Latest / Trumponomics / 50: 'Hamilton' -- From Smash Musical to Economics Syllabus

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50: 'Hamilton' -- From Smash Musical to Economics Syllabus · Trumponomics

0:00
Speaker 1: Brought to you by stage Summit Live, the virtual conference
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Speaker 1: that provides all the highlights of Stage Summit from the
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Speaker 1: convenience of your desk. Celebrity entrepreneurs, inciple workshops absolutely free.
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Speaker 1: Register at stage summit livestream dot com. So, Dan, are
0:16
Speaker 1: you ready to go out and see Hamilton's yet? If
0:18
Speaker 1: I could afford it? But you know, if I were
0:21
Speaker 1: a Richmond, But I think I might enroll in your class.
0:24
Speaker 1: How about that? Hey, the more of the merrier. Hello,
0:34
Speaker 1: and welcome back to the Bloomberg Benchmark Podcast. It's Thursday,
0:37
Speaker 1: August eleven. I'm Scott landman and Economics editor at Bloomberg
0:42
Speaker 1: News in Washington, and I'm Daniel Moss, Executive editor for
0:45
Speaker 1: Global Economics it Bloomberg in New York. Now, Dan, I've
0:49
Speaker 1: been away from the show for the last couple of weeks,
0:51
Speaker 1: and I just I was listening to them and they
0:53
Speaker 1: were practically downers talking about how useless sports stadiums are
0:57
Speaker 1: for economic development, the legacy of slavery in Brazil. What
1:01
Speaker 1: was going on? Yeah, you'd think we've never heard of
1:04
Speaker 1: Michael Phelps. I thought that the pace on slavery in Brazil,
1:08
Speaker 1: given the Olympics and given the swings and roundabouts of
1:11
Speaker 1: Brazilian economics and politics, might have resonated. I guess I
1:15
Speaker 1: was wrong. Anyway, I did think they were really interesting,
1:19
Speaker 1: but today we're going to go for something lighter. Hamilton's
1:23
Speaker 1: has become a massive smash hit on Broadway since it
1:26
Speaker 1: opened just about a year ago, and it recently won
1:30
Speaker 1: eleven Tony Awards, including Best Musical. There was something that
1:34
Speaker 1: it was nominated twice in the same category for like
1:37
Speaker 1: the actors and things like that, but it couldn't even
1:40
Speaker 1: win those twice obviously. Anyway, now it's about to make
1:43
Speaker 1: waves across the rest of the country. In late September,
1:46
Speaker 1: premiers in Chicago for an open ended run. Then in
1:50
Speaker 1: sen it'll start showing in London, and also began a
1:53
Speaker 1: tour around the United States. Right here in d C.
1:56
Speaker 1: They're doing their best to squeeze the most demand out
1:59
Speaker 1: of a limited supply of tickets. Uh, if you want
2:03
Speaker 1: to be guaranteed to see Hamilton's at the Kennedy Center
2:06
Speaker 1: in you actually need to buy two full seasons worth
2:11
Speaker 1: of subscriptions to see the other shows there. And there
2:14
Speaker 1: are people who are going to do that. Plenty of
2:17
Speaker 1: people personally, I haven't seen the show yet, but I've
2:20
Speaker 1: listened to the soundtrack many times. Dan, have you? I
2:24
Speaker 1: was just confessing with Matt earlier, I have not seen it. Well.
2:29
Speaker 1: Even my two daughters, who are two and four years old,
2:32
Speaker 1: asked to hear the songs in the car and can
2:34
Speaker 1: even recite some of the lyrics. But what makes it
2:38
Speaker 1: so great It takes the biography of the first Treasury
2:41
Speaker 1: Secretary and sets it to hip hop. The songs are
2:44
Speaker 1: not only catchy, but they sometimes take fairly complicated economic
2:49
Speaker 1: and financial concepts and boil them down to really creative songs.
