Bob Murphy Show

Bob brings on special guest Avi Loeb, who is the Frank B. Baird Jr. Professor of Science and Chair of the Astronomy Department at Harvard. Among other positions, Prof. Loeb is founding Director of the Black Hole Initiative, and is thus ideally suited to explain the recent images of a massive black hole circulating on social media. Loeb also has been at the center of media discussion concerning the strange object in space named 'Oumuamua, which has several properties that make Loeb hypothesize that it might not be a strictly natural phenomenon.

Bob goes solo to explain why the common practice of "offering a plea deal" is a horrible practice, which gives us little reason to trust that those convicted are actually guilty of the crimes to which they confess.

Bob brings on Mises Institute founder Lew Rockwell to primarily discuss Lew's article in defense of Lori Loughlin. Why is the FBI involved in a college admission scandal in the first place? And why is Lori Loughlin's behavior so much worse than all the other cheating that happens systematically? Bob and Lew then discuss the chilling role of the FBI in American life, as well as various methods by which the CIA takes care of business. Bob also asks Lew questions submitted in the BMS Facebook group.

Bob finishes his 3-part series by first reviewing the contributions of Bohm-Bawerk, Fetter, and Mises to the modern Austrian explanation of interest, namely the "pure time preference theory" (PTPT). Then Bob explains some of the problems for the PTPT, especially for Austrian economists. Instead Murphy offers a much more straightforward--and Austrian!--approach, which explains interest as the premium placed on present vs. future units of money.

Bob brings on Robbie "the Fire" Bernstein, host of Run Your Mouth and junior host to Dave Smith on the popular libertarian podcast Part of the Problem. Bob and Robbie discuss the NYC stand-up comedy scene, and give a tutorial on jokes using some examples. Bob asks Robbie whether the mocking campaign against AOC might backfire, and then Robbie turns the tables by asking Bob about the coming economic crash.

Bob critiques an article by Conor Friedersdorf, in which he mocks the right-wing outrage over Rep. Ilhan Omar's 9/11 remarks as a tempest in a teapot. Why, if someone on the right made a similar slip of the tongue, Friedersdorf would expect the right-winger to be forgiven. This is of course ludicrous nonsense, as Bob explains.

Bob goes solo in his continuation of his series on Capital & Interest Theory. In this episode he explains Bohm-Bawerk's solution to the problem of interest, namely that present goods are more valuable than future goods. Bob also explains Bohm-Bawerk's three separate causes for the higher valuation of present over future goods, including the notorious third cause, which is the higher physical productivity of more roundabout processes. Finally, Bob addresses the criticism of Bohm-Bawerk's theory coming from Keynes, Fisher, Frank Fetter, and Mises.

This episode is a re-broadcast of a recent episode of the Lara-Murphy Show. Bob and his co-author Carlos Lara discuss the yield curve from an Austrian perspective. Then Carlos explains why a business owner who practices the Infinite Banking Concept (IBC) would want to retain ownership of the life insurance policy in his or her own name (rather than the company owning it). Their discussion is part of a series, which is tied to the upcoming seminar in Nashville, TN on May 10, 2019.

Bob goes solo by beginning his 3-part series devoted to Capital & Interest Theory in the tradition of the Austrian School. (This is his area of expertise and the focus of his doctoral dissertation.) In this episode, Part 1, Bob explains Bohm-Bawerk's critique of the "naive productivity theory" of interest, and also reconciles it with the standard approach in modern economics models of equating the real rate of interest to the "marginal product of capital."

Bob shares an interview he did on C. Jay Engel's podcast, "Austro-Libertarian," where they discussed Doug Henwood's critique of MMT that ran in the socialist publication, Jacobin magazine. Henwood's article was an excellent summary of the academic roots of MMT, and thus supplements the pragmatic discussions (from the perspective of Warren Mosler) that have recently been featured on the Bob Murphy Show.