Principles of economics, translated

"Mankiw's 10 principles of economics, translated for the uninitiated", by Yoram Bauman, www.standupeconomist.com . Presented at the AAAS humor session, February 16, 2007. For the record, the talk contains two unattributed quotes ("9 out of 5" is adapted from a line attributed to Paul Samuelson---although apparently he said it about Wall Street indices, not macroeconomists---and "wrong about things" is paraphrased from P.J. O'Rourke's Eat the Rich) and, of course, the Einstein "simple" quote is an intentional misquote. The talk is based on a published article in Annals of Improbable Research (see www.improb.com/airchives/paper... ), which sponsored my talk and to which you should subscribe (improb.com/subscribe/ ). In the paper you can see the "constructive example" of how trade can make everyone worse off (or you can just wait 50 years to see what happens with climate change). More info and other clips on my website (www.standupeconomist.com ), and please sign up for my email list. (No spam I promise.)

[@BigGerny]

"now people who are not trained might think that that is no different than being offered one snickers bar, but that sort of sloppy thinking will never get a tenured track position" HAHA, pure GOLD!

[@akinochojonathan7147]

I don't get it ?

[@tastytesty]

@@akinochojonathan7147 he means that it's just a Snickers bar, but if you want to get a tenure, you have to pretend that you understand their differences which never existed in the first place.

[@MrSyCoe]

Absolutely brilliant! Loved the bit about the circular reasoning. One of the VPs at a company I used to work for said "If all the economists were laid end-to-end, that would be a GOOD thing!". Thanks for posting the vid!!

[@MarshallFlores]

There's a follow-up video on Dr. Bauman's website regarding the footnote. It basically shows how economic activity creates pollution (externalities) that can make everyone worse-off.

[@hansmusterchen4634]

Wer isch au weg de mikro folie vode uzh da :)?

[@LeXx0r]

gib mer grad s gfühl als würdi öbbis mache anstatt würkli öbbis z mache ;)

[@clarakhong1148]

same. aber es Johr spöter :)

[@sensey01]

@@clarakhong1148 ' Bisch au voll lost? .

[@ekio3572]

mikro 2021

[@kerrialtis8358]

My econ professor showed this at the beginning of his 1st lecture. Classic lol

[@risanaomi4958]

Why I am here. Lol.

[@wenxuyao5934]

My lecturer did the same

[@alecbelcher7782]

here i am

[@dejavujoyeriaybisuteria4568]

I just discovered your channel. Please upload more content! it really helps me to understand my class and I loved it!

[@MrBrettimus]

Skimming through KZbin comments oft reminds me of principles three and four.

[@wsinvariance]

After I attended AEA meeting, I check this video again. It is always cool!

[@infokemp]

So true! I thought I was smart before studying economics now I just confused. Economics = deconstruct everything they told you before and put it back together. Then try to tell people about simple things using complicated language that you can't understand yourself!

[@skeptorr]

I'm going to think about this lecture every time I eat a snack bar.

[@theyoutubechannel4633]

It comes to my mind every time I stumble upon a snickers bar on a grocery shelf

[@LadyTwenties]

LOL! This is my book for this semester, and we will be going over the ten principles on Friday! It'll be hard to focus on them while thinking of this! :)

[@AmazingHadouken]

This was shown at my economics class hahahaha

[@FatherTime89]

I haven't laughed this hard for a long time, great work.

[@MrEpruitt]

Haha, this is great! I love the humor.

[@arobins74]

Yoram! You crack me up. I love this routine!

[@infokemp]

The difficult part is explaining and solving. Thanks for the reply, its good to have discussion.

[@christophersteward9375]

He's explaining that when people face trade-offs there is an opportunity cost to the choice, If you value a snickers bar for 1 dollar and there is no other option, there is no other opportunity cost. But if you have to choose between a M&Ms and a snickers, but you value the M&Ms for 70 cents, the difference between the two is 30 cents (The opportunity cost of choosing M&Ms over the Snickers)

[@xecutioners1fan738]

wow, 11 years ago! you may not even get this msg or notification lol but what I don't get what was funny with this joke? he slammed the m&ms down and people laughed? Trying to understand the humor, please explain the joke if you are able, thx!

[@WINWO0D]

i am sitting paper 4 cambridge economics in 2 days, does anyone know where i can find anything usefull to study from on the net???

[@FatherTime89]

this is great stuff, I even quoted this guy for a research paper.

[@XXXpallisterXXX]

So, i'm looking into studying global economics, and was wondering if anyone can recommend books i should look out for or take interest in. I am open to all suggestions, cheers.

