Keynes Battles Hayek In Economist Rap Battle (VIDEO)

In a new hip-hop video, "Fear the Boom and Bust," an old economics debate about market intervention is translated into a rap battle between two of history's great economic thinkers.

Created by producer/director John Papola and George Mason University economist Russell Roberts -- who also runs the blog Cafe Hayek -- the rap pits the theories of the popular, Depression-era macroeconomist John Maynard Keynes against those of free-market, Austrian-school economist Friedrich von Hayek.

The premise of the educational video is that the two -- of course very much dead -- economic giants are revived to attend a conference on the financial crisis, but at Keynes' insistence go on a bender the night beforehand -- and rap about the boom and bust cycle along the way:

We've been going back and forth for a century

[Keynes] I want to steer markets,

[Hayek] I want them set free

There's a boom and bust cycle and good reason to fear it

[Hayek] Blame low interest rates.

[Keynes] No... it's the animal spirits

Here's the full video: