Hip Hop Rematch: F.A. Hayek vs. J.M. Keynes

Jesse Walker | 4.28.2011 9:15 AM

Hayek and Keynes have shot their second rap video, covering topics ranging from regulating Wall Street to whether World War II ended the Depression:

If you missed the first Hayek/Keynes rap, you can watch it here.

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rather 14 years ago

I'm so glad that this video didn't perpetuate stereotypes about women
1. Bradley 14 years ago
  
  Your entire persona perpetuates a stereotype of women as crazy bitches who won't shut up, so you're hardly one to complain.
  1. Citizen Nothing 14 years ago
    
    He he.
  2. Craiglist serial killer 14 years ago
    
    Bradley, your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
Max 14 years ago

Is John Birch a libertarian hero?
1. Citizen Nothing 14 years ago
  
  Is Joe McCarthy a leftist one?
  1. Joshua Corning 14 years ago
    
    You forgot to mention regressive racists Wilson and FDR.
2. Ted Kaczynski 14 years ago
  
  I had a point!
Citizen Nothing 14 years ago

After a second watch, HVK2 has really grown on me.
Good stuff.
Nicholas Sarwark 14 years ago

Nice cameo by Mike Munger as the security guard.
1. zoltan 14 years ago
  
  I didn't recognize him without his flowing locks.
2. proudlibitard 14 years ago
  
  Munger's awesome!
GSL 14 years ago

Love it.
Cortillaen 14 years ago

It's the War of the Mustaches!

Seriously, though, this puts forth one of my favorite arguments against governmental intervention in the economy starting at 5:05. An economy is composed of all the people within. Trying to manipulate the economy is like trying to perform brain surgery - only this brain displays at least an order of magnitude more complexity, the cells function several orders of magnitude higher and can totally rearrange their structure at will, and the operating room is open air in the middle of a storm.
1. Paul 14 years ago
  
  Shhh..shhhhhh. We're making a better world.
2. yonemoto 14 years ago
  
  I really like how it makes the point that keynesianism is an elitist economics and hayek is a "people power" economics. Not that the left will listen, they're pretty happy patting themselves on the back for being smart (like Max, Tony).
JW 14 years ago

I'll have to be the hater. I liked the economy of the first effort over the forced grandeur of this one. And I could have easily done without the chorus; it just made it drag.

Still, it's an effective tool, presuming your audience can stay tuned in for all 10 minutes.
1. Lurker 14 years ago
  
  I liked it for the raps. The long start and long chorus felt long. But I liked it.
  
  But I do prefer a quicker pace.
2. ClubMedSux 14 years ago
  
  Seriously... ten minutes? That's longer than those crappy tracks rappers tack on to the end of their albums where they just name-check everybody (since I guess nobody reads liner notes any more).
  1. Citizen Nothing 14 years ago
    
    If they had to tighten, they could have easily cut a lot of the intro with the security guard -- the opening seemed very slow, but it quickly picked up steam.
    1. Robert 14 years ago
      
      But that part was hilarious! Except I didn't get the part with the first guy with the electric arc.
      1. MB 14 years ago
        
        The 'electric arc' is Keynes and Hayak showing up. Same thing was done in the original.
3. deified 14 years ago
  
  I couldn't have said it better.
  
  Let me just repeat, for emphasis, how much the chorus sucks.
  1. Citizen Nothing 14 years ago
    
    Sorry, haters. I thought the chorus was awesome. True story.
    1. Citizen Nothing 14 years ago
      
      The catchy chorus is going to draw in a lot of repeat viewers.
    2. JW 14 years ago
      
      I view this one as I did Matrix: Reloaded. Bigger and flashier does not equal gooder.
    3. yonemoto 14 years ago
      
      chorus sucked, slow beginning. The main text was better than the first.
    4. cynical 14 years ago
      
      I agree. With the chorus and a little more autotune, you probably have a top 40 hit on your hands. I mean, musically speaking, it's better than Ke$ha.
      1. JimBob 14 years ago
        
        "...it's better than Ke$ha."
        
