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Summary: Dominant trend is always to freedom
Review: "...there very little discussion about of the downside of global capitalism including world terrorism, inter-imperial rivalries and war, environmental catatsrophe and destruction, the increasing division of rich and poor between and within first and third world countries, overproduction/underconsumption, the erasure of indigenous culture, etc."Wrote another reviewer. When you realize this is the same as saying "there is little discussion about the downside of ending slavery in the U.S. among blacks" you will be able to understand capitalism, freedom, and classical liberalism. Capitalism doesn't promise utopia. It promises the absolute most efficient use of resources. For that matter freedom doesn't promise safety, but I'll choose freedom thank you very much. Personally, the divide between rich and poor (as measured by money) isn't nearly as wide as it should be (as measured by capabilities). Scandalous, you say! This DVD does a decent job of showing that world will be more free. Humans will increasingly see citizenship as an option rather than a mandate (or lifelong sentence). Nanny Government will fail and is failing. This DVD is a good primer for exposing what's really happening and where we're headed, albeit with some detours along the way.
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Summary: Popular economics
Review: A captivating presentation of the recent history of economic ideas (Neoclassicals vs Keynesians vs Marxism) and economies. It describes the evolution of our understanding of an economy. It presents the case for globalisation, reminds the risks of financial crises and social instability for those countries that get it wrong, and acknowledges that all of the answers are not yet clear. Those who claim that globalisation has only widened the gap between the have's and have-not's can see that it is not a zero sum game. While the forces of supply and demand may cause hardship in the short run, over time, these same forces create stronger, more properous economies. Not since Heilbroner's "The Worldly Philosophers" has it been shown how the ideas of a few, so-called dismal scientists profoundly affect the lives of millions of people.
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Summary: Just a wonderful production of an important topic
Review: A typically great PBS production of a great book - also highly recommended - about the forces of good - Friedman, Hayek, etc. - against the forces of tyranny/socialism throughout most of this century. A battle still being fought today. Friedman and Hayak are revolutionary heros, and their fight goes on.
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Summary: A thoroughly entertaining analysis of the Global economy...
Review: Commanding Heights is a tremendously educational and entertaining analysis of the global economy. I was amazed that some of the world's most influential political and economic leaders spent hours talking with the film's producers (Clinton, Ruben, Gingrich, Thatcher, Milton Friedman, top scholars and Nobel Prize winners). This close contact with the actual people that inspired these world events gives the documentary a remarkable veracity. The series does an excellent job of focusing on the early evolution of macroeconmic theory, describing the rise of free market capitalism, the global shift towards economic planning, socialism, and communism, and then back to capitalism - peppered with video footage of Keynes, Hayak, Thatcher, and Friedman. Next, the series addresses the upheaval that globalism has caused in various parts of the world. The pain that Poland goes through is looked at through the eyes of Lech Walesa's Solidarity movement of the 80's, and the Latin American financial crisis. Commanding Heights is also tremendously entertaining. Using well made recreations of historical events, a good soundtrack, and a vast library of file footage, it draws you into the events as they happen and keeps your eyes glued. Finally - despite what the previous reviewer says, this is a remarkably non-partisan documentary. There is no throwing around of blame for globalizations problems nor is there a condescending tone toward many of those that choose to rail against globalization without fully comprehending the forces at work. If you're looking for an excellent primer on globalization I suggest reading this book (or renting the videos) and be sure to also read The Lexus and the Olive Tree - probably the most accessible globalization text out there.
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Summary: spectacular common sense
Review: Finally somebody put a very complex phenomenon in simple and common sense terms. Please do not try to reinvent the wheel. See this video!
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Summary: Blows out any college course
Review: For those who love history & economics this is a must. Commanding Heights takes the viewer from turn of the century Laissez Faire econ to Communism back to a world embracing Hayek and Friedman. Excellent interviews with the relevant economists and government leaders who provide a play by play of such events as the Bolshevik revolution and the fall of the Berlin Wall. Provides excellent insight on the societal and political forces responsible for the current state of the world.