2:53
Speaker 1: And joining us today to talk about it is Matt Rosy,
2:57
Speaker 1: and economics professor at Susquehanna Universe City in central Pennsylvania.
3:02
Speaker 1: Matt made the track all the way to New York
3:04
Speaker 1: to be on our podcast and see some Broadway shows
3:06
Speaker 1: with his family. So Matt, thanks so much for being
3:09
Speaker 1: with us today. Now, thank you for having me. Matt.
3:12
Speaker 1: How many of your students had actually heard of Alexander
3:15
Speaker 1: Hamilton's prior to this buzzy eruption with the Broadway show. Well,
3:20
Speaker 1: I didn't do a poll, but I suspect most of
3:23
Speaker 1: them had heard the name. Now, how many knew what
3:26
Speaker 1: he did? That would have been a much smaller number.
3:29
Speaker 1: So how are you incorporating Hamilton's into your lessons and
3:33
Speaker 1: using a Broadway production to, you know, teach people about
3:38
Speaker 1: his role in the country and the structure of the place. Sure, what,
3:42
Speaker 1: I love to use songs usually before class, sometimes during
3:47
Speaker 1: class as a break to help illustrate economic concepts in general.
3:51
Speaker 1: And for Hamilton's the musical, it has it has to
3:56
Speaker 1: have about a dozen songs that when you listen to
3:59
Speaker 1: the songs illustrate economic concepts incredibly well. And of course,
4:04
Speaker 1: I mean it's become a number one you know, it's
4:06
Speaker 1: coome a best selling album. So it's the kind of
4:08
Speaker 1: thing when students here economics within Hamilton's right, they want
4:12
Speaker 1: to keep singing. These are the types of songs where
4:15
Speaker 1: people will sing over and over. And my hope with
4:19
Speaker 1: introducing songs to help teach economics and Hamilton's included, is
4:23
Speaker 1: that they're singing over and over, then all of a
4:25
Speaker 1: sudden they start to get the economic concept over and
4:27
Speaker 1: over and it helps the students learn economics easier, better
4:30
Speaker 1: and make it more fun. All right, let's hold that
4:33
Speaker 1: thought for a moment and listen to some music. What
4:36
Speaker 1: we're about to hear is one of my favorite songs
4:39
Speaker 1: from Hamilton's and probably the one with the most specific
4:43
Speaker 1: lyrics about finance and economics. It's called Cabinet Battle number one.
4:48
Speaker 1: So let's hear a little clip. This is actually going
4:51
Speaker 1: to be uh, the actor playing Thomas Jefferson rapping. Oh,
4:57
Speaker 1: but Hamilton's forgets. This plan would have the government assume
5:00
Speaker 1: state debts. Now place your bets as to who that
5:03
Speaker 1: benefits the very seat of government where Hamilton, So, Matt,
5:08
Speaker 1: let's break that down. What is he talking about. It's
5:11
Speaker 1: discussing the federal government assuming the state's debts, uh, and
5:15
Speaker 1: really establishing the what was kind of the precursor to
5:18
Speaker 1: the Federal Reserve at the time, establishing a national bank
5:23
Speaker 1: for the first time in this country. And that was
5:25
Speaker 1: of course very controversial as you had at that time.
5:28
Speaker 1: You have individuals and states that really wanted to be
5:31
Speaker 1: the United States, but it's the state governments that are
5:34
Speaker 1: the primary drivers of the economy. Whereas you have others
5:38
Speaker 1: like Hamilton's, um, you know, Jefferson's on the state government side.
