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Friday, April 02, 2010

That's a rap!



As I've probably mentioned before on this blog, Hayek and Keynes were personal friends but intellectual rivals.

Video producer John Papola and economics professor Russ Roberts teamed up and did a nice job on this video, now over a million hits on youtube.


More information, lyrics and many relevant links here:
In Fear the Boom and Bust, John Maynard Keynes and F. A. Hayek, two of the great economists of the 20th century, come back to life to attend an economics conference on the economic crisis. Before the conference begins, and at the insistence of Lord Keynes, they go out for a night on the town and sing about why there's a "boom and bust" cycle in modern economies and good reason to fear it.
Glad to see more attention on Hayek.

More here on the totally relevant credit and real estate cycles which are the ultimate in booms and busts.

4 comments:

AVeryRoughRoadAhead said...

I was a bit apprehensive about the potential quality of a "rap" written by academics, but that was TOTALLY AWESOME!!!

The Gideon General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money was a clever touch...

With the hindsight of history, Hayek's paradigm has certainly proven to be more relevant, at least with regard to this cycle.

Kondratieff should not be denied his due, though. Generational psychologies may have been the greatest factor in setting up the economic trip to Hell on which we're embarking.

erp said...

Bret, check in and let us know you're okay.

Hey Skipper said...

Harry Eagar just reviewed The Road to Serfdom.

It is safe to say I disagree; however, without re-reading the book -- it has been about five years -- I can't say how firmly grounded my disagreement is.

Susan's Husband said...

I am not sure I disagree, as I don't find much there. Is there any point at which Eagar engages Hayek's actual arguments, rather than snarking at how ridiculous the arguments are? E.g., Hayek gets one fact wrong, therefore he has no connection at all with "garden variety economic reality".