Poetry in Economics

We launched a competition for our students on National Poetry Day, to write us a poem about economics. We had some lovely entries, including several from staff from within the department as well as from others - next year we might need to introduce a special category for the staff. Its been very hard to judge the winners;

It's been very hard to judge the poems; quite a challenge to combine a sense of rhythm, scan and rhyme with economics which actually makes sense. However, winners have to be selected, and I would like to share them with you. Firstly a nice, simple one by Alex, which is Highly Commended:

When prices fall

Wages become small

Liquidity rules

Happiness cools

Keynes

Genius or fool?

In Geneva those geezers talk trade,

Top notch deals and agreements are made,

Poor countries get rowdy

So decisions get cloudy

Thus progress of rights are delayed

And finally from Brendan Conlon; more of a students lament, it is quite clever in its construction and again uses humour well.

Economics is rather confusing

What’s this about an invisible hand?

Over a year into the course, but I’m still getting

To grips with supply and demand

I can never understand it.

It causes me mental stretches and pains

I mean, why listen to just guys with moustaches?

Krugman, Hayek and Keynes

I’ve always struggled with globalisation

I wish it’d never seen the light of day.

Three weeks down the line, and I’ve just discovered

Bloc isn’t spelt with a ‘K’

And as for interest rates,

Well the clue just is not in the name

They come up in class, my interest goes down

And they turn out to be rather tame

I’m sceptical of economists’ lack of decisions

Always sitting on the fence

They can’t predict the economy, so I’m starting to think

That they’re all just a little bit dense

It has often been said that economists

Should be the ones running our nations,

But please wake me up when they see their mistake,

Because I’ll be in hibernation!