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Summary: Comment from an economist
Review: This series is very entertaining and educational, particularly for those viewers whose knowledge of economics is very limited. However, if you have mastered macroeconomics, you will find this series a little slow and redundant; I found myself fast forwarding most of the time.This series implicitly endorses free trade and free markets. However, it fails to mention some basic-but powerful-facts that strengthen the argument for free trade: empirical evidence shows that those countries with free, open economies vastly outperform countries with closed economies. You don't need econometrics to see this; just compare the performance of China, which is opening its economy, to the performance of, say, Cuba. So if you want a crash course in economics and free trade (especially if you're a left wing loony who protests against the WTO without even knowing what the letters stand for), then please watch this at least once.
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Summary: Enriching
Review: This video is an excellent production that makes rewarding viewing across the demographics as globalisation affects everyone in today's world.
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Summary: Revisionist History of the 20th Century
Review: To claim that the 20th century was a battle of the economic ideas of Von Hayek and Keynes is absurd. The claim that socialist central planning dominated the 20th century from World War I to Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan is equally absurd. Although this DVD is purportedly about Economics, there is no discussion of the underlying numbers and statistics and no discussion of the role of technological change. Volume II, "The Agony of Reform", is an interesting history of the free market reforms of Chile, Bolivia, Poland and Russia. Overall, however, I do not recommend this 3 volume set.
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Summary: A Collosal Failure--myth-making for Reagan + Thatcher + IMF
Review: Welcome to the fantasy realm of "free trade," where capitalism is nothing but a source of wealth and political freedom. In this video you will be treated to the finest hallucinogens. Here, Reagan, Thatcher, the IMF, and the World Bank are god-like heroes, spreading prosperity and freedom around the globe. Overlooked is the fact that over the last 50 years, the IMF and World Bank have brought hunger, misery, and dependence to the third world. Overlooked is the fact that 3 billion humans live on a dollar a day! These people are suppossedly the great beneficiaries of "free trade." It's worse than ignorant to speak so uncritically of "free trade:" it's to collude with famine, AIDS, child labor, and poverty. It's to ignore and apologize for dictatorships (Pinochet is lovingly portrayed), to forget that Reagan's Contras slaughtered 30,000 in Nicaragua and made it the poorest place in Latin America, and to forget that the U.S., France, Germany, and Japan got rich as slavers and colonial powers. It's to forget that Taiwan, Korea, and Hong Kong improved their lot through protectionism, state education, and planned economies. If you loved Reagan, you'll love this video. It requires the kind of dementia and amnesia that Reagan suffers from to celebrate these myths. But if you want to truly learn about the global economy, including the pros and the cons of capitalism, you have to look elsewhere. You need to read Joseph Stiglitz, Mike Davis, Vandana Shiva, and others. Until then, you will be living in the fantasy-land of rich White men.
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Summary: An Economic Education in only six hours!
Review: What a fantastically informative video series. For those who are hard core economists, this is probably baby stuff for you, but I think there is enough footage of current events around the world, (in Chile, Mexico, etc) that you might find it of interest. I think that this series is aimed at people like my husband and me - hardcore PBS and History Channel watchers who like to learn and are interested in economics, but don't have a deep economics background. This series is fresh and interesting with footage from current newsreels, interviews with world leaders and other area experts. The series also delves into the historical background of many ideas from 20th century economics (Von Hayek versus Keynes anyone?) in a fascinating, informative way. This is an educational video series, and I think that it is more beneficial for people such as myself, with a limited background in economics, but it is delivered in such an interesting and insightful fashion, linking current and recent events (and those from recent decades) of the political world with those of the economic world that it is a pleasure to watch. This will be a series that I will watch numerous times.
