Rappin’ economics

Jon Brooks — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:03:05 +0000

At first blush, you might think that Principles of Economics, written by Harvard professor and former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors Greg Mankiw, doesn’t necessarily seem like ripe material for a rap adaptation.

But if you did think that, you’d be wrong.

Listen to “Demand, Supply”, by Rhythm, Rhyme, Results. The rap song describes Mankiw’s 10 economic principles in a style somewhat reminiscent of Eminem — if Eminem rapped not about taking drugs, going mad, and hating women, but resource allocation, opportunity cost, and the money supply.

As in the book, topics in the song include government regulation:

Because of monopolies and the troubles they create
Uncle Sam comes along and he’s gotta regulate
That’s lesson #7: when government’s there
They oversee to guarantee that competition is fair

the benefits of a free market:

Lesson 6 is a trick, the invisible hand
Buyers and sellers clear markets without the man
The market system almost always prevails
But recognize, too, that markets can fail

and the relation of the money supply to inflation:

#9: keep an eye on that money supply
Printing too much paper sends prices sky high
A dollar means nothing, it’s just a nice name
If what it represents doesn’t stay the same

Rhythym, Rhyme, Results produces educational music for use in the classroom. From the FAQ:

Why do you produce rap music?

The vocal delivery in rap/hip-hop music lends itself to rhyme-based mnemonics that make memorization easy. Beyond that, we realize that today’s youth listen to hip hop and rap in huge numbers that transcend race, culture, and age.

Sounds good. And we look forward to further economist/rap artist collaborations, and to that day when Jay-Z/Lawrence Summers, perhaps, can stand on a podium to accept their joint MTV Video Music Award/Nobel Economics Prize. And then Kanye West can rush up, grab the mic, and harangue the audience. “Yo Jay and Larry, I’m really happy for you, but Beyoncé/Ben Bernanke had one of the best videos/economic theories of all time!”

Economist blogs Part I

Jon Brooks — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 16:38:46 +0000

With so much ink and and so many electronic bytes being devoted to the economy by the media, we thought it would be interesting to see what the professionals — economists — have to say about it themselves. Here’s the first group we took a look at:

Grasping Reality with Both Hands – U.C. Berkeley economics professor Brad DeLong offers saucy opinions on topics like his antipathy toward Washington Post columnist David Broder, an historical antecedent to the Birther movement, and the current demagoguery on display in the health care free-for-all.

Greg Mankiw’s Blog – Mankiw was the chairman of President George W. Bush’s Council of Economic Advisors and is currently a professor of economics at Harvard. Sub-titled “Random Observations for Students of Economics,” Mankiw’s posts try to make sense of arcane topics like the carbon tax and the core reasons behind the great schism over health care reform.

Nourel Roubini’s Global EconoMonitor – From a Fortune magazine article titled Eight Who Saw the Crisis Coming – “In 2005, Roubini said home prices were riding a speculative wave that would soon sink the economy. Back then the professor was called a Cassandra. Now he’s a sage.” His latest post argues that economic recovery has not yet begun and that a double-dip recession is a real possibility. Oy.

We’ll continue our survey of economy blogs in the days to come.

EconomyBeat.org » Greg Mankiw

Rappin’ economics

Economist blogs Part I