        So is pounding railroad spikes through my genitalia. You want to set a higher standard, here?
    5. cynical 14 years ago
      
      I agree. With the chorus and a little more autotune, you probably have a top 40 hit on your hands. I mean, musically speaking, it's better than Ke$ha.
question 14 years ago

I'm going to risk starting a flame war here and ask: Didn't Keynes only view deficits as a solution to extreme crises, not as a permanent phenomenon in the macro-economy?
1. Sudden 14 years ago
  
  Yes. Keynes would admittedly be a bit concerned with the way his theories are being used to essentially dismiss the threat of structural deficits today. Keynes would've supported the stimulus spending to a large degree (although might've actually had qualms with so much of it going directly to states for teacher's unions, he would've condoned the infrastructure improvements), but he would likely be arguing for the need to get the structural deficits under control immediately.
2. yonemoto 14 years ago
  
  The elites will maintain a permanent crisis so that they can uses their solution perpetually. Didn't you read Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine:Rise of Disaster Capitalism?
  1. MB 14 years ago
    
    Yeah, but she didn't claim the elites would use it to cram down keynesianism, but friedmanite free market economics.
  2. BoscoH 14 years ago
    
    Didn't she write that after she wasn't kinda hot anymore?
ClubMedSux 14 years ago

Speaking of hip-hop, I was disappointed, though not surprised, to learn that the Roots performed a fundraising concert for Obama yesterday. When it comes to rap and politics, I'm more inclined to side with Lupe Fiasco.
1. VoteMuslimNoPork 14 years ago
  
  Most rappers who are political today are often libs and truthers ...
  1. cynical 14 years ago
    
    Truthers? Why are rappers so paranoid? Hmmm...
    
    Nope, can't think of any reason for it.
    1. VoteMuslimNoPork 14 years ago
      
      Honestly, I think the whole 9/11 thing is considered a "proven" fact in the majority of the rap world ... fuck, even Eminem dropped a truther song back in like 2003 ... AND it was his lead single.
2. Rock Action 14 years ago
  
  The guy who wrote American Terrorist...hmmm...
  Wait, just listened to the song in controversy. At about :45 in, there's something about an excuse to use bullets followed by...
  
  "9-11/good incentive/did they really pull it?"
  
  Sounds like he's flanking Obama on the very fringe left, man.
yeltsin 14 years ago

mp3?
1. yeltsin 14 years ago
  
  Econstories now have it uploaded.
  
  http://econstories.tv/uploads/.....entury.mp3
yonemoto 14 years ago

not sure why malthus is one of Keynes' attendants. Being Malthusian is a compatible theory with Hayekianism.
1. yonemoto 14 years ago
  
  ... and malthusianism is AFAICT incompatible with keynesianism.
2. cavalier973 14 years ago
  
  http://www.economictheories.or.....ories.html
  
  "In his essay on Malthus, Keynes praises Malthus's understanding of an economy's difficulties in maintaining full employment, quoting letters from Malthus to Ricardo 'to show Malthus's complete comprehension of the effects of excessive saving on output via its effects on profit.'"
  1. yonemoto 14 years ago
    
    I see. So Malthusianism planted the seed of the "paradox of thrift" in Keynes (actually bandied about since antiquity). The central question of Austrianism is "what is the best way to make use of the limited amount of material that the world provides to us" so I would have thought that it's more Hayekian.
heller 14 years ago

How did they get that footage of Bernanke?
1. BigBob 14 years ago
  
  Hidden cameras at TARP meetings?
Robert 14 years ago

I thought this was their 3rd. Maybe the 1st seemed like 2, with its making-of portion.

I thought it odd that Keynes was taking advice from Malthus.
1. Sean 14 years ago
  
  I think the second one you're thinking of was their live performance at the buttonwood gathering. It was about 70% reused material from the first video but I think it had a few lines from this video as well.
Ayn R. Key 14 years ago

Overall a good video. I thought the tune wasn't as catchy, nor the refrain, but the lyrics did flow better.

The text is more related to current events than the more abstract theory of the first one. The imagery of who the ref declares the winner of the boxing match is also spot on, just like the imagery of the party and hangover of the previous video.

One thing I still want to see is for EconStories to do a similar video comparing Hayek (or similar) to Friedman (or his teacher Fischer). I wrote to them about it and they didn't seem to feel it necessary as they think Friedman is great. Durr.
The Immaculate Trouser 14 years ago

Great video, but also not one that's particularly fair to Keynesians. I can think of at lest a couple of contradictions within Austrian theory that Keynes-rapper could have used to put a dent in it.

That said, for a video made for the layman, pretty good stuff.

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Hip Hop Rematch: F.A. Hayek vs. J.M. Keynes

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