[@tclam95]

Opportunity cost is what you give up to get something. If someone offers you a snickers (valued at $1) and you take it, you haven't given up something else to get it. However, if he offers you a choice between 2 identical snickers, you have to give up 1 of those snickers. So basically, you have to give up a snickers bar to get a snickers bar. Therefore your net profit is zero.

[@elevengiant]

@maxgunn555 where is that theory from?

[@tiony2]

i showed this to my class of first years and they really enjoyed it- well i think they did...

[@SleepyMongoose]

@Napoleon997 Have you had any economics classes? (200 level or above)

[@spikesmth]

Awesome... when I'm taking my econ exams I always think of it that way... It's the only way I can connect the theories we learn to why the world doesn't look anything like the theories.

[@lewis8097]

Why did it stop at number 5? Do you have the rest of the presentation?

[@timetraveler3797]

I tried to read the footnote but it got too blurry...

[@nysrcnc]

Now I understand where to find that Bliss point.

[@YangWangPhD]

the bit about trade and government is actually pretty deep

[@michaelw1680]

How much is your 60D ?

[@gairabad]

I need to hang out with more economists.

[@CoryTheRaven]

Great shades of my marketting class!

[@soccom8341576]

@ballr88 is U of Chicago as bad as that?

[@zaby9215133]

Wish I could pass my upcoming exam but just using the translated principles

[@Pastshelfdate]

@TheSpiritOfTheTimes Hardly. First off, he doesn't expect anyone to take him completely seriously. Second, he makes our limitations a lot more bearable. I can confirm from personal experience (ranging from harshly painful and crippling to wonderfully happy and productive) that laughter really is good medicine. And who needs more laughter than practitioners of "the dismal science."?

[@Seven-pu5wj]

wow, i cant believe this was 16 years ago

[@JIAJIA711711]

where is it

[@MacPr0xnxx0]

how far in math do u need to take ?

[@MacManLtd]

We watched this in my economics class a few months ago :)

[@G0dP0wer]

lol why is there a louis C.K. video in the related videos section

[@mike23984]

I really enjoyed that video!

[@davidpinto0]

this is real good... i'm going to try some of this in class....

[@rafaelsilvawagner3634]

still a legend

[@MainMite06]

Just met this guy today with my high school economics class and I was impersonating Kool Aid Man's ~"OH YEAAAH!"~ for answers!

[@devine122]

supply and command is pretty easy to understand, you supply the oil, you command the money

[@benaravo]

What an excellent video, I never knew Macro economics were quite so funny! :D

[@banrionaiasc]

i just adore this. my friend is studying economics at UCL. can't wait to send it to her!

[@trisix99]

being influenced to action by things that influence action is pretty deep information about people!

[@FrankConwayEconomicRockstar]

Check out episode 12 of the Economic Rockstar podcast where Yoram talks about Cartoons, Being a Stand-Up Economist, His Passion to Save the Environment and How to Create Hyperinflation in the Afterworld: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/economic-rockstar/id941441148?mt=2

[@54spiritedwill54]

this is great stuff

[@zxcv73]

@lee0122333 I didn't suggest anything. I simply said that as an economist you don't deal in the realm of good vs bad, if you do you are going outside the realm of economics. A physicist's job isn't to explain the morality of gravity, just to explain the implications of it. A physicist may judge if things always falling is a good or bad thing, but that has nothing to do with physics. Understand?

[@patrickmc12]

Good stuff. What is the "AAAS humor session"?

[@aidanlam5336]

As funny as this is, it didn't help me at all lol

[@jacg_1]

hillarious and fantastic!!

[@xxxslayerxxx666]

@jaffijoe i don't understand how the government can use legal tender as the new standard of exchange...how is it legal?! and how does fractional reserve banking work?, i've watched videos explaining it, but then came across a comment that was saying "what you just described is illegal and banking doesn't function like that, it's a complicated process where all the countries work together so that when one person deposits $100, the banks get 10 times that!" why must it be so confusing?!

[@MarshallFlores]

This is pretty effing awesome

[@TrainDr101]

I wish it were this simple in my AP Econ class.

[@Wiseguyzmoney]

@kingkongwong007 investment banking?

[@emotevlog]

excellent, I love it.

[@KennethTangCF]

I'm majoring in economics and have never thought of the principles that way! very funny!

[@Questfortruth86]

This is the textbook I used last semester. After I was done with the class, I decided to burn the book rather then reselling it. It provided the greatest net utility for me. The man advocated negative interest rates for fucks sake.

