Commanding Heights Essay Example for Free

Commanding Heights move Episode 1 The Battle of Ideas begs a comparison between socialism and capitalism. It traces the worlds sparing history from the early 1900s to the events following 9/11. Asks the question which is a better and more goofproof economic system government control or unbosom markets? It delves into how the First World War wedged two brilliant economists, Keynes and Hayek. And then follows both Keynes and Hayek through their respective career paths (Keynes role as an adviser to the British Government on wartime economy and Hayek as an Austrian soldier). Keynes predicted that the result of the treaty of Versailles and demanding reparations from an already demote Germany and Austria would cause another war, The Second World War. Meanwhile Hayek and his disciple Zlabinger fought against hyper inflation and encouraged free markets. concurrently the American Economy was booming, till October 24th, 1930 when the great depression hit and unemployment soared and industry stopped and half of the US banks were closed down. During this time Keyness theory of government intervention helped lead the way out of the task (Keynes wrote about Macroeconomics). Meanwhile Lenin had introduced the New Economic Policy which consisted of grass root level capitalism and the commanding heights would still be under the government. The reform was met with scrutiny from the left, soon after Stalin took designer and employed centralised planning of every economic aspect. Owing to the recovery from the Great Depression and Keynes pick out role in the Breton Woods Conference, in America Keynesianism took control and Hayek faded into the background. In Britain a offbeat state and socialism built the country back from the bottom up. Newly independent countries like India similarly employed Keynesian methods, allowing for State led industry. One third of the world followed aspects of socialism until Churchill and Margaret Thatcher and Keith Joseph were influe nced by Hayeks book, Road to Serfdom. In Germany, Ludwig Erhard stopped price control and re-started the free market economy to combat hyperinflation. The victor of his risky decision led to the German Economic Miracle. While Keynes still had a strong oppose over Washington, a Chicago School of Economics was created and it emphasised Hayeks theory as a measure to battle stagflation. Finally Thatchers election and confidence in Hayeks theory allowed for free markets to be established again. Thus, after a period of a century came back to where it was at the blood line of the century, back to free markets.