Well, we've been very busy lately with moving in, settling in, and all. After a long day yesterday, my wife and I sat down to watch some TV. It had been a long time since I'd watched The Jetsons. It happened to be the episode "Jetson's Millions," one of the last episodes from the revived version of the series which aired in 1985.
Synopsis: George Jetson wins the Venutian lottery (10 million venutis) which at the current exchange rate (75 cents per venuti) means he wins 7.5 million dollars. At the end, the Venutian economy collapses and the planet Venus has to devalue their currency to 0.01 cents per venuti, which devalues his prize to 1000 dollars (he had not received the money before the economic collapse).
Cartoons often have social commentary (from WWII era Warner Brothers all the way through The Simpsons), but economic commentary is not always tied to the main plot. As cartoon humor goes, this was pretty sophisticated.
The timing was interesting too. The episode originally aired May 4, 1985. That corresponds almost exactly with the peak of the dollar just a couple of months earlier but before the large drop in the value of the dollar. Of course, cartoons take a while to develop and animate, so the episode was probably conceived in 1984 or even 1983. That is only a year or two after the Mexican peso devaluation of 1982. Perhaps that provided the inspiration for the writers.
Whatever provided the inspiration, it made this economist laugh 20 year after the episode first aired.
Microeconomics is probably easier to spot in TV shows in general and cartoons in particular. I've never done a careful count, but it just seems to me to be the case. If you can remember any vintage cartoons that have some sort of macroeconomic reference, I'd be interested to hear about it.
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