As with the classical music show on public radio that takes apart a symphony to explain “why it is great,” I want to explain why this video is great. To begin with, the character depiction is fantastic. FULL ARTICLE by Jeffrey Tucker
Source link: http://archive.mises.org/11610/the-brilliance-of-that-hayek-vs-keynes-rap/
The Brilliance of That Hayek vs. Keynes Rap
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I liked it too, although I’m afraid it might give a little fuel to those who dismiss ABCT as a “hangover theory.”
They did mention malinvestment of course, but that is undercut by the image of Keynes at the toilet.
Still, a wonderful effort.
Yeah, Keynesians get to have all the fun. And then they get to blame it all on the free market afterwards.
Why, “hangover” is a pretty good approximation of the ABCT merits. Those, who pretend they could dismiss ABCT by associating it with “hangover”, only demonstrate they didn’t try to understand what’s it all about.
Something that wasn’t noted in the article: the bartenders serving Keynes his alcoholic “stimulus” are named Ben (Bernanke) and Tim (Geithner). One of the more purely entertaining details in the video, in my opinion.
The really cool thing is that I’m seeing this video popping up in comments sections in all sorts of blogs.
I’m all for anything that might inspire people to check out Austrian theory.
Daniel H.- you are so right about that trick they do.
The video is totally awesome with a sweet economic wit. It is going viral all over. Glad it is bringing up the discussion to a more mainstream platform. SO GLAD!!!
Yo, word up, Austies! That’s a def video. Education from the street… Wall Street. No bull.
I had the pleasure of working as an RA for Russ Roberts while he was still at Wash U, and his tireless efforts on behalf of economic literacy have been amazing. There are all sorts of nuggets in the video; for example, the limo driver is Mike Munger, chairman of the poli sci department at Duke and regular guest on Econtalk.
my five year old daughter can sing the chorus
A little technical for the non-econophile, but surely a great rap!
Brilliant!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DPKf7y1F-Q
While still a beginning student in economics, I still have my doubts on whether I’m pursuing the correct course of study in economics. How can so many be wrong about economics? Life is to short in pursuing theories that are wrong. In addition, being ridiculed by so many for believing in crackpot theories and crackpots (Mises, Rothbard, Hayek, ect..) can be uneasy at times. However, I become well assured when I contemplate what I know best… science. And when it comes to this chaotic beast called the economy, the Austrian method seems to the most synonymous with the scientific method. The Austrian method, from my perspective, is the only correct methodology in understanding and analyzing economic factors because it relies on cause and effect. It’s only matter of time before the merits of Keynesian theory are fully realized as incorrect. My only disgust with economics is that it takes long durations of time for the correct theories to be realized.
The Keynes line, “It’s the Animal Spirits!” seems to come out of nowhere, but then the lightbulb goes on and one realizes that that is exactly what Keynes was blaming things on.
I like it for all but one small detail:
The gunshots.
They’re pointless, noisy and distracting.
Spending dollars we don’t have on shit we don’t need to impress people we don’t even like that much…
But keep it hush hush
In a country where the bottom 40% have no wealth, just compounding debt you shouldn’t speak of such
If the world knew the dollars worth they’d kick out their crutch and we’d be shit outa luck
You can’t continue eating with both hands when your stomach is full
And just because we take a pill in attempt to quell the market spins
Don’t think we don’t have to suffer the consequences still
It’s not a game we’re set up to win
By we I mean all but the elitist bankers
Who’ve tied us to their variable interest anchors
And manufactured a crash all in the name of global consolidation
Hidden behind the friendly face of “in your best interest” nationalization
So they can privatize the profits and hit us with the bill when they waste them
They bought us all a one way ticket to the railroad station of inflationary devastation
You’d better kiss goodbye your “free” nation
I said they bought us all a one way ticket, so tune in to the station of constitutional defecation
and listen hard, because it’s hard to sift through the subtle layers of subconscious subliminal manipulation
You think when they print two trillion dollars to bailout the banks you’re gonna get a taste of it?