5:42
Speaker 1: You have others like Alexander Hamilton's who wanted more a
5:45
Speaker 1: stronger national government, and we're, you know, in the process,
5:48
Speaker 1: we're thinking, in order to do this, let's, uh, you know,
5:50
Speaker 1: let's form the national bank. Let's let's actually run a
5:54
Speaker 1: national debt, and which today, you know, the national debt
5:57
Speaker 1: they were talking about running pales compared to the date
6:00
Speaker 1: days that. But at the time, of course, it was
6:01
Speaker 1: very controversial to run some national debt as the idea
6:04
Speaker 1: that it would make, you know, would make America seem
6:07
Speaker 1: more credible on the national stage and would actually encourage
6:10
Speaker 1: international trade. From this perspective, the development of a national
6:14
Speaker 1: economy looks like it was inevitable. But what you're saying,
6:17
Speaker 1: and what the song's implying is it wasn't necessarily so sure,
6:20
Speaker 1: there were plenty of people who did not want who
6:23
Speaker 1: would have rather had it be. Each individual state kind
6:27
Speaker 1: of controls their own destiny or controls their own economy
6:29
Speaker 1: more than a nationally controlled economy. And in post two
6:33
Speaker 1: thousand a night, the term bailout is a toxic term,
6:36
Speaker 1: is the song. And as I said, I haven't seen
6:39
Speaker 1: the music, but does the song kind of imply bail
6:43
Speaker 1: out of the state's probably not a good thing. One
6:46
Speaker 1: so forth, and so I think there, I certainly think
6:48
Speaker 1: there's some implications for there. There's also the line, um,
6:51
Speaker 1: you know, the this plan as an outrageous demand and
6:54
Speaker 1: it's too many damn pages for any man to understand.
6:57
Speaker 1: And the moment I heard that line, the first thing
6:59
Speaker 1: I thought of was that we have people in Congress
7:02
Speaker 1: and the Senate who have passed you know, who have
7:04
Speaker 1: passed the stimulus bills or paths, who are who voted
7:07
Speaker 1: for the Affordable Care Act or you know, Obamacare as
7:11
Speaker 1: it's known. Without well admitting I didn't read the plan,
7:14
Speaker 1: and so when I saw that, I thought the lyrics
7:16
Speaker 1: were incredibly relevant to a lot of the problems that
7:19
Speaker 1: we do see today, or at least a lot of
7:21
Speaker 1: the issues that are coming up today. How would you
7:23
Speaker 1: work this specifically into your class lessons? And what specific
7:27
Speaker 1: concepts which would you use for this? So for this one,
7:31
Speaker 1: if I'm teaching, um so for monetary you know, if
7:34
Speaker 1: I'm teaching about the Federal Reserve, often I'll put this
7:36
Speaker 1: song in ahead of time, and largely for this particular song,
7:41
Speaker 1: and I'll have to um admit I have not taught
7:43
Speaker 1: macro economics since I have had this song at my disposal.
7:48
Speaker 1: What I would probably do is I don't know how
7:49
Speaker 1: much I would integrate it in and of itself. Now
7:51
Speaker 1: I do have discussion questions on my on the website
7:54
Speaker 1: I helped create Broadway Economics dot Com that professors could
7:58
Speaker 1: use towards this. But what where I really like to
8:00
Speaker 1: use the music is kind of do the lesson, but
8:02
Speaker 1: then either play the songs before or after to have
8:06
Speaker 1: people realize, you know, these these are issues. These these
8:08
Speaker 1: issues don't have to be dry and dullsues are exciting, right.
8:12
Speaker 1: I mean, if you listen to Cabinet Battle number one,
8:14
Speaker 1: it's like it's a party, you know, ladies and gentlemen.
8:16
Speaker 1: You could have been anywhere in the whole world, but
8:18
Speaker 1: you're in New York and we're gonna have a cabinet meeting,
8:21
Speaker 1: and you know, it's as riot as event. It's all.
8:23
Speaker 1: It's exciting and everybody's thrilled to be there, and it's
8:26
Speaker 1: a rap battle. And usually for music, I'll play pre
8:30
Speaker 1: class music, Um before the students will show up, I'll
8:33
Speaker 1: cue the music to start. Let's say Cabinet Battles about
8:36
Speaker 1: a three minute song about three minutes before class starts.
