Da Hayek-Keynes Rap, Part II

Back in early 2010, Russ Roberts and producer John Papola introduced to the world of free education a fantastic economics video-clip. The video employed rap music to explain in simple yet profound terms the economics debate that F.A. Hayek and J.M. Keynes started some 80 years ago and its relevance to our days. The video’s 2 million-plus views cried out for a second part. Opportunely, the Roberts-Papola duo has delivered once again with another superb educational video that brings back Hayek and Keynes to shed light on current economics debates. Running at 10 minutes and 10 seconds, it turns downtime into priceless free learning.

Why Read?

The 2010 Nobel Prize in Literature, Peru's Mario Vargas Llosa gives a great answer. Read it in English or Spanish, or watch it in Spanish. Money quote: “Reading is a protest against the insufficiencies of life. When we look in fiction for what is missing in life, we are saying, with no need to say it or even to know it, that life as it is does not satisfy our thirst for the absolute – the foundation of the human condition – and should be better.”

What I Call Progress

Hans Rosling, the creator of "Gapminder", has given us another superb stats-based presentation. This time, Mr. Rosling shows us how life expectancy and income per person have improved steadily, albeit unevenly, across the entire world in the last 200 years. The presentation is a wonderful reminder that we, the people of the 21st century, are an extremely lucky lot. What's more, Rosling's presentation is a hopeful stand against gloomy forecasts that see only misery ahead for the human race. Quite the opposite, if the last 200 years of history tell us something is that human ingenuity will give us a bright future.  

FiveBooks

This post is a sort of follow up to the previous one. Just like with BigThink, the idea behind FiveBooks is to have experts/specialists talk about (you know it!) books that for whatever reason they think are relevant and worth reading. All the different recommendations are neatly organized in two broad categories, "sections" and "regions" that include nine and ten subjects, respectively. The beauty of FiveBooks is its unique capacity to bring together past and present, using timely book recommendations to shed light on current affairs. Although most of FiveBooks’ content is fairly wonkish, it aims to please a wide range of tastes (“From Einstein to Keynes, Iraq to the Andes, Communism to Empire”).

Big Think

Experts are a bit chastised these days, particularly those in the economics profession. However, who does not want to learn what experts have to say about any subject every now and then? It does not matter whether you want so score points at a cocktail party, impress your boss or simply suffer from a persistent need for knowledge, it is good to have expert advice. Even better, it is great to have free expert advice.  Although I am not an expert on expert advice, I can appreciate sheer magnitude. And loads of expert advice is what Big Think delivers. With justified confidence Big Think pledges to put us, “in contact with the ideas of very smart people.” Big Think has conducted more than 1,000 interviews with experts who have their say on sixteen categories, ranging from “Politics and Policy” to “Love, Sex, and Happiness.” On average, Bit Think’s expert interviews last five minutes, a big plus if you are not ready to put up with lengthy lectures by stuffy intellectuals.

Intelligence Square

One of the best ways of learning about any topic is to watch a debate. Nothing like a lively debate to grasp counterintuitive arguments, detect flawed ideas, or simply test long-held beliefs. When it comes to debates, the "Oxford" style offers the most fulfilling experience. These debates consist of one side proposing a claim and the other side opposing it, usually through straight-forward argumentation. In addition, the debates include an audience and a moderator that provide pre and post debate judgments. You can see excellent Oxford-style debates for free thanks to Intelligence Square, a multimedia forum that seeks to “raise the level of public discourse on our most challenging issues.” Intelligence Square’s debates are unique in the sense that they include more than one guest on each opposing side. Moreover, typically Intelligence Square’s guests are not only experts on the day’s topic but also engaging provocative debaters. You can start experiencing Intelligence Square by watching the health care, financial crisis, and foreign policy debates.

Da Hayek-Keynes Rap

Nobel laureate Paul Krugman has said that we are witnessing a “dark age” of macroeconomics. His point is that in the last 70 years there has been a lack of new knowledge and insights in the field. In other words, since the methodological debates between economists John Maynard Keynes and Friederich Hayek in the 1930s and 1940s nobody has really advanced what economists knew back then. Gratefully, economist Russ Roberts and producer John Papola got together to create one of the best educative video-clips on economics ever. Using a rap song and professional acting, the authors brilliantly illustrate the Hayek-Keynes debate. The clip’s seven minutes and 32 seconds are jam-packed with both general knowledge and subtle lessons.

