Now that you have watched the complete set of The Commanding Heights, take a moment and think about what you have learned. You viewed a now ‘classic’ documentary where you witnessed over one hundred years of thought leadership on the U.S. and the global political economy. In a thoughtful, final post, address the following:
- How has your thinking on ‘how it all works’ been influenced on what you have learned from the film?
- What is reassuring about the global economy? Be specific.
- What is most unsettling about the global economy? Be specific.
- What is your definition of ‘globalization’?
Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ugpdfBXTsM&t=115s (you’ll see that it is subtitled with ‘globalization’) – Enjoy.
After you answer that respond to two peer posts
POST 1
1.Since the Great Depression, there has been a shift in power and democracy has shifted from the people to the government. There is also a shift away from individualism, which is throughout most environments where people live. The perceived duty of leadership was to give the people the means of production and enjoyment of their lives. As a leader, you were expected to be fair and wise and also able to handle any situations that may arise.
As leaders began to take decisions, they began engaging in more and more activities where they could make decisions on what was best for their people. As a result, of this engagement, many leaders have been assassinated by their own communities. However, as society began to develop along with leadership, some began to show signs of selfishness and greed. In some societies, leaders would manipulate information in order to carry out their agenda. This has been seen as a way for one to take power from another person. The use of force and fraud have also been used by leaders in the past in order to get their way. This type of behavior can lead society into a civil war or other types of dispute that may lead a population into a war with people outside of their country. As leaders began to take on more responsibility during the economic development of their countries, they became more involved in what was going on in their country. However, in most cases leaders would still keep some distance and try to lead their country without getting too involved. This way they would be able to keep a close eye on what is going on in their country and in the rest of the world.
In addition, If leaders were to get too involved in what was going on, they might become blind to all of the changes that were taking place around them. As a result, of this ignorance, they may make decisions that may harm society or place them at risk for harm from others. The government may also cause unnecessary harm to the country. This might be caused by their actions or just because they do not have enough knowledge of what is going on in the economy.
2.
It’s important to know that for better or for worse, the global economy is here to stay, and it will always be an integral part of our lives. We are reassured by the global economy because of the world’s GDP (Gross Domestic Product), which has almost tripled since 1990, meaning there’s plenty of wealth to go around. Also, technology and innovation (for example, the Internet) have increased at breakneck speeds, meaning that we can communicate and connect with others around the world more than ever before. In addition, despite economic downturns and crises, we have shown that global economies can bounce back quickly.
3.
There are a lot of uncertainties about the economic state of our world today. There are currently more jobs available than there are qualified people to fill them. This has led to more competition for the positions that are available. There is lower demand for goods on the market because of this, which means there’s less profit being generated by these companies. This is a problem because the companies themselves were the ones generating a lot of jobs before, which made money circulate through the economy. Now, with less demand for products being bought by consumers, those companies have less to do, and as a result, their workers have been laid off. The unemployed now have no money to spend because they don’t have any job income to rely on. This creates an unwanted cycle as the number of people looking for jobs as well as those out of work increases. This cycle causes the people looking for jobs to have to take what is available, which lowers their wages and creates an even greater gap between those who are employed and those who are not. This, in turn, causes more people to become unemployed.
4.
Globalization is the gradual worldwide integration of economies, cultures, and societies. It has been a major part of world history since World War II as capitalist-driven globalization began to link countries together in global trade networks. Its impact can be seen in politics, social studies, business studies, and economics.
In addition, globalization can be seen in many aspects of our western culture. Ever since the beginning of the development of western countries, globalization has been a growing part of our way of life. Our current “world” is wholly different from what it was at the beginning of the last century. The World Wide Web made it possible for people to communicate globally instantly and without physical borders.
POST 2
The documentary Commanding Heights was a very interesting travel into the history of the world economy of the XX century. I learned a lot from this documentary. This period is marked by increased state intervention in national economies, as well as in the world economy as a whole. In the field of the history of ideas, the confrontation between two great schools of economic policy dating back to Keynes and Hayek is considered. The film tells about such facts of world history as the flourishing of the mixed economy and Keynesianism in Western Europe and the United States after World War II, which led to stagflation of the 1970s; protectionism and bureaucratic regulation in third world countries that preserved poverty; socialism in the USSR and Eastern Europe, which broke off half the world from the main path. After state intervention and centralized planning led absolutely all countries to an economic and social impasse, a movement towards liberalization began. The film details the wave of liberalization that swept the world in the 1980s and 1990s.
The global economic crisis of 1929-1933 hit both developed and undeveloped countries with enormous force. Therefore, it was in 1929-1933 that the period of “hidden” economic development ended; it was the time of the end of a number of old and the discovery of new technological horizons, the glimpse of the new civilized system.
So, the global economic crisis of 1929-1933 predetermined the emergence of new scientific studies that do not lose their relevance today, because their main content is the state regulation of the economy in the market economy. Since then, two theoretical directions aimed at solving these problems have begun. One of them relies on the teachings of Keynes and the other relies on the teachings of Hayek.
According to Keynes, the state will have to exert its leadership on the tendency to consume partly through the appropriate tax system, partially fixing the interest rate and possibly in other ways,” because “it was in determining the amount of employment, not in the distribution” of the work of those who are already working, that the existing system has proved unsuitable”. But still there are great opportunities for private initiative and responsibility.
According to Hayek, competition would be meaningless if it were known exactly who would win from the very beginning. The reliability of competition cannot be deliberately verified empirically – at best, a society relying on competition ultimately achieves its goals more successfully than others, and this is confirmed by the history of civilization.
One of the key processes in the development of the world economy on the verge of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries is progressive globalization, i.e. a qualitatively new stage in the development of internationalization of economic life. Globalization is a process of world economic, political and cultural integration and unification.
In my opinion, globalization is the merger of the economies of different countries into a single global system. Globalization is based on the reconciliation of countries and the signing of cooperation and mutual assistance treaties.
I also believe that there are both positive and negative consequences in this process. I am all for the positive consequences of improving people’s living standards and general well-being in the world. Globalization is a serious and important basis for solving global and world problems of mankind, primarily environmental problems. The solutions to these problems are due to the joint efforts of many countries. At the same time, globalization breeds inequality between developed and still developing countries. Developed countries benefit most of this process. The unfair distribution of the benefits of globalization poses a threat of conflict between countries.
In conclusion, it is difficult to talk about the role of the state in the economy. It is impossible to adhere to the opinion of Keynes or Hayek completely. The state creates conditions for economic activity, protects entrepreneurs from the threat from monopolies, meets the needs of society for public goods, provides social protection for low-income segments of the population, solves issues of national defense. On the other hand, state intervention can in some cases significantly weaken the market mechanism and cause noticeable harm to the country’s economy.
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