8:38
Speaker 1: I will begin the music. So the downside some students
8:41
Speaker 1: don't see that, But the upside is it doesn't actually
8:43
Speaker 1: take any class time. And then we asked discussion questions, Okay,
8:46
Speaker 1: we just heard this great song, Where where where? What
8:49
Speaker 1: are the economic ideas we just saw in this song?
8:51
Speaker 1: So how many of your students and how much of
8:54
Speaker 1: the audience actually knows what the Federals of is? For example,
8:59
Speaker 1: if they're taking the class, they've they've certainly heard it
9:01
Speaker 1: by the time I get to them. It's a good question.
9:03
Speaker 1: As far as I pull them ahead of time, I
9:04
Speaker 1: think most of the students will have at least heard
9:07
Speaker 1: of the Federal Reserve. Well, they know what their roles
9:09
Speaker 1: are coming in as eighteen and nineteen year old. Probably
9:12
Speaker 1: less than a quarter kind of know what the Federal
9:15
Speaker 1: Reserve is doing prior to taking Principles of macro Economics class.
9:20
Speaker 1: So really, what you're trying to do here is convey
9:23
Speaker 1: to your students that an economy and the development of
9:27
Speaker 1: economic policy it's a living, breathing thing. It's not preordained.
9:32
Speaker 1: There are people making these decisions. They're bringing their own perspective,
9:36
Speaker 1: they're shaped by their own histories. That that would be
9:39
Speaker 1: histories with a small age. Uh, And it's not some
9:44
Speaker 1: giant preordained, very sort of dry conspiracy. If I get
9:48
Speaker 1: nothing else out of doing the songs, I really want
9:51
Speaker 1: my students to think economics is fun. If students come
9:54
Speaker 1: out of economics thinking this was a great subject, this
9:57
Speaker 1: is entertaining. And yes, you know the whole idea of
10:00
Speaker 1: the history. Maybe I thought that we just evolved and
10:02
Speaker 1: it was just preordained we would be here, as you mentioned, No,
10:05
Speaker 1: this wasn't preordained, right, these were There were pretty epic
10:09
Speaker 1: battles between Jefferson and Hamilton's and throughout the you know,
10:12
Speaker 1: and if when once you start to think about that,
10:14
Speaker 1: you can realize, okay, maybe we're hearing about this one,
10:18
Speaker 1: but what other battles happened throughout our history that caused
10:21
Speaker 1: us to be the way? I mean, the Federal Reserve
10:22
Speaker 1: didn't start until the early twentieth century, right, This central
10:25
Speaker 1: bank actually existed for a while, and then it's time expired,
10:30
Speaker 1: and it wasn't renewed for a period of time, and
10:31
Speaker 1: then it was renewed again. And it wasn't until the
10:33
Speaker 1: Federal Reserve that we've had one that's now stuck for
10:36
Speaker 1: for about a hundred years, like I'm trying to I
10:38
Speaker 1: think it was nine. But there's still but there's popular
10:42
Speaker 1: opposition or maybe skepticism or at least or some movement
10:46
Speaker 1: to change the structure of the Federal Reserve system. It's
10:49
Speaker 1: been been kind of ossified the way it is for
10:52
Speaker 1: for for its hundred year history. And you do here
10:55
Speaker 1: skepticism on both sides of the political I think it's
10:58
Speaker 1: structure is also fought. Are you saying that's just the
11:00
Speaker 1: way it's characterized, characterized in some way but but in
11:03
Speaker 1: some ways that but the geographic regions of the FED
11:07
Speaker 1: are certainly ossified. And even Janet Yelling herself said, if
11:11
Speaker 1: it were created today, you probably have different regional boundaries
11:15
Speaker 1: form for the FED districts. And you know there is
11:18
Speaker 1: that skepticism of of central money creation that continues in
11:22
Speaker 1: certain political corners to this day, right, Yeah, I mean
11:26