Nah, we simply pay the price when the worth of greenbacks is wasted
And when China finally stops bankrolling this crazy quasi-capitalist creation
The tension will peak and the news will seem like its fiction
They bought us a one way ticket to the station of devastation
Kiss goodbye your “free” nation
I said they bought us all a one way ticket,
Tune in to the station of constitutional defecation
Listen hard
It’s hard to sift through the subtle layers of subconscious subliminal manipulation
It’s a one way ticket that can’t be sold to the same people who bought it
Fuck making a profit
What about all those that are jobless
How bout the ludicrous price of college
For knowledge
The interest accrued on student loans is bondage
To the same system that holds the uninsured hostage
You gotta question a society that offers its kids and its sick no homage
Its garbage
But I’m only getting started
We’re getting shorted
We’re getting pieced up, sorted and extorted
And the worst of it all, with the truth so distorted
We’re not even aware of the extortion
The culprits carry catchy acronyms like IRS
They steal, spy, and lock you up if you don’t comply
All based on a law fallacious in foundation
Forced into fruition in false pretense
Passed by congress in recess
To squeeze and bleed the last few cents from the fast fading soon to be failing and past bailing out middle class
Those crafty bastards set in motion a controlled crash to cash in on their stash and insure the power grab as the last few grains fall through the hour glass
The ticket leads to the wrong station
No more “free” nation
Its a one way ticket
But listen hard because we can change direction
Throughout history the only purpose unbacked currency has ever served is corruption and war
The sole function for fiat foundationed finance is to fund the fucking fed and fatten their fellow filching friends futures
They take us for fools
And we must be fools to have fallen for and taken this false freeze frame photograph for fact
The system need not work this way
But you need to open your mind
Picture a society based on meritocracy
Free from the hypocrisy of two party democracy
Where we trust Socrates and choose our leaders based not on trivial policy, but on ethical ideology and on the basis of philosophy
Imagine an economy with enough prosperity that healthcare is provided through charity
A legal system that operates fairly through a method other than terror
That doesn’t create more criminals than it reforms
That has no use for the chair
Where we can walk at night wherever we want to go
And warefare is nowhere because our troops are all home
This future is not beyond reach
It simply takes restructuring all that we teach
Contrary to popular belief
Egalitarianism only serves to further our spiritual schism
Entitlements have the unintended consequence of serfdom by rewarding only dependence on the system
Centralized monetary control is the antithesis of freedom
Interventionism never cures the disease by concentrating only on the symptom
Centralized planning never works
If we are to move forward in a way beneficial way to all, we have to change the idea about what the role of government out to be
We cannot police the world
Wars
Occupations
Nation Building
Protecting exploitative industry
We cannot micromanage individuals lives and choices
The war on drugs
Endless regulation
Our legal reform system
We cannot maintain our standard of living beyond our means
Huge national deficits
Huge personal debt
Expansionary monetary policy
And we cannot fix all of our problems at a federal level
Local governments need to have a much larger role in our lives
That way if a policy is adopted that you are in strong disagreement over, you need not leave the country
And far more individualistic attention can be given to the problems that are not inherently white/black, right and wrong
Peace
End the Fed
sick rhymes..
Tucker’s article does hit the nail on the head as to what makes the video great. I think the video can be entertaining even for the non “econophile,” as one commenter put it. Unfortunately, there are a lot of great inside jokes and references that will fly over their heads. I have forwarded the video to a number of family and friends, and added my own “guide” or interpretation, with links or references so that they can learn more. I’ve had a couple of them give positive feedback. If anyone is interested, you can click the “mds” to see the post.
The video made my day. I put it up on facebook, and sent an email to all of my friends and business acquaintances exclaiming, “this is awesome”.
Since then I keep checking for acknowledgement of my gift…….crickets…..I mean nothing…..no response. Is anyone out there?
The rapped text is rather hard to follow for people not versed in parsing hip-hop cultural products, so subtitling would have been nice. But apart from that … hell yeah.