Keynes and the crisis

If anything, an economic crisis is a learning experience. Not only do we learn about the things we did wrong but also we have a strong incentive to learn about past crises. If you study economic crises, you will not go far without learning about Lord Maynard Keynes, the British economist that revolutionized the way we approach and try to solve economic problems. Thanks to PBS we can learn about Keynes and his ideas from an informative dialog between one of his biographers, Robert Skidelsky, and Russ Roberts. If the conversation does not illuminate your knowledge of Keynes' economic ideas it will at least teach you that “ropey” is a British informal word for “unsound”.

Megan McArdle

I mentioned Megan McArdle when I recommended a bloggingheads episode. Remarkably, her blog "Asymmetrical Information" at The Atlantic magazine's website is a constant source of powerful insights. She is at her best when pundits make silly assumptions, flawed arguments, or forget about Econ 101 principles. Her arguments are sharp and ruthless, leaving her opponents usually like a spanked child. See examples here, here, and here. She is also helpful when shedding light on the cost of policies such as health care reform. Last but not least, she is a superb writer who can explain complex arguments with clear grammar and logical arguments, though sometimes she employs an unnecessary number of words to make a point.

A Just Idea

Michael Sandel is one of the world’s top political philosophers. Unlike most of his fellow philosophers, Sandel is an engaging writer and an inspiring educator. In fact, his course on justice remains one of Harvard University’s most popular classes. Luckily, we can now all enjoy his justice course, taking, “a front row seat at the first course Harvard has ever made available to everyone, online and on the air.” You—the spoiled 21^st century citizen—can choose to watch Mr. Sandel for free on either his course’s easy-to-navigate website or on Youtube.

The Developing Development Dogma

Since the Industrial Revolution emerged in the 1800s, human beings have become steadily prosperous. However, not every human being in the world enjoys the same level of prosperity. Furthermore, millions remain living in conditions resembling that of most humanity circa 1800. In turn, for the past 50 years particularly, social scientists have looked for and tested a wide array of theories aimed at ending poverty. All these ideas became part of a new multidisciplinary discipline called “development.” Thanks to developed countries’ tax money together with charitable organizations and philanthropists from all over the world, billions have poured into developing countries. However, the results have been rather poor. For one, poverty still remains a modern calamity in many countries in Africa, Latin America, and Asia. What is to be done? The answer to this question is the beginning of one of today’s most exciting intellectual pursuits. Although nobody has a definitive answer, there are many good ideas and successful experiences. The challenge is to apply them in a way that has lasting effects and does not make things worse for those that they intend to help. Auspiciously, Internet gives free access to all the development ideas, debates, projects, and trends necessary to make us all a potential Nobel Prize winner. A small sample of development’s great resources available on-line include William Easterly’s blog, Dani Rodrik’s blog, the World Bank’s website, the Center for International Private Enterprise development blog*, and the Center for Global Development’s website. Also, check out this Cato Unbound debate on “foreign aid” and this Boston Review forum on development.

* Full disclosure: I am used to be a contributor to CIPE’s blog.

The Economics Nobel Prize Winners Are Now Available for Free

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences recently awarded a new Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel (in plain English, that is the Nobel Prize in Economics). One of the two winners, Elinor Ostrom, is the first woman ever to win the prize. But that is not the most amazing fact; what is really incredible is that anyone can now know [tricky alliteration] about the winners, their life, their accomplishments, and why they matter. There was a time when only few would learn about laureates in economics sciences and then it would be many years after they won the prize, probably in a dusty academic book or through an old professor. Let us all be grateful that today we can know the winners instantly and, more importantly, we can learn about them and their work effortlessly and for free. For instance, consider Ms. Ostrom. She has helped set up a free enormous data base called “Digital Library Of The Commons Repository” that lists all the research that she and her colleagues have done and that earned her the prize. In addition, you can watch her explain her research and why it matters. Also, the Nobel Prize website is superb; it lists all the previous winners, explains their accomplishments, features video interviews, and lets you access winners’ acceptance speeches and other important documents. If you are into trivia, there is data on the oldest and youngest winners. Gå lära sig!   

Create Your Own Learning Experience

I recently finished reading Tyler Cowen's new book “Create your Own Economy.” The book explores many of the issues covered in this blog. It’s very constanteducationish. Actually, the book’s title can be misleading. It doesn’t refer to the creation of an economy as in “develop a new business” but to our modern capacity to build our own stories from different bits and sources. The author marvels at the mind-boggling amount of information available on Internet by way of studying autistics’ particular cognitive profiles. Cowen informs us that autistic people are extremely good at gathering and organizing information. Because Internet's demands so much from our capacity to gather information, we non-autistics should appreciate and learn from autistics’ cognitive strengths. Moreover, Cowen asserts that society’s neuro-diversity is an asset, not a disability. Certainly, we all have become more efficient at information collection and processing; we classify information faster and more coherently than any time in the history of human beings. In addition, our “daily self-assembly of synthetic experiences” creates a unique cultural stream that enriches our internal mental existence. Consider Constant Education as a partial description of your humble blogger’s internal cultural stream. In the end, Cowen recommends that we cherish the tools available on-line because they will make us both smarter and happier. Amen.

