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The Boom and Bust Rap

Here's what's being passed around the Marketplace office today: A rap video pitting two of the world's most renowned economists against each other. Yes, I said economists and rap video in the same sentence.

The creative folks at Econ Stories TV produced "Fear the Boom and Bust" a Hayek vs. Keynes Rap Anthem. Econ Stories is a collaboration between George Mason University economics professor Russell Roberts and producer/director John Papola of Spike TV.

I suspect the video below is the first and only rap battle between British economist John Maynard Keynes and Austrian economist Freidrich von Hayek. Hopefully I'm right about that, but it's a pretty awesome video.

If you'd like to sing along, here are some choice verses.

Keynes:

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...

Hayek:

If you're living high on that cheap credit hog
Don't look for cure from the hair of the dog
Real savings come first if you want to invest
The market coordinates time with interest

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
Prepared to get schooled in my Austrian perspective

Learn more about Keynes and Hayek here.

Who would you call the winner?

About the author

JPM's picture
JPM - Feb 3, 2010

Russ Roberts at Econtalk.org is very bright and provides a great site. The video is cool.

don meinshausen's picture
don meinshausen - Feb 2, 2010

It's beautiful except for the refrain. I don't think that Hayek saw anything to fear in the business cycle. What he was opposed to (as was otherwise clearly stated in the rap) was statist interventions that inevitably increase the amplitudes of the cycles.