![Freakonomics [Revised and Expanded]: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Cz7mSihbL._SL75_.jpg)
..about changing the world with rap music and fake mustaches?
Sunday, January 31, 2010 at 9:08PM I reached out to Russ Roberts one year ago because I wanted to change the world with video. I wanted to make a difference, honestly. Our year of effort on that mission is finally beginning to pay off.
"Fear the Boom and Bust", the music video Russ and I created to explore the macroeconomics debate between Keynes and Hayek, is a hit. After one week online, the video has been viewed over 475,000 times by people all over the world and is the 23rd Top Rated New and Politics video of All Time. A google search reveals news coverage from most of the major blogs and newspapers.
This is one of the most exciting and satisfying experiences of my professional life. But what’s really having an impact on me is the impact our video is already having on other people.
I’d like to share a few highlights...
We had some initial praise that put some wind in our sails. The first came from Lord Robert Skidelsky, the world renowned biographer of John Maynard Keynes. After reading the lyrics (and later hearing the song) he said it was "Absolutely fair and brilliantly rhymed. It's not a complete account of Keynes but it seems to be completely right.”
That praise from an admirer of the man we were undeniably criticizing was an achievement of effort over bias. Critical but fair will make it into classrooms. We hoped that honesty would help deliver our message to a new generation of students.
On Tuesday, less than 24 hours after the video went live to the public, the photo to the left was posted. This was the first indication that our video was going to have an impact.
This was amazing confirmation of our success in creating a tool for educators.
That same tuesday, a teacher from the University of Melbourne sent me an email thanking us for providing a great resources for his class and sharing a rap video some of his student made that explores the subject of externalities. Awesome. My wife’s best friend Kelly, a brilliant post graduate from Stanford, emailed the video to her professors at Pepperdine Univerity only to hear that they had already seen it and played it in class.
What an amazing, Hayekian world we live in when a video can be posted on monday from my basement in New Jersey and overnight be integrated into economics lectures around the country.
The Peanut Gallery
Then there’s the youtube comments thread, currently 2435 strong and growing. This might be the most interesting thread I’ve ever seen. Here’s some of my favorites:
Aliec1: Heard this story on NPR and came to check it out. Love this - I'll be using it in my Econ. class to analyze these differing views! Keep it coming, young people need an intellectual, yet "entertaining" way of appreciating economics.
lengthyounarther: Prepare to get schooled in my austrian perspective!
Nickelodeon2002: Full of Super Win. Can you imagine if stuff in Econ classes was taught like this? There'd be a whole lot more informed people.
spikelou: Hands down! The best video on youtube, at least for us econ geeks!
Far and away the most creative (and hyperbolic) comment was over on The Volokh Conspiracy:
sardonic_sob: If the stars start going out, it’s because the purpose of the Universe was to produce this video, and it has now served that purpose.
NPR’s comments also had some exciting gems:
Going Global
Since the release of the video, volunteers have posted translations in Chinese, Japanese, Finnish, Polish, with Spanish and other translations in the works. The Stats for global viewing are unbelievable:
#17 - Most Viewed (This Week) - News & Politics - Germany
#11 - Most Viewed (This Week) - News & Politics - Australia
#10 - Most Viewed (This Week) - News & Politics - Canada
#11 - Most Viewed (This Week) - News & Politics - United Kingdom
#13 - Most Viewed (This Week) - News & Politics - Ireland
#22 - Most Viewed (This Week) - News & Politics - India
#7 - Most Viewed (This Week) - News & Politics - New Zealand
#18 - Most Viewed (This Week) - News & Politics - Israel
#23 - Most Viewed (This Week) - News & Politics - Spain
#27 - Most Viewed (This Week) - News & Politics - France
#77 - Most Viewed (This Week) - News & Politics - Italy
#29 - Most Viewed (This Week) - News & Politics - South Korea
#41 - Most Viewed (This Week) - News & Politics - Netherlands
#24 - Most Viewed (This Week) - News & Politics - Poland
#34 - Most Viewed (This Week) - News & Politics - Brazil
#35 - Most Viewed (This Week) - News & Politics - Russia
#79 - Most Viewed (This Week) - News & Politics - Hong Kong
#4 - Most Viewed (This Week) - News & Politics - Czech Republic
#5 - Most Viewed (This Week) - News & Politics - Sweden
Who knew that the Swedes were such big fans of Hayek? Maybe there’s home for scandinavia yet! Talk about a spontaneous order!
