NEW! Version 1.1. Now with easier-to-read captions!
Everything I know about economics I learned from the movies. (Collected knowledge after the jump.) So when times get tough, I consult Preston Sturges. Here, I have condensed the financial wisdom of a lifetime into less than five minutes -- all of it distilled from 1937's "Easy Living," written by Sturges, directed by Mitchell Leisen, and starring Jean Arthur, Edward Arnold, Ray Milland, Mary Nash, Franklin Pangborn, Luis Alberni and Andrew Tombes, among many others.
Sturges himself puts in an appearance to explain the key principle behind all successful investment strategies.
And in his movie, there's a happy ending.
What I know about capitalism from the movies:
1) Wall Street is a casino.
2) Perception is reality.
3) Or, if it isn't, it might as well be.
4) It's only money.
5) Don't panic.
6) Making money is easy; comedy is hard.
7) If you can't sleep at night, it isn't the coffee -- it's the bunk!
Brilliant!
Speaking of capitalism -- the corporation I work for is blocking me from playing this video. Oh, well, I'll view it at home, on personal time. Thankfully, my owners have yet to prohibit full access to this website! :)
I haven't seen a Jean Arthur movie yet that I haven't loved. Even the Looney Tunes with the little mouse that talks like her are great.
I'm trying to think of a movie where Edward Arnold doesn't play "Rich Pompous Guy". He must've marched off the set for this and walked right over to YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU.
Jim, I've really enjoyed your movie comps, like this one and the one you did for the PRISONER. Keep it up, sir.
Phenomenal. :)
Was that Vernon Dent of Three Stooges fame I caught in passing there?
So who finances the bailout?
I would argue that comedy is much easier than making money. I've known an awful lot of funny people in my life. Few of them were good at making money. The difference is that those who have mastered comedy are certainly making the world a better place while those who have mastered money making have to prove themselves in another way.
Anyway, it concerns me when someone says (and I assume you were serious Jim) that everything he knows about economics he learned from the movies, and then expects to be taken seriously on the issue.
There is much one can learn from the cinema about life, but I've seen a lot of movies and I've never learned anything significant about economics from them.
If one is truly interested in the subject I would suggest Adam Smith, Milton Friedman, Murray Rothbard, and Thomas Sowell.
P.S. I would highly recommend Mr. Sturges for his comedic stylings for they are invaluable.
James: Well, I thought I was being funny on both counts, and I don't have any money, either. Seriously, though, you can learn a lot about American responses to the Great Depression from Hollywood movies, just as you can learn a lot about attitudes on the home front during WW II from the movies. As for the comedy/money line, that's an intentional (and, I thought, funny) conflation of two famous lines:
"It's easy to make a lot of money, if all you want is to make a lot of money." -- Mr. Bernstein, "Citizen Kane"
and
"Dying is easy. Comedy is hard." -- attributed to a number of famous actors, and quoted by Peter O'Toole in "My Favorite Year."
What would CFK have been without Mr. Bernstein? Very wealthy and alone, I suppose...
It is true that (American) movies, generally speaking, reflect the mood of the country. And sometimes the country reflects the mood of the movies. 'Bonnie and Clyde' was a response to the 60s. The 80s was a response to 'Star Wars'.
Anyway, learning about American responses to something from the movies is not the same thing as academically learning about the subject itself. Whatever that subject may be. That statement is much more true in reguards to movements and systems than it is to people and ideas of course.
Glad Bernstein's quote came out in the comments—my all-time favorite economics quote. Although, as such, if I may correct:
"It's no trick to make a lot of money…if what you want to do is make a lot of money."
And Sturges is a hero of mine, but I suppose I made that clear when I named my blog.