Speaker 1: major presidential candidate. I believe it's Rand Paul who you
11:30
Speaker 1: know his book was? Was it? It was either Rand
11:32
Speaker 1: or Ron Paul? I can't remember. At the top, my
11:33
Speaker 1: dad wrote the book. His dad the son and his
11:35
Speaker 1: son continued the tradition. The book's titled End the fed right, Yeah,
11:39
Speaker 1: And I mean it's an issue there, you know, it's
11:42
Speaker 1: it's an issue where you actually get some in the
11:44
Speaker 1: Republican Party and some in the Democratic Party who would
11:48
Speaker 1: like to see the Federal Reserve either eliminated or modified,
11:51
Speaker 1: or maybe they just don't understand. It's a big entity
11:53
Speaker 1: and they don't understand what it's doing. And you know,
11:57
Speaker 1: because of that, there's a skepticism for it. All right,
12:00
Speaker 1: let's hold this thought as we pause for a break
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Speaker 1: from our sponsor. Brought to you by stage Summit Live,
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12:19
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12:27
Speaker 1: Let's go back to the music for a minute and
12:29
Speaker 1: play another song. This is a clip from a song
12:32
Speaker 1: called Satisfied and what You're what you'll hear singing or
12:36
Speaker 1: rapping if you will, is is the woman who plays
12:39
Speaker 1: Angelica Skyler singing. She's the sister of Hamilton's love interest Eliza.
12:46
Speaker 1: So here we go. I'm gonna grow in the world
12:50
Speaker 1: in which my only job is the very rich. My
12:52
Speaker 1: father has no son, so I'm a one who has
12:54
Speaker 1: the social fly. I'm the oldest and the widdy in
12:57
Speaker 1: the gap has been to New York City, is Andy
13:00
Speaker 1: and Alexander. So, Matt, you say that this actually illustrates
13:08
Speaker 1: a key concept in economics, what would you say? Yeah,
13:12
Speaker 1: I actually think this is there's kind of two concepts
13:15
Speaker 1: that this song illustrates incredibly well. And that's the idea
13:18
Speaker 1: of tradeoffs and the idea of an opportunity costs, which
13:20
Speaker 1: are two of the more central ideas trying to teach
13:24
Speaker 1: right at the beginning of well an economics education, right
13:29
Speaker 1: and when I teach principles of macroeconomics, really in the
13:31
Speaker 1: first week, we're hammering on you know what what what
13:34
Speaker 1: what does it mean to have trade offs for for
13:37
Speaker 1: an introductory you know, for an incoming first year, second
13:40
Speaker 1: year or a second year student. Often they haven't thought
13:42
Speaker 1: about this um the trade offs in this song, naturally,
13:46
Speaker 1: Angelica Skyler is thinking through Well, she sees Alexander Hamilton's
13:50
Speaker 1: and instantly there's an attraction and likes him and talks
13:52
Speaker 1: to him and thinks this guy is amazing and is
13:55
Speaker 1: fascinated by him, but realizes he's poor and she's mentioning
14:00
Speaker 1: in the song her job is to marry rich, and
14:04
Speaker 1: there's also that Alexander might want. Part of what might
14:08
Speaker 1: be attractive about her. You know why she might be
14:12
Speaker 1: attractive to Alexander is that she has a lot of money.
14:15
Speaker 1: And there's a third The third line mentions how her
14:19
Speaker 1: sister also likes Alexander, and her sister would say it's okay,
14:22
Speaker 1: but you know, Angelica says what she'd be lying when
14:25
Speaker 1: she says that her sister would be happy if she
14:28
Speaker 1: was with Alexander. And at the end of the song,
14:30
Speaker 1: it seems pretty clear she thinks she made the right decision,
14:33
Speaker 1: but it really really pains her. And that's a great idea.
14:36
Speaker 1: The opportunity cost of choosing to be with Alexander would
14:41
Speaker 1: have been not marrying Rich right and hurting her sister marriage.
