The Institute for Humane Studies is putting together (and beta-testing) a series of short videos on basic principles of economics and the classical liberal tradition; they’re available at LearnLiberty.org. Here the first of my three “Trade is Made of Win” videos, which you might find useful if you’re teaching comparative advantage. In it, I explain how trade allows both buyers and sellers to get more for less effort. In short, buyers get lower prices and sellers get higher prices.
Source link: http://archive.mises.org/15881/trade-is-made-of-win-part-1/
Trade is Made of Win, Part 1
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Now, THAT was a great explanation. It is a tricky but mind blowing topic and you really compressed it down to its essentials and gave a great example.
Comparative advantage is indeed tricky; Paul Krugman has managed to un-learn it.
In the new Sheen colloquialisms, Free Trade has Tiger Blood, it is Winning.
I will post that on my site for teachers to use. Thank you for posting it!
Nice. Concise. Well done.
I’ll be showing it to my kids.
Nicely done Art! “Economics for Dummies” for the YouTube generation!! This is an awesome idea.
Nicely done, IHS, and very subtle! Fritz is vastly superior to Lou… +$1,000,000 for next year’s allowance.
-Dave
Man, I love these videos. This video, along with the previous two that were posted here a couple days ago, reminds me of the “George Ought To Help” video that has been floating around the web for a while.
Its short (under 5 minutes!), concise, straight to the point, and it leaves viewers eager to delve in and learn some real economics.
While I found your choice of names and production quite weird, I liked it a great deal over all.
Fritz: Friedrich Hayek
Lou: Ludwig von Mises
Look at their pictures =)
I know, its kinda funny lol
I like the video, I like prof. Carden’s voice, the drawings are pretty and colorful.
But, the conclusion was not demonstrated. Prof. Carden ends saying, “with trade, everybody wins”, but that was not shown.
This article, also by prof. Carden, explains it better: http://mises.org/daily/3134 , in my opinion.
Another good article on the topic: http://mises.org/daily/3015
Jeffrey makes the “wealth creation” even clearer.
“Let’s total up the production. Before cooperation: 18 bagels and 8 pies. After cooperation: 20 bagels and 8 pies.”
The best way to show the benefit of trade is to show it happening continuously over and over, how they wealth of socks and corn keeps mushrooming in comparison with before they started trading.
Thank you all for your kind words! Parts 2 & 3 will make the “wealth production” aspect clearer and show that trade conserves resources.
I didn’t know that Hayek’s nickname was Fritz!
Great stuff, professor Carden. Please keep ‘em coming.
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