Let's repeal the law of supply and demand

Found on Powerline:
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2016/03/the-best-sanders-endorsement-yet.php

A stop-action music video

There is no economics in the lyrics of the this video, but there certainly are some in its production. It is was produced frame by frame with stop-action animation with jelly beans and a real person and took, according to the credits, 1357 hours to create.  I suspect that the 1357 hours was the time only for the creating of the stop-action part, not for the planning. I had not previously heard of the singer, Kina Grannis, but she has been using the Internet rather than a record label to develop her audience, and this video, which had over a million views in its first three days, certainly will help grow it. Her production team also released a video on youtube explaining how they made the video, which increases one's awe at the final product.

If the cost of an hour was $100, which is probably unreasonably low given the number of people involved in the project, the cost of producing the video would have been $136,000 for a three-and-a-half minute video that is available free. I suspect the cost was several times that, and the artist is not a big name. How do you justify that kind of effort and expenditure on a project like this? On the other hand, seeing the result, the risk was probably worth it and it may be one of the smartest investment of time and money of any music video.

(Found on Cafe Hayek.)

Payday loans for rich people?

When I saw this ad for J.D. Wentworth a few days ago, my instantaneous reaction was, "Payday loans for rich people." That certainly is not the reaction that the people who made the ad wanted. An important reason for choosing opera as a way of getting their message out is that opera is considered high-class, and they want to be the association of high-class opera to color people's views of their company.

The service they are offering is the same service as payday loans--to restructure payments. People who use payday loans need money now but do not get paid until later. The same is true of the people whom J.D. Wentworth is targeting, though the payments are over a much longer period of time and are much bigger. Their appeal is to people who have structured payments over time, the sort of payments that lotteries, annuities, and some legal settlements give. If you have a certain income stream of $2000 per month and you want to cash it in, firms like J.G. Wentworth are there to help you out.

Are they socially useful? The argument that they are is the same argument that payday loans are socially useful. If people are rational, we should trust that they know what is best for themselves. J.D. Wentworth has testimonials on its website emphasizing how useful it can be to restructure payments. The argument that they are not socially useful is that many people think only short-term and will do things for immediate gratification even though the long-run consequences are disastrous. This position would argue that J.D. Wentworth is preying on those who have self-control problems or are compulsive spenders.

(They have a somewhat different ad that still has the music but a different setting.)

Another Hazard

Another Merle Hazard song and video, this one about too big to fail.


An annotated version, much longer, is here.

Two entertaining videos about Hayek

A couple more fun economics videos:


The second has better production values.

A GDP song

Found from a link at Division of Labor.

Keynes vs Hayek 2

The sequel to the best economics video ever.

Ah, the academic life

It is videos like this that make me wonder if I should have stayed.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Another viral youtube video

It is not too often that an economics video goes viral, but another one has.



It is rather funny, which probably explains its success.

Another youtube video of Hayek and Keynes

Found on Division of Labor:

Merle Hazard on Greek Debt

Merle Hazard has another winning video:

The story behind the Keynes-Hayek rap video

Here

How to be a TV reporter

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtGSXMuWMR4

How Youtube changes everything

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cj32Okmz-ho

Some youtube videos

Cooperation among killer whales:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3xmqbNsRSk

A very funny commercial
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAyJhnrCQFw

Another funny commercial:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqlQS5CCmwI

Hide the decline--a video about climategate
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEiLgbBGKVk

Obama and health care
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpevc2t_Frw

Some impressive editing on this video of Obama as the taxman:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0M__0Z1pjg

And then there is this:

I keep seeing this graph

I keep seeing this graph at Instapundit and other sites. Numbers often say more than words.


Here is a youtube video giving the story in a different way:



Update: At least one person is the mainstream media is concerned. Robert Samuelson at the Washington Post writes:

From 2010 to 2019, Obama projects annual deficits totaling $7.1 trillion; that's atop the $1.8 trillion deficit for 2009. By 2019, the ratio of publicly held federal debt to gross domestic product (GDP, or the economy) would reach 70 percent, up from 41 percent in 2008. That would be the highest since 1950 (80 percent). The Congressional Budget Office, using less optimistic economic forecasts, raises these estimates. The 2010-19 deficits would total $9.3 trillion; the debt-to-GDP ratio in 2019 would be 82 percent.

Except from crabby Republicans, these astonishing numbers have received little attention -- a tribute to Obama's Zen-like capacity to discourage serious criticism.

Using Youtube videos in economics courses

Updated

Videos for use in economics courses
Using videos in principles of economics courses
Using Videos in economic education

I have added over 70 youtube videos to my CyberEconomics textbook at http://ingrimayne.com/econ. To find the vides, go to http://ingrimayne.com/econ/TOC.html and click on any chapter. This will take you to the overview page of the chapter. On the left find the Alternatives-and-Supplements link. Click it, and then the video button.

Even if you do not use the text, you might find the collection of video links useful if you teach economics courses.