April 28, 2011

Keynes vs. Hayek, Round 2

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


You remember “Fear the Boom and Bust,” don’t you, the rap throwdown between John Maynard Keynes and F.A. Hayek produced last year for EconStories.tv? It was great, and now its creators are back with “Fight of the Century: Keynes vs. Hayek Round Two”:

At the risk of being a little meanspirited over a nonprofit labor of love, I’m wondering if I’m the only one who didn’t really care much for this sequel? I was put off from the very beginning, which uses the exact same joke as the first video, except even more extreme. I was reminded of movie sequels that figure the only way to top the original is to feature even more car chases and even bigger explosions. Meh.

Beyond that, though, the actual content of the video just isn’t as sharp as the first one. The production values are great, but the lyrics are kind of flat and there’s not really any sustained economic argument from either of the characters. In the end, I think the producers just didn’t have anything new to say. But they’ve got a ton of talent, and I hope that for their next video they ditch the Keynes vs. Hayek conceit and just do something completely new.

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate