Thursday, July 3, 2014

Reasonably Good Macroeconomics Video

Ray Dalio has put out a persuasive video called “How the Economic Machine Works”.

Dalio is a hedge fund manager: rich and influential.

I like Dalio’s video:

I think the graphics and tempo of this video are great. I don’t always agree with the economics. It’s decidedly Keynesian. And I think it relies too much on “just so stories”. In particular, I think his discussion of debt cycles leans way too much toward the idea that we’re always doomed to go through debt cycles (although if I were a betting man I’d admit that it sure looks like this might be the case). I also think it’s colored a bit too much by Dalio’s perspective as a successful investor: basically, there’s some finance inserted where there should be a somewhat different macroeconomic argument.

Dalio also has a short text outlining his theory. It’s free to download.

There’s also a site containing both, but I’m not sure how it’s supposed to relate to them. At the bottom of that is a video of a conversational interview between Larry Summers and Dalio. Summers is a macroeconomist from Harvard, and arguably the biggest economist working from with the Democratic Party.

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