25 Jan 2010

Hayek/Keynes Rap Video

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[UPDATE #2 below.]

[UPDATE below.]

I think my job requires me to blog this, much as I had to teach the multiplier theory to my macro students. What interested me most about this video is that the hotel receptionist apparently skipped work in order to get in the limo with Keynes. Now that’s a smooth economist.

I was tempted to make fun of this but apparently it worked in getting the message through to at least one person.

UPDATE: I should probably add that this video is amazing, for what it is trying to do. I am just surprised that they tried to do this. Perhaps it’s my checkered past of actually listening to rap music, but I am not sure the Beastie Boys actually pulled off white rapping.

UPDATE #2: OK in retrospect, I underestimated the potential benefits of this video. My first reaction, to be honest, was that I couldn’t believe how much money they must have spent on this, when it (a) isn’t really s study guide for people who like Hayek and (b) wouldn’t really convince a Keynesian to abandon his ideas. And since it is an intentionally goofy video of two geeky guys rapping, the video obviously wouldn’t win a layperson over, because its terminology and references would be way over his head.

However, I have read reactions elsewhere, and I forgot that grad students would be a great target audience for this. They would of course get the Keynesian C+I+G stuff, and they would at least be able to make sense of what “Hayek” says in the video. Coupled with the drunken imagery…It’s a crazy plan, but it just might work.

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