Robert P. Murphy is an Associated Scholar with the Mises Institute and Research Assistant Professor with the Free Market Institute at Texas Tech University. He is the author of many books including Choice: Cooperation, Enterprise, and Human Action (Independent Institute, 2015) which is a modern distillation of the essentials of Mises' thought for the layperson. Murphy is co-host, with Tom Woods, of the popular podcast Contra Krugman, which is a weekly refutation of Paul Krugman's New York Times column.
Overview
In this Acton Lecture Series address, Robert P. Murphy explains how money emerged naturally from voluntary trades, and not from government edicts; describes the operation of the classical gold standard, and how governments, including ours, wrecked it; and provides insight into the problems of government fiat money, pointing out that the danger is not simply runaway price inflation (bad as that is), but also that business owners can't plan as well for the future. Furthermore, if new money comes in through the credit markets (as is typical), it causes the boom/bust cycle.