Rating: 
Summary: Thorough and engaging
Review: For those who want an introduction to international economics and globalization, this is the thing to see. I agree with what the Washington Post said - "No more important program for making sense of our life and times has been seen in at least a decade." It made me want to be an economist. In the first segment, it covers the development of economic theory through Keynes, Hayek, and Friedman, and the historic solutions and events between the war of 1914 and the 1970s, ending with the change of tack that accompanied Reagan and Thatcher's elections. In the second, it follows the "agony of reform" - that is, the paths taken by many states to transition from planned economies to market economies, following the cases of Russia, Poland, Chile, and Bolivia. The last segment follows the contemporary problems and methods of the global economy, with particular focus on crisis: mainly, the 1998 Asian Economic Crisis. It is important to remember that this documentary is about economics, and that its concern is about the quality and quantity of wealth generated rather than externalities (the environment, &c.) Taken in this context, I think that it does extremely well: anyone who knows at least a little will leave the show literate in global economics. It does have a certain pro-globalization stint to it, though I hardly find that it is outright dismissive of globalization's criticisms: the second half of the third segment is entirely about arguments against globalization, and the first half of that segment is entirely about the crises that have rocked the global economy. And, after all, Jeffrey Sachs and Bill Clinton are two of their biggest commentators, who are at least pragmatic globalists (If the writers favor any viewpoint, it's Clinton and Sachs'). That said, I think that this is probably the least biased (or, most centrist, depending on your point of view) documentary on globalization in existence - the others you'll find will almost without exception skew more than this one will. Not to mention that its cast of commentators and the ability of its filmmakers are excellent, and something that's normally very dry is made really entertaining. There are some things that it probably does leave out more: it doesn't give the criticisms of the IMF and World Bank really, particularly those that come from the right and business, which is somewhat peculiar. This might be because of center-left bias (think Bill Clinton) that rather likes these multilateral institutions, or because they just ran out of time, which seems pretty likely - they had to cram into the two hours that those issues would make sense in information about three global crises, the methods of modern international finance, two meetings of the WTO, and Hernando de Soto. The other thing they somewhat miss is what happened to Bolivia, Argentina and some of the other Latin American countries "after" globalization who ended up trashed by economic currents. Part of this is because many of these events happened or came to be examined after the series aired, but I think that in their search for an emblematic case they found a pretty good one: the case of Thailand, which was one fo those countries that got "trashed" in 1998 - they provide a particularly stirring personal anecdote of one businessman who lost everything in the crisis on real estate, and is now working his way back up to his dreams as a street vendor. The thing is that they don't link this to Thailand's development as a globalizing economy (that is, Thailand isn't covered in section 2.) so we don't make the intuitive connection between globalization and increased economic risk. The third thing that concerns me is that they did not cover the "moderate" paths to globalization experienced in France, Ukraine and Germany, or the successful totalitarian export economies of South Korea or Thailand. Again, I think this is because they ran out of time: the emblems of Chile and India almost get at these ideas, and the importantly but not strikingly different paths taken by the countries I listed were close enough that the viewer could infer the important insights. I suppose I'll have to read the book to see if that covers those alternate paths any better. That's my take on the program's shortcomings - I think that they faced the problem that they could either cover all subjects, remain aloof from any accusations of bias, but say really nothing about anything, or they could (as they did) stab deeply at a number of emblematic cases and avoid some things that they saw as low-priority. This of course came at cost, but by far I think that this is something that everyone should see - I think they should show it to students, as they'd certainly leave knowing a thing or two about the founders of modern economics and how foreign exchange works. Hell, they might even know what short selling is... No one having watched this film will leave without having learned something new and important about global economics.
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Summary: Exciting treatment of economic history
Review: How can a couple cranky economists in their ivory towers change the world? Commanding Heights provides the answer, with a sweeping view of 20th century economic history. The name comes from "the Commanding Heights of the Economy" - big industry. The story is of the global fight for control of it - public versus private. We live in a society where free markets are assumed to be the only alternative (if not an ideal one) but history could have proved otherwise.
The story centers around the ideas of two great economists, Hayek and Keynes. Keynes, whose belief in the importance of government intervention helps the world out of the Great Depression, is the champion of the 30s and 40s. This was when leaders believed that government could successfully plan and manage the Commanding Heights. By the end of the century, Hayek is the unquestioned victor. While his harsh economic policies (let things fix themselves) seemed awful in the 30s, time has borne them out to be the right solution for our time.
The story also highlights on some of the failures and bumps in the road. While Chile provided enormous support for the ideas of Hayek, the human cost was staggering. The social cost of reform in Russia was also much greater than anyone anticipated. The markets are choppy and unpredictable, and that is part of the lesson.
Interviews are presented with many of the politicians (Bill Clinton & Margaret Thatcher) and economists (Milton Friedman, Hernando de Soto and Sam Peltzman) that drove these changes. It is hard to imagine a more dull topic than economic history, but these CDs really do make the story come alive.
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Summary: 2-thumbs up
Review: I began viewing this video with some friends at about 9:00 one night. We had planned to divide the show into three parts, but we found that we could not pry ourselves away. We continued watching well past midnight. The series is that informative and interesting. I have only one complaint. Historical overviews such as this one do not provide hard numbers about trends in the distribution of the world's output across peoples and nations. So there is no way to settle disputes - you have liberals against conservatives, free-traders against protectionists, and so on, with no definitive facts to settle the underlying issue of whether the world's growth is benefitting or hurting the poor. (Virtually everyone agrees that the world's economic growth is benefitting the rich.) Protestors against the World Trade Organization in Seattle and elsewhere railed against globalization because globalization is thought to hurt the poor. Does it? To find out we need good data and careful analysis. The best book I know on the subject is The New Geography of Global Income Inequality. It's expensive, but worth it, for people who really want to know the facts about whether in today's world the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. So buy and read The New Geography of Global Income Inequality as a supplement to the tapes.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent!
Review: I had to watch this video for my macroeconomics class. What I thought was going to be boring was phenomonal. It went along beautifully with my class. It was very informative and a good way to learn how the macroeconomic theories are used in the real world.
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