Fight of the Century: Keynes vs. Hayek Round Two

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"Fight of the Century" is the new economics hip-hop music video by John Papola and Russ Roberts at http://EconStories.tv.

According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, the Great Recession ended almost two years ago, in the summer of 2009. Yet we're all uneasy. Job growth has been disappointing. The recovery seems fragile. Where should we head from here? Is that question even meaningful? Can the government steer the economy or have past attempts helped create the mess we're still in?

In "Fight of the Century", Keynes and Hayek weigh in on these central questions. Do we need more government spending or less? What's the evidence that government spending promotes prosperity in troubled times? Can war or natural disasters paradoxically be good for an economy in a slump? Should more spending come from the top down or from the bottom up? What are the ultimate sources of prosperity?

Keynes and Hayek never agreed on the answers to these questions and they still don't. Let's listen to the greats. See Keynes and Hayek throwing down in "Fight of the Century"!

Starring Billy and Adam from http://www.billyandadam.com

Visit http://www.econstories.tv for the full lyrics.

• Category

  News & Politics

[Carlos Lam]

Love how Hayek has the gold robe and that 1 of his trainers is Say.

[AnCapped]

Marx isn't a respectable enough intellectual to enter the ring with Hayek or Keynes. He was a fool who based his ideal society on violence and coercion. Detestable and violent neanderthal.

[tahosso01]

The video is full of subtle elements, really well thought! The main point however is that, as the fight, the economic policy is rigged...

[Josué Tonelli Cueto]

It's not faulty logic, it's argumenting that total rejecting of violence in all the cases is irrational. In the same manner, I expect that state will use the violence to control criminals, not always the power of the word is sufficient. Nevertheless, you have not to confuse what Marx said, use of violence only as a mean to obtain the proletary class the production means, with what maybe was made in his name by other radicals.

Marx was not a violent man, the contrary is a manipulation of truth.

[AnCapped]

To say that you can't call one man barbaric, simply because there are worst atrocities being committed is rather faulty logic. His philosophies in comparison to more moral philosophers of his time were indeed barbaric. He was a barbarian.

[Klyuykovt]

=/

Just tried to watch it again - 1:36. There it is. Thank you once again!

[Klyuykovt]

Thank you! But how did you find it out? Where, at the video, his name can be seen?

[Josué Tonelli Cueto]

In some works Marx claim that the classes fight is necessary, but was not free violence. It is a response to the failure of utopic socialism and the terrible condition of life to where the workers where brought. As history has shown, it was necessary the threaten of violence in order to this conditions to improve.

Today violence is not tolerable, things has changed. Maybe Marx is not as Bastiat respect to non violence, but he is not a violent barbarian, that is a non-rational judgment

[AnCapped]

Fine, lets compare marx to someone with similar philosophy to Hayek, but from Marx time period- Bastiat. Born within a few years of each other, Bastiat's philosophy still makes marx look like a violent barbarian. Same era, the time distinction is irrelevant to how barbaric the philosophy is.

[lonewolf031]

What I find disturbing is that we keep going for the Keynes plan instead of learning from history and following the Hayek plan.

[Josué Tonelli Cueto]

Marx: XIX century. Hayek XX century. We have to look at the state of thought at the moment of each thinker, you cannot compare distinct era's thinkers in a context free manner.

[Weyoun1]

Yeah, cause the new deal was SOO clearly an application of austrian economics.

Either you just typoed and meant to say "Following Keynes", or you're completely clueless to both economic theory and historical events.