14:46
Speaker 1: The ultimate economic institution. Ultimate economic instituall I mean in
14:49
Speaker 1: family that's coming right. Offs to come in, and certainly
14:53
Speaker 1: the trade off you're trading off your happiness in one way,
14:58
Speaker 1: um for money. You're trading off your sister's happiness for money. UM.
15:03
Speaker 1: It's just a fantastic song that shows tradeoffs on a
15:07
Speaker 1: on a high stakes decision that's not monetary, and a
15:09
Speaker 1: lot of the tradeoffs in life are high stakes, right,
15:12
Speaker 1: I mean, do you get a cancer, you know, if
15:14
Speaker 1: you're diagnosed with a disease, do you go get cancer treatment? Right?
15:17
Speaker 1: I mean these are there are high stakes tradeoff decisions
15:19
Speaker 1: people have on a daily basis. And this song, with
15:22
Speaker 1: a lot of emotion and power, I think, really captures
15:25
Speaker 1: trade offs and opportunity costs. You address this a little
15:28
Speaker 1: bit a few minutes ago. Is the concept of a
15:31
Speaker 1: trade off in economics and the development of economic policy
15:36
Speaker 1: something that's alien to your students when they first come
15:39
Speaker 1: to you. Certainly all students have experienced tradeoffs, but I
15:43
Speaker 1: think a lot of them will miss the idea that
15:46
Speaker 1: there are tradeoffs when they're thinking about various policies. They
15:50
Speaker 1: might not realize. And you'll see this both on like
15:53
Speaker 1: the political spectrum. It's inevitable that politics comes up now
15:56
Speaker 1: and you teach the introductory level economics, it's more what
15:59
Speaker 1: we call positive and analysis. It really doesn't delve into
16:02
Speaker 1: the political um, the normative what should we do? But
16:06
Speaker 1: it's kind of natural. I mean, you're starting to talk
16:07
Speaker 1: about the ideas of you know, minimum wages or tax
16:11
Speaker 1: increases or tax cuts, the tradeoffs come in, and a
16:14
Speaker 1: lot of individuals will come in with their political ideas thinking, well,
16:18
Speaker 1: whatever side i've heard, there must be no downside to
16:21
Speaker 1: this particular policy, and we'll never have to cut a
16:23
Speaker 1: deal to get it. I ever have to cut a
16:25
Speaker 1: deal to get a cuff, of course. Yeah, and so
16:26
Speaker 1: there's well, I think they've all experienced that, the idea
16:30
Speaker 1: that it happens in politics. I do agree to summits
16:32
Speaker 1: foreign and so I think part of the job is
16:35
Speaker 1: that I have when teaching economics is to help make
16:39
Speaker 1: the student understand. Look, these are everywhere. You've experienced them
16:42
Speaker 1: your whole life, Right, You've had to figure out what
16:44
Speaker 1: you wanted to do for the afternoon. Do you want
16:45
Speaker 1: to go work perhaps and earn a few dollars, or
16:47
Speaker 1: do you want to go out and have fun and
16:49
Speaker 1: you'll spend money and have less money the next day?
16:52
Speaker 1: Or you know what particular class do you want to take?
16:54
Speaker 1: There's trade offs for that or I mean all of
16:56
Speaker 1: the decisions in life, there's particular trade offs. They've they've
16:59
Speaker 1: experienced them. The ideas then okay, let's carry that over.