As for economics profs never having heard of Hayek… where does one _get_ those people? That would be like mathematicians never having heard of Emmy Noeter or something.
Nonphixion, awesome man, i am going to post that on facebook with credit to you.
John P. Cunnane, i posted it on every freedom oriented page i am a member of on facebook and got crickets also.
Today my high school Economics students began viewing the terrific three part PBS series, Commanding Heights: The Battle for the World Economy. The first episode, “The Battle of Ideas,” pits John Maynard Keynes against F. A. Hayek. But not before seeing the brilliant Hayek vs. Keynes Rap. They loved it! Earlier in the week they received an essential background preparation by viewing the excellent Mises Institute videos, Money, Banking and the Federal Reserve, and Liberty and Economics: The Ludwig von Mises Legacy, since Mises and the Austrians are briefly discussed in Commanding Heights.
Anarchteacher,
I recently watched “Commanding Heights”, and there was one thing completely left out: Monetary control and abuse by governments.
They point out that there were booms and busts, but simply leave out anything about money supply. Entirely.
“What Business Cycle Theory? Never heard of it. Go away.”
In an otherwise very interesting show, it was a remarkable void.
Curt Howland:
You are exactly correct. That is the major flaw of Commanding Heights, and precisely the reason why I preceeded it with the two Mises Institute videos which focused upon monetary control by central banking authorities and Austrian business cycle theory.
I can confirm, in a roundabout way, that there are economists who don’t know who Hayek is. I took a course in macroeconomics given at Pace University in the mid 1970s. The professor got his PhD from NYU under Israel Kirzner. He was proud that his thesis advisor was prominent and widely published. At one point in class I said that macroeconomics was a lot of nonsense. He replied that all economists believed in macroeconomics. I said Kirzner didn’t. He said, “Oh no. Kirzner just doesn’t do research in macroeconomics.He specialty is microeconomics.”
I thank you for this textual recap of the video, for my computer is permanently without sound. You have increased the accessibility of the internet.
I don’t want to sound like a freak, but when I first found this video I watched it quite literally two dozen times. And I’ve watched it dozens of times since. I’m just obsessed; I loved it. To me it’s a magical work of art. It’s like a wellspring of hope, an entertaining wellspring of hope. If only people I know could appreciate and understand this video. Alas, it was too quickly dismissed in my circles, and my heart is heavy as a result. You know what, I am really starting to think that people deserve the socialism that’s coming to them; imbeciles always learn, if ever, once it’s too late.
Come on, no one has mentioned Ke$ha?
“It’s, like — legit.”
Wow. That is so good. Teh kids needz to unnerstand tha bling, dig?
Seriously – these times are the opportunity we’ve all been waiting for.
http://statismwatch/tag/economics
the Hayek/keynes debate really places things in perspective, and this rap song is great (I spose it would have been too much to ask to have had Keynes with an English accent and Hayek with a German one……).
Unfortunately, speaking as one who started studying economics in the early 1980s and again in the late 90s, this debate received no meaningful airtime in my faculties ( Rhodes and Unisa respectively). The entire macroeconic and monetary economics courses were narrowly cast in terms of the monetarist/Keynesian debate, where theconcept of intervention was axiomatic, and th eonly debate was what kind of intervention should be undertaKen. Which, with hindsight, is I suppose about as enlightening as a politics curriculum framed in Stalinist vs Maoist terms.
“Party at the Fed!”
“…already?”
Ha!
Viral videos are a great way to awaken young people to news that is suppressed by the corporate media.
It is a pity that this video spreads and does not correct a factual error in Hayek’s work.
The error is evident in the words: “The boom starts with an expansion of credit. The new money is confused with real, loanable funds”. Any dictionary will show that credit and money are different. It is not “new money” that is confused with real loanable funds, it is credit!
