RSA ANIMATE: Economics is for Everyone!

‘Economics is for everyone’, argues legendary economist Ha-Joon Chang in our latest mind-blowing RSA Animate. This is the video economists don’t want you to see! Chang explains why every single person can and SHOULD get their head around basic economics. He pulls back the curtain on the often mystifying language of derivatives and quantitative easing, and explains how easily economic myths and assumptions become gospel. Arm yourself with some facts, and get involved in discussions about the fundamentals that underpin our day-to-day lives.

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Speaker: Ha-Joon Chang
Animator: Cognitive Media
Producer: Abi Stephenson

[ChristopherLamke]

Wow. This was fantastic. Well done, Ha-Joon Chang. I'm going to share this with my family and colleagues as an essential learning experience.

[kagoon]

ha joon chang is one of the most gifted scholars of our time. glad that i bought and read his books. Thanks for making this RSA.

[nikzanzev]

That was the best animation up to date... great talk too... 10/10

[jeremiahfernandez]

"Oh I could explain it to you but you wouldn't understand" means "I don't understand it either"

[JasonElliott]

Great job! A great talk, and beautifully illustrated.

[zbeowulfz]

Love these RSA animates, so creative and thorough

[adrianmoten]

Brilliant! It's like my mind was turned into an audio-visual presentation. Thank you so much. Love it!

[St_Fish]

Is it possible to download any of these graphics? Would really like to get a clean version of the full chart at 2:53.

[toasterkolin]

Why in the world did my school making me watch this, I legitimately have no clue about any of this and yet I'm still supposed to learn this.

[alexinflux]

What an enormous amount of work! Amazing!

[ShaneBaker]

As always, Dr Chang makes a great deal of sense.

[angusjenkinson]

Interesting to hear an expert giving an expert view that only an expert can give of economics and only because he is an expert is the animation even made and outlini9ng that we need to understand multiple different models and then telling us not listen to experts! But the deeper message I agree with. The president of the European Bank was recently on record for saying that no-one knew what would be the outcomes of QE. Economics is still deeply flawed or uncertain. The variety of models suggests an important diversity of view about priorities – which is a valid area for citizens – but once the priorities are agreed we need a sound method for implementing them, and that we still lack.

[LarsPallesen]

Excellent stuff! Both the lecture and the drawings! Thank you very much.

[DavidCruickshank]

I love these videos, the whole reason I'm subscribed =)

[bae]

Where can we find the full drawing for download/purchase?

This is an awesome video!

Mark Twain had this to say about economists, "There are a great many curative baths on the Continent, and some are good for one disease and bad for another. So it is necessary to let your physician name a bath for you. As a rule, Americans go to Europe to get this advice, and South Americans go to Paris for it. *Now and then an economist chooses his bath himself and does a thousand miles of railroading to get to it, and then the local physicians tell him he has come to the wrong place. He sees that he has lost time and money and strength, and almost the minute he realizes this he loses his temper....*" - pg. 54-55, The Complete Essays of Mark Twain

[AliefHamdani]

I simplistically liked the part about The Singapore Problem.

[qwertyqart]

I've come to a humble conclusion that US is as capitalistic as USSR was socialistic, meaning that neither of them are what they claim to be.

[Frankincensedjb]

Einstein said that to truly understand is to understand simply no simpler or to be able to explain even the complex in simple terms. This is done here. Chang is like most great thinkers, accepting of limitations, humble, and able to break down the complex to the simple. This is something Richard Feynman attempted to do with Physics in Six Easy Pieces. If you want to know the basics about economics, a text I use in my classes is Common Sense Economics (a title Chang would like). You can find more here: commonsenseeconomics.com (and no, I don't make any money off sales. But I do advocate all Americans read it, for like oxygen, a basic understanding of economics is essential for personal and political reasons. Good luck).

[KateLiuLaoshi]

This is a great piece of speech for Economics and makes in inspired to learn more about Political Economics
Thank you so much!