CoBank's latest Outlook newsletter features an interview with George Melloan who says: "I’ve never had any confidence in Keynesian-type stimulus." That is a reference to the famous British economist John Maynard Keynes. Keynes wrote an influential book titled The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money (1936) in which he advocated increased government spending (stimulus) as a way out of recessions and depressions.
One of Keynes' contemporaries who argued the opposite position was the Austrian economist Friedrich A. Hayek.
A recent video on YouTube features two actors playing the roles of Keynes and Hayek in a debate. It is an engaging rap video: "Fear the Boom and Bust." (Employees on the FPI network will have to watch this video at home because video streaming is blocked at work.)
The video was created by producer John Papola and economist Russell Roberts, a professor at George Mason University. One amusing scene shows The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money in the drawer of the hotel bedside stand where one usually finds a Gideon Bible. Later the video mentions The Fatal Conceit by Hayek, which gives a different view of economics and political philosophy.
Interestingly, Keynes never won the Nobel prize for economics. Hayek won it in 1974.
Click here for more info about the video—including the song lyrics (alas, link blocked by FPI).
A quote from The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money: "The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed the world is ruled by little else. Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist." Surely that last phrase is a reference to The Road to Serfdom?? Sorry, couldn't resist!
UPDATE 3/26/10: Did you notice the names of the bartenders? I missed that the first time through. There is plenty of symbolism in Ben (Bernanke) and Tim (Geithner) serving alcohol to an inebriated Keynes!
