Rapping the Recession

Back in January, a rap video contrasting the different business cycle theories of John Maynard Keynes and Friedrich Hayek produced by George Mason University’s Russell Roberts and filmmaker John Papola appeared on YouTube, where it has since garnered more than 2 million views. Keynes insists that economic downturns are caused by a lack of aggregate demand brought on by the “animal spirits” of consumers and producers, while Hayek maintains that an excess of credit from the central bank encourages malinvestment in a number of sectors.

Roberts and Papola are producing another video with the same actors playing Hayek and Keynes, and applying their theories to the present situation. You can catch a preview of the video, along with a short interview with Roberts and Papola from a conference sponsored by The Economist magazine, embedded below.