THE FRESH PRINCE OF WALL STREET:An Educational RapBy: Josh Lacey and Maria Vietz

What were the roles of individuals and ideas in the financial crisis?

• We plan to present, in a FUN and INNOVATIVE format, a 3-minute model to show how people and their ideas shaped the 2008 Financial Crisis

• By presenting a complex idea so simply, we hope to make these important ideas understandable for all.

IDEAS• Animal Spirits

(Akerlof and Shiller): The economy is guided by five elements of human psychology1. Confidence2. Fairness3. Corruption4. Thinking in stories5. “Money illusion”

IDEAS• The economics

profession is flawed due to its control by the powerful (Häring and Douglas)

• “Zombie ideas” (Quiggin)- many economic ideas have outlived their usefulness (e.g. MBS, austerity)

INDIVIDUALS• Central bankers as

alchemists or sorcerer’s apprentices? (Neil Irwin)

• What did Wall Street bankers and policymakers do while the music was playing, and how did they react after the music stopped? (Alan Blinder)

INDIVIDUALS• The Bankers’ New

Clothes by Admati & Hellwig

• As with the emperor the fable, no one was willing to question or regulate powerful bankers

• Necessary reforms:– Reducing complexity– Increasing regulation– More capitalization

And that’s a RAP.