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Dream On, Valiant Austrian! An Economics Sonnet

This comes from reader Alex Entz:

I wrote a Shakespearean sonnet in iambic pentameter about economics for an English class of mine at Northwestern this past quarter and, spurred on by the rash of “Fed Valentines,” thought I’d take a decidedly Austrian approach. Now that the class is done, I figured that I should pass it along to some people who, unlike my English professor, would perhaps appreciate its economic aspects more than its rhythmic and metrical aspects.

Dream On, Valiant Austrian!

I fell asleep quite late last night, adrift

In books of Hayek’s thoughts. And dreaming was

An oddity—dollars and gold, a swift

Exchange; velocity ran flat because

It stayed constant, our friend. Inflation sat

A toothless beast by Milton’s sage theory;

There was no need for Twist, or worse, a fat

Sad QE3—of which I was leery.

There were no bubbles to be popped, no price

Distortions there, and property was ruled

By Coase—so simple and so fair. A piece

By JM Keynes no longer had us fooled.

I woke to a report about the Fed;

Sometimes the world runs better in my head.


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