Will Wilkinson

In a previous post on bloggingheads, I mentioned Will Wilkinson. His blog deserves a special recommendation because it is a great free source of everyday knowledge thanks to his admirable ability to make logical well-reasoned arguments. He is superb at bringing together economics and political philosophy analytical tools to make sense of the U.S. policy-making process. For example, check out his unique take on macroeconomics and its impact here, here, and here. He is also extremely insightful on inequality.

Bloggingheads TV

A great benefit of Internet is that it gives everyone access to bright minds. Not only most newspapers, magazines, and academic websites are totally free but extremely smart people have set up high-quality blogs. These blogs are excellent on their own but they also provide links to other equally high-quality blogs. Moreover, Internet's low marginal costs allow creative people to utilize scattered resources, developing innovative experiments. One such an experiment is Bloggingheads, a website that brings together policy wonks of all stripes that share only one thing: they all have a blog. In Bloggingheads case, the innovative individuals were journalists Robert Wright and Mickey Kaus, who in 2005 figured out a way to turn “two not-very-telegenic people into video pundits.” The format is simple, consisting of two bloggers discussing relevant issues on split-screen streaming videos. The result is usually good. Notably, they break up the hour-long debates into shorter segments with a witty descriptive title so you don’t have to watch the whole thing. Also, each debate features relevant links on the side if you want to learn more or follow up the conversation. One of my favorite blogginheads debates is this one between economist Dean Baker and economic journalist Megan McArdle. Their exchange on the "New Deal" (in the video’s second half) is powerful and illuminating. Another great debate is this one between philosopher Peter Singer and economist Tyler Cowen, particularly the segment “Advise for a young utilitarian” in which Cowen shatters Singer’s philosophy. Also, highly recommended are Will Wilkinson's "Free Will" series.

Fora TV

What if Youtube were only about universities', think tanks', and institutes' lectures? If you are like me and thought that such a project would be a great idea, you are too late. Somebody else thought about it and actually started a website called "Fora TV." Since 2005, Fora TV allows you to watch the world's key policy debates from the comfort of your pc. The website is easy to navigate, you can browse by topic, search for past videos, or click on "the most watched." They even have their own Youtube channel.

Everything is Amazing, Nobody is Happy

I am constantly amazed by how easy it is to learn and do research on anything. We are extremely lucky to live in these times. I cannot imagine what it was to be an international analyst some 20+ years ago Internet-less and based outside a university. How did you find out about the economic growth of Latvia? (Did you have to call the IMF's costumer service?) What if you needed to check some old article that appeared in a Honduran newspaper? (Did you have to travel to Washington D.C. and visit the Library of Congress?) The best illustration of what I mean is this video by humorist Louis CK in which he brilliantly describes the broader changes in our everyday life. Watch it and pinch your arm.

TED

TED is a New York-based nonprofit that organizes conferences all over the world and is devoted to "ideas worth spreading." TED's talks traditional format involves an inspiring speaker capturing the audience with a lot of theatrics and some content. If you are looking to learn and to be entertained at the same time, TED's for ya! Usually, TED's speakers act like Thomas Friedman on steroids. So, expect a lot of globalization talkin', a lot of save-the-planet preachin', and a lot of we-can-all-work-together callin'. Also, expect awesome PowerPoint presentations. Their website boasts more than 400 talks, which means that you will find something interesting regardless of your taste.

Cato Unbound

The Cato Institute--a libertarian think-tank based in Washington D.C.--gives us "Cato Unbound", a free monthly debate about current contentious concerns (you gotta love alliterations). Do not be turned off by Cato's freedom-loving laissez-faire-promoting agenda because their debates are truly unbound. Cato Unbound's participants typically represent the main opinions on a given issue. They feature one lead essay followed by three responses and a subsequent dialogue. As written debates go, they deliver. You can easily browse all their archives (going back to the first December 2005 issue) and find fascinating debates on foreign aid, inequality, happiness, religion, and anarchy.

U.S. Civics Quiz

Most people agree that democracy is a good thing; not too many agree on what "democracy" exactly means. Nonetheless, it is safe to say that any definition of democracy must assume away an informed citizenry. In other words, an educated population that has some understanding of the key issues of the past and the present is a crucial component of a healthy democratic regime. Thus, I was surprised when I read that 71% of Americans fail this quiz, with an overall average score of 49%. Go take it and test the proposition that "informed citizenry" = "healthy democracy".