Cheap Commanding Heights - The Battle for the World Economy (DVD) (Bill Clinton) Price

Related Products

Customer Reviews of Commanding Heights - The Battle for the World Economy

Superb
If there were only more stars to give. This truly exceptional documentary takes an intriguing look at the effect of governmental policy on the markets of the world, and does so while offering excellent historical perspective. The treatment of political approaches is fair and objective, showing both the positive and negative impact of all types of policy. However, the clear and undeniable conclusion is that unfettered free markets will provide the most benefit to the most people. What a joy to see such an honest, straightforward, analytical approach in such an interesting format.

---

An Economic Education in only six hours!
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.

---

Historical Blindspots and Political Bias
This film provides a generally good historical overview of the dominant LIBERAL political-economic philosophies of the 20th Century.

Soviet state socialism is unfortunately (and incorrectly) lumped together with the Keynesian welfare state social democracy, thus glossing over differences between these two forms of political-economic organization. Socialism is identified is any tendency to regulate the economy, thus radically glossing over socialism's utopian committments to equality, social justice, and the redistribution of wealth.

Throughout the film, the right-wing policies and practices of Hayek, Friedman, Sachs, Thatcher, and Reagan, along with the World Bank and IMF, are repeatedly celebrated and legitimized by the narrator. Neo-liberals and the CEOs of corporations are depicted as political revolutionaries and radicals while the anti-globalization movement and other social movements are portrayed as naive, sloppy, and ill-informed.

By the end of this documentary, the evolutionary history of capitalism, the end of viable 'alternatives' to free-markets, and the continued dominance of mainly American and Western firms seem inevitable; moreover, the movement of history towards contemporary 'globalization' is (falsely) portrayed as a natural phenomenon rather than a political one. The narrative argues that globalization has everything to do with nation-states and economic policy makers managining inflation and deficit crisis: there is no account of the role that the American imperium played constructing, militarily defending, and ideologically universalizing global capitalism; 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.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed watching this film: it introduced me to the dominant belief systems of and rhetorical strategies used by the world's most powerful people.