Host Dave Batker—an “ecological economist”—manages to strike a bizarre balance between Mr. Rogers and Michael Moore in this humorous overview of the American economy. In fact, Batker's way of defining terms like “GDP” while breezing through U.S. economic history resembles something one might find on a Saturday afternoon kids' show, but his goofy, nice-guy persona still conveys the same sort of hard-left critique of American capitalism that one might expect from Howard Zinn or raconteur Moore. Director John de Graaf structures the film as “A Tragic Comedy in 13 Acts,” positioning Batker onscreen much of the time, with archival and contemporary footage and stills, animation, and graphs appearing in the background. Batker's jumping-off point is the early-20th-century concept that economic forces should provide “the greatest good for the greatest number over the longest run,” after which he leads the viewer from the Great Depression to the recent Great Recession, noting similarities in the causes of both. Unbridled free markets and “trickle-down” economics, according to Batker, have dominated government policy for the last 30 years, and the only way out is some sort of Rooseveltian “new” New Deal. Thanks to a subversively amusing style that will likely make the topic more palatable to a non-academic general audience, this winning primer on the economy is recommended. Aud: C, P. (M. Sandlin)
What's the Economy for, Anyway?
(2009) 40 min. VHS or DVD: $250. Earth Economics (dist. by Bullfrog Films). PPR. Closed captioned. ISBN: 1-59458-917-8 (vhs), 1-59458-918-6 (dvd). Volume 26, Issue 2
What's the Economy for, Anyway?
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