Rap Videos Reach Millennials: A Great Way to Introduce Austrian Economics

YouTube Screenshot/AIERvideo

Free-market economists recently have come up with a creative way to reach college students and Millennials. Starting in 2010, they created the first rap song, “Fear the Boom and Bust: Keynes vs Hayek.” The video is the brainchild of John Papola, a pro-market film director who has won several awards at the Anthem film festival at www.freedomfest.com.

In 7 ½ minutes, he explained in simple jargon the differences between the two economists, John Maynard Keynes and Friedrich Hayek. In a way that both arguments sound convincing.

John Maynard Keynes was a British economist who was an early proponent of deficit spending, and F.A. Hayek was the Austrian economist who suggested low interest rates can make a boom but left low too long, it can turn to bust.

You can watch the video by clicking here.

So far, the Keynes vs Hayek rap video has generated 6.9 million views!

This year, Papola came up with a new rap video, “The March of History: Marx vs Mises.” The video defines the differences between the socialist and capitalist economic models. It is almost 11 minutes long, but so far has almost 1.8 million views. You can watch it by clicking here.

What’s great about these rap videos is that they introduce students, faculty and media to the Austrian school of Ludwig von Mises and F. A. Hayek. Everyone has heard of Marx and to some extent Keynes, but not Mises or Hayek. (Mises and Hayek often were ignored in textbooks and histories of economics.) They are not household names.

But by cleverly taking a balanced approach and giving both sides fair play, Mises and Hayek have become known and representative of the free market. And they do it in 11 minutes or less, not an hour or two-hour debate. It’s a brilliant “Trojan Horse” strategy that will appeal to young people especially.

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Mark Skousen

Mark Skousen, Ph. D., is a professional economist, investment expert, university professor, and author of more than 25 books. He earned his Ph. D. in monetary economics at George Washington University in 1977. He has taught economics and finance at Columbia Business School, Columbia University, Grantham University, Barnard College, Mercy College, Rollins College, and is a Presidential Fellow at Chapman University. He also has been a consultant to IBM, Hutchinson Technology, and other Fortune 500 companies. Since 1980, Skousen has been editor in chief of Forecasts & Strategies, a popular award-winning investment newsletter. He also is editor of four trading services, Skousen TNT Trader, Skousen Five Star Trader, Skousen Low-Priced Stock Trader, and Skousen Fast Money Alert. He is a former analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency, a columnist to Forbes magazine (1997-2001), and past president of the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) in New York. He has written articles for The Wall Street Journal, Liberty, Reason, Human Events, the Daily Caller, Christian Science Monitor, and The Journal of Economic Perspectives. He has appeared on ABC News, CNBC Power Lunch, CNN, Fox News, and C-SPAN Book TV. In 2008-09, he was a regular contributor to Larry Kudlow & Co. on CNBC. His economic bestsellers include “Economics on Trial” (Irwin, 1991), “Puzzles and Paradoxes on Economics” (Edward Elgar, 1997), “The Making of Modern Economics” (M. E. Sharpe, 2001, 2009), “The Big Three in Economics” (M. E. Sharpe, 2007), “EconoPower” (Wiley, 2008), and “Economic Logic” (2000, 2010). In 2009, “The Making of Modern Economics” won the Choice Book Award for Outstanding Academic Title. His financial bestsellers include “The Complete Guide to Financial Privacy” (Simon & Schuster, 1983), “High Finance on a Low Budget” (Bantam, 1981), co-authored with his wife Jo Ann, “Scrooge Investing” (Little Brown, 1995; McGraw Hill, 1999), and “Investing in One Lesson” (Regnery, 2007). In honor of his work in economics, finance, and management, Grantham University renamed its business school “The Mark Skousen School of Business.” Dr. Skousen has lived in eight nations, and has traveled and lectured throughout the United States and 70 countries. He grew up in Portland, Ore. He and his wife, Jo Ann, and five children have lived in Washington, D.C.; Nassau, the Bahamas; London, England; Orlando, Fla.; and New York. For more information about Mark’s services, go to http://www.markskousen.com/