The Nation's Pulse
That’s a Rap
West Coast vs. East Coast, Keynes vs. Hayek: rap revives two dead economists.
Rap and economics rarely — no, never — go hand-in hand. That is until recently when Russ Roberts, a professor of economics at George Mason University and fellow at the Hoover Institution, colluded with John Papola, an executive producer at Spike TV, to create “Fear the Boom and Bust.”
The video features two renowned economists, now deceased, rapping their particular econ-schticks while out for a night on the town. It was released about two weeks ago and has gotten over half a million hits on YouTube without the help of any mainstream media coverage.
The video features a creative representation of Frederich Hayek and his John Maynard Keynes. The two men aren’t just any economists but were both then and now dynamic, influential thinkers on either side of the economic coin. Keynes, the “father of modern macroeconomics,” was born in Britain in 1883. he advocated governments spend money to mitigate economic recessions and depressions.
Keynes’ popularity died down in the stagflationary 1970s when economists like Milton Friedman doubted the effectiveness of his theories. Since the most recent economic downtown, his theories and popularity as an economist has soared. Keynesian economics has provided the theoretical foundation for President Obama’s plan to ease the recession.
Austrian-born Friedrich Hayek was Keynes’ peer but believed in the power of the free markets. Like his predecessor Adam Smith, he noticed the free market coordinated people’s actions spontaneously. Hayek won the Nobel Prize in Economics, was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and authored The Road to Serfdom, one of the key books on economics and political philosophy in the 20th century.
In “Fear the Boom and Bust,” both economists are given equal rapping time to persuade the audience of his economic worldview. The scene puts the two men at an economics conference. Before it begins, Keynes invites Hayek to a night out on the town. The two men ride around in a white limo, drinks in hand, beautiful women by their side and begin:
We’ve been going back and forth for a century
[Keynes] I want to steer markets,
[Hayek] I want them set free
There’s a boom and bust cycle and good reason to fear it
[Hayek] Blame low interest rates.
[Keynes] No… it’s the animal spirits
Keynes argues first:
You see it’s all about spending, hear the register cha-ching
Circular flow, the dough is everything
So if that flow is getting low, doesn’t matter the reason
We need more government spending, now it’s stimulus season
So forget about saving, get it straight out of your head
Like I said, in the long run — we’re all dead
Savings is destruction, that’s the paradox of thrift
Don’t keep money in your pocket, or that growth will never lift…
Haynes listens politely and when it’s his turn to give a rebuttal he raps:
And yet it continues as a justification
For bailouts and payoffs by pols with machinations
You provide them with cover to sell us a free lunch
Then all that we’re left with is debt, and a bunch
Then:
Your focus on spending is pushing on thread
In the long run, my friend, it’s your theory that’s dead
So sorry there, buddy, if that sounds like invective
Prepare to get schooled in my Austrian perspective
Despite his lack of formal economic training, Papola actually approached Roberts and asked if the two could combine their knowledge of economics and creativity to write a rap video that would explain, in layman’s terms, a complicated subject. “We wanted to get people exposed to a richer set of ideas,” said Roberts. Both men are sympathetic to Hayek — Roberts said he “doesn’t get the hearing in the public square that Keynes gets” — but wanted to give equal time to both men in the rap because it’s “intellectually honest.”
The rap, which has been translated now into several languages, is as appealing as the lyrics are educational. Pop star Ke$ha has praised the rap on the partners’ website econstories.tv.com, calling it “like, legit” and “really good rapping.” Teachers and audiences alike are catching on. One teacher told him she’d already shown the rap, with a page of printed lyrics, to 800 students. Roberts said its use in the classroom has been a pleasant surprise. A parent informed Roberts he thought this video now “gave him a chance to talk to his kids about economics over dinner.” Roberts hopes to write and produce more with Papola in the future.
After all, economics is all about the Benjamins.
About the Author
Nicole Russell writes from Northern Virginia.
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Pingback| 2.5.10 @ 11:02AM
The American Spectator : That's a Rap Economic Finance news links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
james wilson| 2.5.10 @ 11:10AM
It is not intellectually fair to give Keynes an equal hearing, but it is necessary. Keynes will always represent the love of style over substance, but Hayek is seen better through the contrast, as Reagan was through Carter.
Keynes was a profoundly learned and talented man with great skills in language, but also a narcissist and degenerate. Hayek was limited in English and without charisma, but his observations won the day after fifty years.
Spike| 2.5.10 @ 11:29AM
When I saw the video a week ago, I was about halfway through Hayek's book, the Road to Serfdom. I thought the video was AWESOME! This type of format for educational content is the wave of the future. Hayek's book is a fairly difficult read. Seems like to could have used 10 words to say what it took 100, but as I continue through the book, can't see which 90 words the book could have done without. Brilliant. Pertinent. Salient.
Chasmnore| 2.5.10 @ 7:54PM
I don't think Keynes understood the the limitation on money. I can write you a check for any amount but the bank will only cash my check when it is less than the balance in my checking account. The money I have in the bank represents the value of something I had that I traded for that money.
Without that input there can be no output. When I plant a seed in the garden that seed must sprout and grow before I get any benefit. That is my understanding of Hayek. The printing press can print no calorie or counterfeit cash just as easily as it prints real money that is backed by real value. When you come right down to it money is a form of energy and must, like your car battery, be charged with that energy before it can release that energy. Our government has no way to charge the money it prints but must rely on industry used in the broader sense of growing wealth rather than in manufacturing something.
Joe Simpson| 2.6.10 @ 12:16PM
It would be nice if the Republican party actually followed Hayek, and stopped with believeing in the low interest rates to fuel the economy.
Curtis| 2.6.10 @ 5:21PM
I loved the Federal bar tenders pouring shot after shot for Keynesian theory.
Jeremiah| 2.7.10 @ 11:57AM
Nicole, you betrayed Sarah Palin during the 08 campaign whereas you were supposed to help her.
Do you have anything to say about that unpleasant matter?
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ran | 4.22.11 @ 12:25AM
The money I have in the bank represents the value of something I had that I traded for that money.
Without that input there can be no output.
ibcbet | 5.25.11 @ 12:46AM
I was about halfway through Hayek's book, the Road to Serfdom. I thought the video was AWESOME! This type of format for educational content is the wave of the future. Hayek's book is a fairly difficult read. Very nice !!!
L Tod Schlosser | 11.4.11 @ 11:38AM
Comments are a great way to receive feedback from your readers.
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