17:02
Speaker 1: Those those don't just magically go away in the world
17:04
Speaker 1: of politics and the world of economic decision making. Does
17:08
Speaker 1: it trouble you that they come to you without this
17:11
Speaker 1: saints that they're compromises to be made to get your policy,
17:15
Speaker 1: whatever it is, enacted, and that they have to do
17:18
Speaker 1: try it off. Does that say something, say something you
17:23
Speaker 1: know troubling about society today. I don't know that I'd
17:29
Speaker 1: go quite that far. I do. I mean, would I
17:31
Speaker 1: love if everybody had that? Yeah? I would. I would
17:33
Speaker 1: like if they had that they're taking you know, I
17:36
Speaker 1: look back at myself and would I at eighteen have
17:38
Speaker 1: have of course, yeah, yeah, But I really don't think
17:42
Speaker 1: I would have. It's part of the learning process. So
17:44
Speaker 1: I don't find it troubling. And what I tell the
17:46
Speaker 1: students when they struggle with any particular topic, if if
17:49
Speaker 1: they understood everything in the book already, there's no need
17:52
Speaker 1: for the class, right. Part of my job is to
17:54
Speaker 1: help to help them understand. And so I don't know
17:59
Speaker 1: that I find it as as troubling as some others
18:01
Speaker 1: might find it. My hope is as far as having
18:04
Speaker 1: maximum impact. If we have individuals who come in and
18:06
Speaker 1: don't understand trade offs, and I'm able to help some
18:09
Speaker 1: people get oh yeah, there are trade offs. There's trade
18:11
Speaker 1: offs everywhere, and they come out of the class thinking
18:14
Speaker 1: that I'll think I did a pretty good job. Matt.
18:16
Speaker 1: Can you tell us anymore about your Broadway Economics website
18:19
Speaker 1: and which other songs or shows outside of Hamilton's you
18:22
Speaker 1: liked for a teaching economics. Oh? Absolutely, So it's on
18:25
Speaker 1: Broadway Economics dot com. I think it's about forty five
18:28
Speaker 1: or so songs from different shows and you could see
18:32
Speaker 1: the songs that's got the links to the lyrics, and
18:34
Speaker 1: it also has discussion questions if educators want to use
18:36
Speaker 1: these in their classes. The Broadway songs are fantastic for
18:41
Speaker 1: teaching economic concept because Broadway musicals tell stories, and a
18:44
Speaker 1: lot of the a lot of the stories are about
18:46
Speaker 1: economic issues. So, for example, one of the shows I'm
18:49
Speaker 1: seeing this afternoon is Fiddler on the Roof If I
18:51
Speaker 1: were a rich man, I think is a fantastic song
18:53
Speaker 1: as far as teaching economic concepts. The initial you know,
18:57
Speaker 1: you hear the title and you think, oh, yeah, that
18:58
Speaker 1: has to deal with economy. Mix of course he's talking
19:00
Speaker 1: about what happens if he's rich, But there's actually this
19:03
Speaker 1: is one of my favorite songs to use because if
19:06
Speaker 1: you peel it back a layer, there's much more to it. Uh,
19:09
Speaker 1: Teva is singing um about I think it's Teva. It's
19:12
Speaker 1: the character's name, is singing about being rich from his
19:17
Speaker 1: perspective in I believe it's nineteen o five Russia, and
19:20
Speaker 1: to Teva, being rich would mean having lots of farm animals,
19:25
Speaker 1: having two sets of stairs, and having a wife with
19:30
Speaker 1: a proper double chin. As he's saying, you know, a
19:32
Speaker 1: well fed wife, that's being rich. You know, that's that's
19:35
Speaker 1: a rich person in Teva's world. So, I mean, I'm
19:38
Speaker 1: going to Fiddler today and I'm thinking to myself, I mean,
19:42
Speaker 1: we are beyond anything Teva could have imagined in terms
19:45
Speaker 1: of rich And I think there's a powerful message about
19:47
Speaker 1: economic growth there in the economic growth that's occurred in
19:51
Speaker 1: the past hundred years or hundred and fifty years. In
19:55
Speaker 1: many countries we all lived like Teva to three four
19:59
Speaker 1: years ago, not all, but of the world's population, there's
20:02
Speaker 1: still many parts of the world today that are incredibly poor.