Opening the Dialog
The whole point was to expand the dialog and ground it back in ideas. In a perfect world, our efforts with this video and future ones would make it possible for none-economists to feel empowered to ask questions and explore. An article Russ sent me last night provides the last bit of proof I’d like to share about the impact our silly rap video is having on the conversation about our world. David Merkel, the Chief Economist at Finacorp Securities writes:
There are places where video can be useful, but it has to be well thought out. I first saw the above video over at “The Big Picture,” which has enough readership to kick up a video’s viewings. I thought it was clever, representing the economist’s views in a short catchy way, and capturing their philosophies as well. The next day, I showed it to three of my boys — they thought it was interesting, and mentioned it the next night at dinner. My wife, incredulous at the idea of an economics rap video, then watched it the next night with all of the kids, while I cleaned up the dinner dishes.
Then the surprise happened. “Dad, what are animal spirits?” “Are animal spirits the bull and the bear?”
Interesting. The video prompted questions from the children for me to answer.
David continues with an insightful breakdown of the video’s key points. Then comes his conclusion. It sums up everything Russ and I hoped to achieve.
My wife and my kids have a better understanding of the current economic situation now than they did before the video came out. I am grateful that the video was made.
If nothing more comes of this experience, the fact that our year of work has had an impact on so many people around the world makes it truly the most important project I have ever done. I’ll end this post with the most strangely touching comment I’ve read to date from, of course, “unabonger777”:
for some reason, when I see this, I think we'll be alright. thanks. some of us have been waiting a long time to see this.
Honest, passion-driven creative work can change the world. I’m more certain of that now than ever...
…but what the hell do I know?
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Reader Comments (3)
Amazing video!!! Thank you!
Maybe it will be the beginning of the big suprise for the next decade:
The internet moves to live broadcasting, TV stations and cable networks follow the fate of newspapers-
During the second decade of the 21st century the technology of broadcasting the PC output on the flat screen TV created a whole new communication environment. Ten of thousands of broadcast where uploaded on the net on a daily basis allowing the web surfers to choose between thousands of news programs, financial and economic broadcasts, home made reality show, and local sitcoms.
A Third Party Emerges In The United States-
When Obama's first and last term ended the American public was fed up with anything that had to do with the elite- Wall Street, the big banks, Congress, the Senate, the Federal Reserve and both of the big parties. As a result a third party emerged which managed to get a large amount of seats in both houses. The party's candidate for president got 25% of the votes in 2012 and won the election in 2016. The third party fundamentally changed the way politics is done in Washington and resulted in a large change in United States foreign policy. A lot of countries where left to deal with their problems alone. At the beginning, this policy caused havoc and even chaos in different countries around the world which suddenly where shocked by the shortage of American financial and military aid.
http://israelfinancialexpert.blogspot.com/search/label/predictions%202010
Like the authors you quote, this was fun to get my son's attention. Instead of "Oh no, there goes Dad on economics again!", it was "That's cool!"
How about a video on the Fed and fiat money versus gold?
Thanks, guys!
@dave, the best we can hope for is to change people’s minds on a grand scale with the power of our ideas and a positive spirit. Liberty is legit and we should evangelize it from a place of respect and compassion and strength. That’s how we’ll win and everyone will win. Free exchange. Peaceful, voluntary action. Who can argue with that?
@SMaturin, For now we’re going to stay focus on the bigger macro story as told in this video and dig into each of these issues. Stable money is a big part of the Austrian story, but I don’t believe it’s as simply as “go to a gold standard”. I do think we should abolish the Fed and move to free banking and private money. No question. Whether that money is gold should be left to the emergent market order. My guess is that it would be gold. But, man, money and credit is hard stuff. The more you study, especially as an interested amateur, the deeper it gets. I’m inclined to reject Murray Rothbard’s attack on fractional reserve banking as “fraud” along the lines that freedom to contract is consistent with liberty. But Murray is awesome none-the-less.
Anyway, thanks for sharing and keep coming back.