DuckTales was an American cartoon broadcast between 1987 and 1990. It focused on the Disney characters, Scrooge McDuck and his grandnephews, Huey, Dewey, and Louie. Scrooge is the ‘richest duck in the world’, and is known for valuing hard work and thrift. Once a penniless immigrant, Scrooge’s fortune is entirely self-made (it is rumoured that he is something of a caricature of Andrew Carnegie).

Whilst cynical, bad-tempered, and extremely focused on business success, Scrooge is not amoral. He dislikes dishonesty and cheating in the pursuit of wealth (contrasting him with his rival, Flintheart Glomgold). He believes that money can, and should, only be earned honestly. He does, however, emphasise that working ‘smarter’ is better than just working ‘harder’ (in other words, innovation is better than mindless labour).

It has been suggested elsewhere that DuckTales is essentially a cartoon version of Atlas Shrugged, given that most of the characters are capitalists and most episodes centre on the protagonists trying to acquire (more) money. Indeed, Carl Banks, Scrooge’s creator, explicitly stated his endorsement of capitalism.

DuckTales provided strikingly useful economic information for a children’s cartoon. In this video, the dangers of inflation (and the stupidity of creating worthless money) are illustrated. This should probably be shown to all central bank employees.