20:07
Speaker 1: What is brought parts of the world to live so
20:11
Speaker 1: to be so incredibly wealthy, And that there's a story
20:14
Speaker 1: there that helps illustrate, helps kind of prime students for
20:17
Speaker 1: a lesson on economic growth. So that's one of my
20:20
Speaker 1: favorite songs. And some of the same concepts are in
20:22
Speaker 1: Hamilton's Who Came From you know, as an immigrant from
20:25
Speaker 1: the Caribbean, and you get a lot of that kind
20:27
Speaker 1: of stuff. Oh yeah, yeah, and that show as well. Yeah.
20:29
Speaker 1: The first line from the song, right, um, how does
20:32
Speaker 1: the bastard, orphan son of a whore, um, you know,
20:36
Speaker 1: become a hero and a scholar? Right? That's fantastic ten
20:41
Speaker 1: dollar founding father without a father. I really like using
20:46
Speaker 1: that song in terms of kind of making students think, um,
20:49
Speaker 1: I think through various issues. There's a number of songs
20:52
Speaker 1: that would illustrate ideas of economic competition. Another show that's
20:56
Speaker 1: on UM that's on Broadway right now is Something Rotten
21:00
Speaker 1: and that show has a song called a Musical, which
21:02
Speaker 1: is kind of a big show stopping number, but it's
21:05
Speaker 1: a nice idea. It's a nice introduction to kind of
21:08
Speaker 1: innovation and how firms might innovate because they are trying
21:11
Speaker 1: to figure out what the next best thing when theater
21:13
Speaker 1: should be and this is in UM around six hundred
21:17
Speaker 1: in England, and they come up with the idea of well,
21:19
Speaker 1: let's do a musical and all of the ideas and
21:21
Speaker 1: why this would be an innovative, innovative process, and it's
21:24
Speaker 1: a it's a great song in terms of illustrating the
21:26
Speaker 1: idea that the way that people become better off, A
21:29
Speaker 1: big chunk of it is when entrepreneurs come up with
21:31
Speaker 1: these ideas for a product we didn't know would make
21:34
Speaker 1: our lives better off, but they make our lives better off.
21:38
Speaker 1: And so that's a very it's a fun song. You know.
21:41
Speaker 1: Once again, part of what makes this work so well
21:44
Speaker 1: is the songs are fun, and the students enjoy them
21:46
Speaker 1: and they want to listen to them over and over.
21:48
Speaker 1: And while they do that, hopefully they the songs, you know,
21:51
Speaker 1: the economic concepts resonate with them. Well, maybe I'll look
21:55
Speaker 1: into spinning off a separate Benchmark podcast on Broadway musicals
21:59
Speaker 1: and and economics because it's Matt. You make it sound
22:03
Speaker 1: like a really fascinating subject and and I really appreciate
22:06
Speaker 1: you coming in to talk with us about it today. Now,
22:08
Speaker 1: thanks for thanks for having me. This has been a blast.
22:11
Speaker 1: So Dan, are you ready to go out and see
22:13
Speaker 1: Hamilton's yet? If I could afford it? But you know,
22:16
Speaker 1: if I were a rich Man, but I think I
22:19
Speaker 1: might enroll in your class. How about that? Hey, the
22:21
Speaker 1: more of the merrier, All right, well, thanks again, Matt.
22:25
Speaker 1: Benchmark will be back next week and until then you
22:27
Speaker 1: can find us on the Bloomberg terminal and Bloomberg dot com,
22:30
Speaker 1: as well as on iTunes, hocket casts, and Stitcher. And
22:34
Speaker 1: while you're there, take a minute to rate and review
22:36
Speaker 1: the show so more listeners can find us and let
22:39
Speaker 1: us know what you thought of the show. You can
22:40
Speaker 1: talk to and follow us on Twitter at Daniel Moss
22:43
Speaker 1: DC and at Scott Landon and our guest is at
22:47
Speaker 1: at Matthew Rosy and at Broadway eCOM. See you next week.
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