[@rbrtchng]

Trade can OBVIOUSLY make everyone worse off. But, those trade just don't happen. I've actually read his detail at his website. He does explain how trade can make everyone worse off. However, the trade that makes everyone worse off, usually don't happen.

[@TheFlowLox]

love it

[@Hallo2244]

Im a junior in high school and just got through this chapter. I think I would like this guy's view better but the book is good so far :)

[@BeAtLeBoAr]

Really cool video

[@leahycolin1]

For a moment I thought I was watching an episode of Seinfeld. Very funny stuff.More please!

[@enzovalentini]

@agentmel that is precisely why people's economic rationality is not very used outside microeconomic classes. It would seem naive at least to think that forcing people to make certain choices is a solution. The fact is that people do trade despite being better or worse if they're rightly persuaded; why they do it when they get worse is a much harder question...

[@Questfortruth86]

Value is never measured in cents or dollars. You want something, you're willing to pay a wide array of prices for it. The price you pay on the market is much less than you're willing to pay, in most scenarios. It depends; but again, value is never measured in dollars or cents.

[@kabir52]

is this the original? I remember it having much better quality

[@Tharenii]

i love you man! I AM STUDYING FOR MY ECONOMICS TEST which is in 15 hours

[@clarakhong1148]

Good Luck man. Hope it went well.

[@GameAlot1231]

Love it!

[@systemistoomuch]

Perfect. Of course.

[@TheMTJOE]

Just seen him today in LSE!

[@cammiltaank]

This is the funniest 5 mins of stand up ever

[@Napoleon997]

@Villainy03 I totally understand you. However, I am an economics major....I think in this case (for me, anyway) it's just that the American sense of humour is vastly different to that of Europeans, Australians, etc.

[@10ccalanarkush]

the einstein quote really is - "make everything as simple as possible, BUT not simpler" not "IF not simpler" which means something wholly different

[@jogamatudo]

Go to the London school of economics. anyway, how did it go?

[@MrCyphrex]

This is EPIC!!

[@Hybird21]

woo, this is my professor!

[@bobshouse123]

You don't need to study economics to find this funny. Good job mate, quite good.

[@schlirf]

Have to admit Professor Dr. Dr. Mankiw is one pretty smart guy; his $325 required textbooks kinda prove it.

[@dcrube]

my economics professor showed this in her class lol now i don´t know which principles to study for the final exam

[@shnglbot]

Fucking brilliant.

[@IvanMercadoTV]

Queridos estudiantes de Economía, este video del Dr. Yoram Bauman de seguro "les abrirá la cabeza" sobre los famosos "10 Principios de Economía" del amigo Manliw. LOL

[@TPorter72]

pretty good stuff

[@MacPr0xnxx0]

i hate math can i still major in econ?

[@jerrell242009]

Hilarious!! I wish I had teachers like this when I was in school 😂

[@vovapapoyan4331]

сделали тервер шестой?

[@gma683e066736]

And in econ you never have to put values along the axis of your graphs - just sketch a curve and voila!

[@ThreeCrowns]

the sad thing is that i spaced off listening to this, not to mention my own real economics class

[@ltylcz]

Pure genius.

[@ElzoEnok]

Nossa isto é tão antigo, mas atual.

[@auspwns]

that guy is FTW LEGEND

[@tgordon681]

That was a translation.

[@randallbabb]

My microeconomics professor showed us this video in class and seemed to agree... What does this tell me about my $400 investment in microeconomics?

[@infokemp]

I've got the Text book in front of me. Just to see if I was wrong(!) absolute advantage; is when acountry can produce all goods/services better than another nation at all Quality/ price levels, ie more cheaply, when both countries have the same resources. therefore if I was talking about Iceland or Jamaca as being and examples of Absolute advantage, Jamaca should not be able to compete with iceland.

[@PuleoOo]

2:30 that laugh

[@rbrtchng]

Bauman's idea on margin is also wrong. People do think at the margins. For example, when you buy oranges, you think "Hmm, this batch of oranges exceeds the market value of oranges." That translate to people thinking "hmm, this batch of oranges is cheaper than I expected, so I'll buy them." Any normal person would buy things when they think has a marginal surplus value to them. Hence, people do think at the margins. Each unit does not necessarily mean each item, hence the error in Bauman's theory

[@infokemp]

What I stated originally is correct because in reality niether jamaca or iceland have the same natural resources. Comparitive advantage;Iceland could still choose to grow bannanas because it has the technology to do so, however to do it it would have to give up say more fishing, in order to invest in greenhouses to grow bannanas.

[@maxgunn555]

actually in thery choices are bad because they increase the probability bf making a wrongchoice and therefore being unhappay y.