Keynes and Hayek rap "Fear the Boom and Bust"

If all lessons about economics were this entertaining, I might not have slept through most of those classes years ago...

From creative director John Papola and creative economist Russ Roberts comes "Fear the Boom and Bust", a rap song in which legendary economists John Maynard Keynes and F. A. Hayek come back to life and attend a modern-day conference on the economic crisis, but first have a night of wild party.

Here 'tis! And I was laughing pretty hard at this...

Incidentally, that video was passed along this way by good friend and fellow blogger Danny de Garcia II from the Big Island of Hawaii. And he asked me to reprint an e-mail that he sent to all of his state's legislators...

Greetings Hawaii State Legislators,

As one of the major issues facing the Legislature this session is the question of economic recovery and how to connect the dots on falling revenues, I would like to submit for your review a video which explains in a rather simple to understand and humorous fashion two different schools of economic theory, Keynes; which supports big government and big spending to "stimulate" the economy and F.A. Hayek who won the 1974 Nobel Prize for his discussion on how government manipulation/intervention affects the economy. Please take a look at this 7-minute video, I think it will be very educational as well as self explanatory ......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0nERTFo-Sk

Very Respectfully,

Danny de Gracia

Okay Danny, done! And as you noted: "Now they have absolutely NO EXCUSE to say 'I didn't know that we impact the market' :D"

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$1 TRILLION, which may or may not really exist, getting pumped into economy

The Federal Reserve is sending $1 trillion more into the flagging economy via "purchasing Treasury bonds and mortgage securities".

At this point I have lost count of how much money - the evidence for the actual existence of which is about as substantial as that for the Loch Ness Monster - has been "pumped" into the markets over the past six months.

Hyper-inflation, here we come...

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Recession to rob many of fried turkey this Thanksgiving

See the photo on the right? That's me a few years ago on Thanksgiving, holding a golden brown, succulent deep-fried turkey. It's considered the second most dangerous form of cooking known to man (after preparing fugu) and I've done it plenty of times since 2002. And especially for family and friends, who have always enjoyed the exceptionally juicy meat that comes from preparing the bird this way. It's a taste that I've become rather addicted to. And I was looking forward to doing up one or two or even more next week...

But this will be one Thanksgiving that I'm gonna have to do without my beloved fried turkey. So is everyone else who does this that I've spoken to. I wouldn't mind paying for it but the people around me keep telling me to "save your money".

The reason: the price of peanut oil has gone through the roof.

When I first started doing this, I could buy a three-gallon container of peanut oil for twenty bucks. Last year it was $25. I was in a meat market yesterday afternoon, one of the best places in town, and three gallons of peanut oil this year is a whopping thirty-five dollars.

I always have to buy two containers for my frying needs.

I chatted some with the manager and he said nobody is buying any this year... and usually they've done quite a bit of business selling it already.

"What's your take on why the price has gone up?" I asked.

"Bad biofuel decisions," he replied.

Doesn't surprise me. I've been hearing all year that biofuel subsidies have wrecked havoc with cooking oil across the board. And then you factor in that peanut production is down anyway, and the stuff does become a valuable commodity.

But the manager also told me that it's the economy in general which is the reason why most people are going back to basted this year. There's not as much free money to spend on what by all rights should be a gloriously prepared banquet to share with loved ones.

This was the first sign that really hit me upside the head, that we are in a recession. And there's been a helluva lot worse than "bad decisions" about biofuel going on lately, what with $700 BILLION of taxpayer money that Congress and the Bush White House is doling out with NO oversight. For sure, I don't see the lean times ending anytime soon.

For fiscal irresponsibility leading to desecration of an honored method to treat a bird as noble as the turkey, I've got just one thing to say about the miscreants who've wound up in charge of our money:

Boil 'em in oil!

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