Economy explained through traditional Hungarian dishes – Videos

Who would have thought that economic expressions can be explained with the help of traditional Hungarian dishes? This is exactly what The Chopping Board Economist aims to do with witty videos that combine two seemingly distant fields of life: gastronomy and economy.

The videos are made by Péter Ormosi, a Hungarian economist-lecturer at the University of East Anglia. With his pop-economics YouTube channel his goal is to take economics off the blackboard and put it on a more preferred artefact, the hypothetical chopping board, in order to give it to people whose lives could be transformed by it.

In one of his videos, he reviews the connection between trade and beef goulash/stew. Among others, he states that

the recipe is like a toothbrush: everybody has one but no one likes to use anybody else’s.

He also tells about his wedding day: even though he wanted to make the goulash himself, he realised that it would take too much of his time, so he asked someone else to cook it instead. The development of world trade followed a similar pattern.

In another one of his videos he recalls his childhood memories, and by explaining how to make stuffed cabbage, he reveals the magnitude of food waste.

He also has a video about the connection between chicken paprikash and cartels. He explains the behaviour when businesses collude on the prices they charge, which is a shockingly common practice especially in markets where there are only a handful of rivals.

What a fun approach to economics!

Featured image: www.youtube.com

Source: Daily News Hungary