“Dead Economists Society”
Ideated and Compiled by: Ishita Gadgil, Gaargi Jamkar
Contributors: Keerthana Satheesh, Divyaansh Chippa, Ajinkya Nene, Dhruv Kumar, Ashmita Sarkar, Omisha, Etasha Sabnis.
To commemorate the 75th edition of the 8:10 newsletter, we organised an activity which was open to all students of GIPE. A prompt was given and each student added a stanza building on the previous ones. There were no restrictions on the direction of the story and any rhyme scheme was accepted. The idea was to end up with a long poem full of twists and turns and outrightly funny. Here’s what we came up with:
The Prompt: Adam smith rises from his grave on Halloween only to find his theories discarded, and Keynesian economics prevalent. He is immediately angered and sets out on a quest to terrorise those following the new schools of thought. But on his rampage, he discovers the changes and developments that modern economics has brought in the daily workings of the world. Will it change his mind? How will his ghost be at peace? Help us finish the story poem! (Use creative ways to answer the question: “how has modern economics shaped the world?”)
Image Source: Generated by ChatGPT
A man, a legend, as old as myth
By birth christened as Adam Smith
Uncovering the work of the invisible hand
Fathered economics, over wind and land
Till his grave did he preach demand and supply
In his eyes the field of econ lay at ease
Then keen eyed Keynes, did defy
And prompted the hand of government for peace
An impulsive séance as a result of good rum
Four students sat circled, sans the light of Apollo
The drunk motive: ‘resurrect one Smith, Adam.’
For this was the dreadful eve of all hallows
“Smith, will you rise? What shalt thou see?
Will the shifts of the changed world anger thee?”
Thus, did he return and the earth quaked
The rageful Adam has arrived to debate.
His form, not physical
His hand invisible
Recovering from his penance
He shouted, “NONSENSE”
“How dare the world ignore me,
I defined the markets to be free
Now within the government’s control
Growth is halted to achieve their goal!”
Keynes! The rascal, with zero appeal
Uttered, “The markets do not self-heal!”
Demand earlier helped supply regrow
But governments now, ruin the show
Adam replied “Keynes, stop lest you want to bake your last beans,
Screw the government
This is not betterment,
Although I admit you have personal flair,
It is balanced by your atrocious hair
But Keynes, unfazed, with calm retort,
Spoke of India’s shift to a prudent port.
“New Keynesian ways now shape the fight,
Where price rigidity checks the blight.
Urjit and Chidambaram kept a steady aim,
Four percent inflation—India’s claim.
A balance sought to temper strife,
As markets alone can’t self-revive.”
But Smith wanted freedom, even in the markets too!
Applied his laissez faire capitalism and uttered, Keynes who?
Aggregate demand hypothesis that Keynes had to reflect,
Smith differed from Keynes’ multiplier effect.!
The pandemic taught us to employ Keynesian economics,
But the father exists freely in market harmonics..
With the Invisible hand a metaphor well known
Motives – self interested – shall propel the economy to grow?
Eerie was the ultimate cause of great depression
Bleeding too much money in the hands of too few people!
While Smith’s idea of self regulation haunted,
Keynes government supervised management became wanted.
Will there be blood? Oh the deeds are not so blunt.
Risen from the grave is a man on a hunt.
So raged the debate, as the moon gleamed bright,
Theories and ideas clashed fiercely, igniting the night!
Smith’s eyes twinkled as he testified with glee,
said-“Markets, as you know, thrive on liberty!”
Keynes retorted, rebutted with might,
“The market’s vulnerability can blow out the light.
Without a guiding hand, shall chaos further reign,
People will suffer, and the wealthy stand to gain!”
Come Hallow’s Eve, the two economists roared,
This holiday, once a ghostly stronghold
Had become riddled with war and strife
Terrified, the ghosts ran for their life.
No more costumes, a dreary sight
Halloween left a screaming daze
What would give every monster a fright:
An economy set ablaze
Their day of celebration not theirs anymore,
They thrust their darkest minds together
Ghosts, monsters and ghouls galore
Sought end this battle forever
The ingenuity of their scheme was unreal,
As the ghosts successfully stopped the economists’ spiel
The lesson learnt was simple and clear
Equilibrium ensured that there was nothing to fear
A new invisible hand was thus born
Gilded by worried and fearful ghouls
For every halloween they were sworn
To appease both John and Adam’s rules.
So in this town where the eve of all Saint’s day
Was forever changed by an Economists’ dismay
The residents enjoyed stability for long
And never was a single spirit left forlorn.