if it’s broke, someone’s gotta get paid to fix it!

The “broken window fallacy” was devised by French economist Frederic Bastiat. In Bastiat’s parable, an intentionally broken window is seen initially, and falsely, to spur economic activity, as the window repair man receives business, uses that revenue to replenish stock and buy personal goods, which gives other economic actors business, etc.

Keynes believed that if everyone saves their $ during a recession instead of spending it, companies will have no reason to produce more stuff bc no one is buying anything.

THEN everyone suffers because companies slow production, let people go, unemployment goes up, and everything just gets worse and worse and worse.

Oh just a measly $13 trillion during the last recession

Refers to Keynes' 1936 The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, the book form of what he says in this rap

Total = Y = GDP.

Economists like GDP growth. (Politicians love it).

To economists, “sticky” means doesn’t change.

During the depression, prices of goods went down but wages did not (the were stuck being sticky!). That meant companies weren’t getting as much $ for their products but had to still pay their employees (relatively) high wages. Revenue went down, costs did not.

And so, they let a lot of people go.

During the Great Depression, unemployment rose to 25% (with industrial unemployment alone rising to approximately 35%).

see also: the Grapes of Wrath

The total amount of goods and services people want to buy

if you really want to get down (aka technical) like an economist: the total amount of goods and services people want to buy at a given price over a given time