David Scott interviews economist Robert P. Murphy, Senior Fellow of the Mises Institute, known as Bob Murphy to his many fans and followers.
Bob is an economist of the Austrian School, a group based on 500 years of economic thought and in particular on the work of Carl Menger, Ludwig von Mises and Murray Rothbard. It is based on analysis of human action and motivation and is built, piece by piece, in deductive fashion, upon these principles,
In this interview, David explains how he discovered the Austrian School and the extent of the intellectual revelation it provided to him, and Bob explains briefly what the Austrian School is and what unique insights it offers.
The discussion covers the 2008 great recession, and the role that the Austrian theory of the business cycle played in predicting and explaining it. (Those last two links are to economic rap songs mentioned by David in the interview.)
Bob and David also discuss inflation, its effects and it mysterious temporary absence and sudden tumultuous arrival. In doing so they touch on the strange economics of the covid lockdown,
Another of Bob's specialisms—of particular relevance today—is the economics of energy generation and of climate change. He outlines his work in this area, and highlights the contradictions and holes in the official narrative. The effects of these are to generate policy prescriptions which, although they may serve a political purpose, are both untenable and injurious to human thriving. They make no sense, even if one accepts the global warming narrative and considers the policies within that worldview. This serves to illustrate just how good-for-nothing the current Net Zero religion has become in recent years.
David questions whether economics is really value-free and gets Bob's view of the values and ethics elements inherent in economic analysis.
In closing, David raises the spectre of Paul Krugman and the unexpected presence of Austrian Economics groupies. Is Bob only in this for the Groupies? Tune in to find out.