For centuries, so called ‘fractional reserve’ banks have pretended to lend funds when all they did ans still do is give credit. That is the essence of a fraud maintained, since at least 1968, by corporate media suppression of facts. In Dec 1968 the President [Lawrence V. Morgan] of the First National Bank of Montgomery testified that his bank’s claim for title to the defendant’s property by foreclosing his bank’s mortgage was based on a bookkeeping entry and not on any loan of money. Documented
details of the case are available in the Minnesota law library.
It is not clear if Keynes was also a victim of the fraud, but it is possible that he was!
Can we get Roberts and Papola to release a short correction? How, and more importantly, how do we get it to go viral?
Excellent video… more on the way, I hope.
I still say this rap video is just fantastic and like I said a few weeks ago this rap puts economic theory, a topic most people frankly consider boring, into a form that people can identify with. We may have went to far though if Ron Paul for example steps out onto the stage to make a speach dressed like Flavor Flav or Snoop Dogg though. lol
Another great touch that really puts it into perspective are the quotes made by both Keynes and Hayek at the end of the video. Those quotes show the importance economic theory holds over us all. From the politician right down to the individual we all are affected just as we see from the latest Keynesian real estate bust.
Pure Genius. I’ve passed it along to my non-financial friends on advice this is all they need to learn about why we are in the mess we are now. True free-marketers saw this bust coming well in advance while the central planners advancing their failed solutions were the ones most surprised by this credit bust. What super talents this pair of guys are to take such a complex subject and distill it to its essence.
Mr. Stewart,
That’s not entirely accurate. First, you’ve mistaken case law as matters of fact. Case law is determined by lawyers and judges, legal code is written by the legislative branch. Reality most frequently goes against such determinations. Just because a court decided that credit is just a book keeping entry doesn’t mean it is.
In our economy, credit IS money. When you receive your paycheck, does it signify what portion of it is real money and what portion was created due to the fractional reserve system? Would you even accept it if it was actually broken down that way? If your paycheck came in and it was broken down at 10% in Dollars and 90% in bank credit, which is roughly the ratio out there right now? I’m sure you’d have a fit and complain to Congress to regulate the ever lovin’ H*** out of it. But that’s what you’re being paid in, 10% of the actual value of your job plus 90% in credit for something that doesn’t exist.
It then gets exasperated when you deposit this in your bank. In accounting terminology, a credit is a reduction of assets, a debit is an increase of assets. This is why it’s called credit. Not becuase the individual taking out a loan is recieving credit (though his liabilities side is being credited in accounting vernacular), but becuase YOUR cash account is being credited, 90% of your 10% real money and the 90% accumulated credit money to be exact.
Money is not defined as Dollars. It’s just one source of money used in America. Credit is money because it is traded for real goods and services. Credit is denominated in Dollars, but this only goes to confuse individuals as to what credit really is, as is shown by your request to correct something that is already correct.
Mr. Tucker,
you are right about the english speaking world ignoring Hayek. But fortunately in German the complete works of Hayek are underway to be in a really nice edition by the “Mohr-Verlag” in Tübingen. So you could read them – which does not stop the German gouvernment from ignoring any implication of Hayeks ideas.
Misc:
Here’s Hayek in another video.. that was featured today on youtube front page.
Not very funny.. just weird
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cg4b3SIwDfc
Just watched this video again, and I realized something…
Wasn’t Keynes gay? I mean, what’s he doing with all those chicks in the video?
Buying them drinks? Flirting and dancing with them? and all the while he has no desire to get physical with them…?
I guess its another lesson in this video. Keynesianism leads to Malinvestment!
how can it be possible that economics professors have never heard of hayek? more likely, they wish they’d never heard of him….
Rap music and economic theory? Might appeal to a Keynesian, but not a Hayekian. The pop culture effect endures. Oscar Wilde said it best: everything popular is wrong. “A+” for effort, though.
Their “Round Two” video is up and the quality is ten times better than the first (in both production and debate):
“Fight of the Century: Keynes vs. Hayek Round Two”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTQnarzmTOc
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