‘One data point and you’re jumping for joy’

This is just a bit of fun, really, but I love it. You get a bunch of academic economists who want to spread the free enterprise message and they create a rap video: ‘Fight of the Century: Keynes vs. Hayek Round Two’. A second one, actually, as the name implies. The lyrics are brilliant, and (from my point of view anyway) the (in)justice of the battle is well reflected. Plus, just look at those production values!

If you know a bit about John Maynard Keynes of Friedrich Hayek, two of the great economists of the 20th Century, you’ll get even more out of it. (Two of the latter’s most famous books were The Road to Serfdom and The Fatal Conceit. The second of these profoundly influenced my own understanding of the world. The End of Laissez-Faire was written by Keynes.)

Hayek was a Nobel Prize-winner, and I think few would disagree that Keynes, also, would have won had the Economics prize been instituted before he died.

So, enjoy:

Incidentally, the security guard at the start is Mike Munger, an economics & political science professor at Duke University in the US. I’d love to go to his lectures, because he seems to be as funny in real life as he is in the video. For a sample — and an opportunity to learn some economics — here are the Econtalk podcasts in which he has participated.

The host of Econtalk is Russ Roberts, who was co-creator of the video.

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