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Summary: A good introduction, but remember to use your brain
Review: When I first heard of this documentary it piqued my interest that such an ambitious and timely program existed. A quick background on me - I recently returned (2 months ago) from 7 months straight of traveling (Loop around Australia, Japan, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Philippines, Palau, Hong Kong, Qatar, UAE, London/Oxford) which was a follow up to a 3 month road trip around most of the US and 6 weeks in South America and 2 weeks in China. I'm still going! One of my travel themes has been to visit where things are made or processed, and where they come from - a critical aspect of globalization. From the tea plantations in Sri Lanka to the mixing & packaging of that tea from Sri Lanka and 50+ other countries for Celestial Seasonings in Boulder, CO, USA (Did you know there is only 1 tea plantation in the US? And they went bankrupt recently). Or the Silicon Valley of India - Bangalore - as shown in the movie, or strip coal mining in Gilette, Wyoming, the Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo, or the natural gas reserve rich deserts of Qatar, etc.. Like any documentary or book there is a perspective. The show does a good job of framing the debate. It covers the perspectives of many different influential individuals and some lay people - and in many different countries to boot - lending an air of authority - which is fine as an explanation for the documentary's position. It does provide coverage to both positives and negatives. However, my sense is that the show is far too positive about what unrestrained globalization will bring us. Not about the process to get to a "free" market - as shown in the "Agony of Reform" episode, but about the side effects to our lives and the world in which a large portion of the world lives in. Also what is a "free" market? There is no such thing. The movie seems to keep repeating it only in reference to price and wage controls (From what I recall), but these can be controlled in other manners. Subsidies galore in the USA and other countries both direct and indirect will testify to that. There are certainly other issues it does not address or go deep enough into and/or issues that are overly simplified. Perhaps that will be the work of another individual to reveal - me? The #1 issue to me that the show does not talk more about or at all is the continuing disconnect between the items we consume and where the resources it takes to build those items/services come from and the impact it has on those places. Only lightly touched upon in the final episode. Realistically - the vast majority of people don't care about what they cannot / have not seen (Thus the importance of travel). Let alone understand how a series of events in a far away place will impact their lives. We can't get something for nothing. Globalization gives that impression. Like magic. The further away we are from production - the less we see the side effects. Like pollution clouds from runaway unregulated growth and auto sales in China (Go to Beijing for one) reaching distant shores - US, among a small list of many. Don't get me wrong - the idea of globalizatoin improving our lives is true - but only to a certain point. Any idea taken to its extreme is usually wrong. In contrast to this latter point might be how Singapore has restricted the unbridled usage of cars by putting a heavy import tax on them and designing cities in an intelligent way rather than haphazard (Like many American towns). As Singapore is profiled in the show as a success story - is this tax against the idea of a "free" market? Or is it a conscious choice to improve the quality of life and form it a certain way. In summary, Commanding Heights - both the PBS website and video is a good basis for ongoing discussion. The only question will be then is whether the people / you who watch it will question it or take it as gospel. It is easy to get caught up and distort our vision in the momentum of thinking a certain way. All of us - rich, poor, middle, smart, educated, not educated, etc.. can be conditioned to believe anything. What's that story about De Beers of South Africa and the diamond trade again? The truth and our behaviors are easily distorted to the unquestioning mind.
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Summary: Excellent Television show!!
Review: Which is amazing considering the PBS standard for promoting more socialist agendas!! Precisely because they quote, Thatcher, Reagan and even Hayek should everyone watch this show (or at least read the book). That personal property rights are so crucial to a successful economy has never been properly given air time! :) Now, if they would just produce the show in DVD format for us successful capitalists! :)
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Summary: Understand the World You Live In
Review: You can't plan for the future if you don't understand the past. I can't think of another series or book that has helped me understand the world I live in more than Commanding Heights. It tells the story of the global economy begining pre-WWI and goes until 2002. I watched it with my wife, who is new to economics, and it opened her mind as well. Highly recommended for people who want to get a better grip on the critical issues facing us today and understand the big picture of the global economy. The production is strictly first rate, and includes interviews with almost all of the leading political figures of the world. The story moves so fast (over three DVDs), it's like you are watching a movie, not a documentary. Do yourself a favor, invest [$] dollars in your education and get this DVD set. You won't regret it.
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