Episode 19: By George!

Play Now!

If you thought the last episode, Interlocking Directorates of Control, was a departure from my usual rant on advertising, then strap in for more divergence from the norm! Today I present Part I of a primer concerning the history of economics as an academic discipline in Episode 19: By George! And just like the last episode, I feel the need to focus on how money and monied interests distort academic curricula in ways that suit the money more than the pursuit of Truth . . . whatever that might be.

In this episode, I read from Henry George's "Progress and Poverty", an 1879 book that had far more of an impact on policy here in the United States and abroad than most people realize. I also read from Mason Gaffney's extended investigation of George and those that rallied against him, "Neo-classical Economics as a Stratagem against Henry George". NB: The link takes the clicker to a PDF version of that work.

Music is more homogenous than usual: in keeping with the Primer Format, I chose four pieces from Podington Bear's album "Tender"—"Dreamliner," "Like Brigade," "Pink Blossoms," and "Wellness." His music so often evokes images of a children's music box and toys that I felt it keeping with the upbeat and direct Dick and Jane reading I (mostly) managed to maintain throughout the episode.

I opened with a scene from the too-short-lived cartoon version of "Dilbert," the scene where the pointy-haired boss causes a busload of nobel prize winners to die horribly in a bus/train collision. I hope to elucidate why I felt this was a good intro in Part II of this Primer.

Addendum: I do hope a reader can give me a hand. I realize I've been too assuming by putting a simple hot link to the episode only once on each episode page. I should put in something a bit more direct. Hence the "Play now!" at the top. I would like to have perhaps a flash player so those who wish could get it to play directly from their web browser, and perhaps a similar command to enable quick downloads; I am, though, technically proficient only to simply link the mp3.

If anyone out there can share a simple script along with instructions to install it on this Blogspot page, I would be ever so grateful.