo) with whom he has one son, Joel Clark Murphy, and lives in Nashville, Tennessee. Murphy is a Christian, and has stated in his writings that "my ethical beliefs are informed by my Christian faith, and I am a firm believer in natural law." [Murphy, Robert P. "The Possibility of Private Law." "Mises.org". 3 August 2005. [http://www.mises.org/story/1874] ]

Career in economics

After earning his doctoral degree, Murphy served as Visiting Assistant Professor of Economics at Hillsdale College in Michigan, U.S., a role he relinquished in the summer of 2006 when he moved back to New York City. From 2006 until early 2007, Murphy was employed as a research and portfolio analyst with Laffer Associates, [Glazov, James. "The Politically Incorrect Guide to Capitalism." Interview with Robert Murphy. "FrontPage Magazine". 18 April 2007. [http://www.frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=27903] ] ["Excerpts: Free & Natural." "Pittsburgh Tribune-Review". 25 March 2007. [http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/columnists/guests/s_499430.html] ] an economic and investment consultancy firm. ["Company Profile: Laffer Associates." Goliath. ECNext, Inc. 14 March 2007. [http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/product-compint-0000678360-page.html] ]

Murphy is a senior fellow in business and economic studies at the Pacific Research Institute, [Murphy, Robert P. and Lee Hoskins. "Memo to the Fed: Stop those Rate Cuts." "Forbes.com". 17 March 2008. [http://www.forbes.com/home/opinions/2008/03/16/fed-inflation-rates-oped-cx_rmlh_0317fedinflation.html] ] and is an adjunct scholar and frequent speaker at the Ludwig von Mises Institute. He writes a column for Townhall.com [Murphy, Robert. "Capitalism: Second to none." "Townhall.com". [http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RobertMurphy/2007/05/07/capitalism_second_to_none?page=full&comments=true] ] and has also written for LewRockwell.com. He is an adjunct scholar at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy ["Mr. Robert P. Murphy." Mackinac Center. [http://www.mackinac.org/bio.aspx?ID=402] ] and an economist for the Institute for Energy Research. ["IER Scholars." Institute for Energy Research. [http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/scholars/] ] His work has been cited by Walter Block, [Block, Walter. "Reply to Frank van Dun's "Natural Law and the Jurisprudence of Freedom." "Journal of Libertarian Studies". Spring 2004. [http://xxx.mises.org/journals/jls/18_2/18_2_4.pdf] ] with whom Murphy has also published. [Block, Walter and Robert P. Murphy. "The Economics of the Very Long Run." "Homo Oeconimicus". 2003. [http://www.walterblock.com/publications/very_long_run.pdf] ]

Bibliography

Books

*" [http://www.mises.org/books/chaostheory.pdf Chaos Theory] " (2002) - A short, self-published work composed of two essays on market anarchy; one discussing the production of defense services, and one describing the provision of private criminal and civil justice.

*"The Politically Incorrect Guide to Capitalism" (April 2007) - A volume in the best-selling "Politically Incorrect Guide" series published by Regnery Publishing.

Murphy has also designed a home study course in Austrian economics (2005), as well as a study guide for Murray Rothbard's "Man, Economy and State (with Power and Market)", both published and distributed by the Mises Institute.

Reviews

In the 14 May 2007 edition of "Human Events", reviewer Mac Johnson said of the "Politically Incorrect Guide to Capitalism" that,:"it takes some discipline to distill complex concepts down to a convenient and accessible form. The Politically Incorrect Guide to Capitalism hits this mark…Topics covered include price theory, unions, CEO pay, the minimum wage, child labor and anti-discrimination laws, banking, the gold standard, environmental regulations, antitrust law, deficit spending, safety laws, bread and circuses, globalization, free trade, and the new investor class…" [Johnson, Mac. "Newest ‘Politically Incorrect Guide’ Sticks up for Capitalism." "Human Events". 14 May 2007. [http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=20689] ]

In a 9 July 2007 review for "Barron's Magazine", Gene Epstein declared that the book,

:"contains more economic wisdom in its fewer-than-200 pages than the average principles textbook several times its length. In clear and often irreverent prose, Murphy makes a compelling case for the unfettered free market, or what his intellectual antagonists would call "free-market fundamentalism."

Although the review is a generally favorable one, Epstein opines that " [o] ccasionally I wish Murphy weren't so irreverent." Referring to the five-question quiz with which Murphy opens the volume, and the answer key Murphy provides, Epstein says "the uninitiated could have benefited from more pointed explanations. I hope Murphy provides these explanations in a subsequent edition." Later in the same column, Epstein compares Murphy's "Guide" to Thomas Sowell's "Basic Economics", noting that,

:"I only wish Sowell were as informed about the economics of the Austrian school as author Robert Murphy. While "Basic Economics" and "The Politically Incorrect Guide to Capitalism" work well as companion volumes, in the few cases where they seem to disagree—as in the discussion of money and business cycles—Murphy's version is the more trustworthy." [Epstein, Gene. "Nine Good Reasons to Hit the Beach." "Barron's Magazine". 9 July 2007. [http://online.barrons.com/article_print/SB118377522237259874.html] ]

Notes

External links

* [http://www.gene-callahan.org/blog/ Crash Landing]
* [http://www.mises.org/articles.aspx?author=Murphy Archive of articles at Mises.org]
* [http://www.mises.org/media.aspx?action=showname&ID=380 Robert Murphy media archive at Mises.org]
* [http://web.archive.org/web/20060203193826/www.lewrockwell.com/murphy/murphy-arch.html Murphy article archives at LRC via Way Back Machine]
* [http://www.lewrockwell.com/murphy/murphy-interview.html Interview] discussing Murphy's "Politically Incorrect Guide to Capitalism" with Scott Horton
* [http://www.lewrockwell.com/woods/woods64.html Book review] by Thomas Woods of Murphy's "Politically Incorrect Guide to Capitalism"