RS Regulators Mount Up

Economics have played a pivotal role in our history and will always be significant. The video “Commanding Heights: The Battle of the World Economy” is an informative documentary explaining the different markets throughout history. From today’s globalization to inflation in the 1920’s and everything in between this video reveals different economic practices and how the history of economics has shaped our economy today.

            At some points in history capitalist systems were the only model, at other times communism seemed to be the idealistic system. No matter the governing factor, these ideas are the reason we are where we are today. Ideas from before World War I still shape ideas today. While socialism in Austria in 1919 seemed to be the promising structure, other ideas were bonced around. An example in the documentary compared prices to traffic signals. When you don’t have prices or traffic signals there is chaos. In Moscow in 1922 the state completely controlled the economy, when the “new economic policy” was implemented neighboring countries invaded. When times were bad in Vienna in 1923 the defeated government printed more money to try and make this better but only resulted in inflation. People would bring baskets full of money just to get a loaf of bread. The 1920’s in New York is a well known time in history. The twenties were booming until the stock market crashed and half the banks closed leading to the Great Depression. This lead to other countries economies collapsing, leaving millions out of work across the globe. John Keynes wrote about this economic crash specifically about what caused the great depression and what to do about it. The documentary explains things in this book are still things discussed in Macroeconomics and lay as the primary foundation for Macro. Back in America, Franklin D. Roosevelt created the New Deal as a reform to rebuild the economy, which stabilized industries. After these tough times countries continued to debate over government power and certain things worked for certain counties. When one third of the world adopted socialism the Cold War broke out as another war in History. The world then turned again toward planning and power.

            Throughout history their has been much debate over which governing system works best. I think history can speak for itself, not everything works for every country and not everything always works. There are still going to be good economic times and bad economic times. With a better understanding of how each country operates we can only hope economic wars won’t ruin countries or economies won’t crash. Nothing is predicable but judging by this video Keyne wrote an extremely intelligent novel in which we may need to revert back too rather than forgetting the simple things written in history.