Commanding Heights: Battle of Ideas Essay

_The Commanding Heights The Battle of Ideas_ episode explains the deliverys change in complex body part between 1914 and 1970, as well as the functioning of the markets and regimen during that time. John Maynard Keynes and Friedrich von Hayek both had influential roles on the scrimping in the 20th century due to their opposing reasons regarding aggregate demand and classical liberalism, respectively. Keynes be after economy idea and Hayeks market economy both fought to shape the economy into what they hoped was ideal for recent day society. Between the two, Keynes argument seemed to have the most success, especially in times of great need, which is wherefore I found his the most compelling.After World War I, Germany and Austria were forced to pay the costs of the war, which was undecomposed impossible for them, until they began to print to a greater extent money in order to compensate for their lack of funds. Printing to a greater extent money caused a hyperinflation to occ ur, where prices skyrocketed and peoples savings decreased in value. By 1929, the market began to prostration banks started closing and millions of people lost all of their money. It was at this time that the goernment and the economy were in frightening need of a plan that would revive them from this devastating crash.At this point, John Maynard Keynes came in with his theory in an attempt to save the economy from the Great economic crisis. He wrote a book explaining why the Great Depression occurred and what the government should do to prevent such an economic downfall from ever happening again. As Robert Skidelsky, a British economist, said, Concepts we take for granted today, like gross domestic product, the level of unemployment, the rate of inflation, all to do with general features of the economy, were invented by Keynes (Ch.4 Europe, 1931). His idea was that the government should spend money in order to keep broad(a) employment, even if it meant bringing about a deficit. In the long run, the increase in spending would proceeds the economy overall. Roosevelt, being the President of the United States during this period, used this idea by creating government agencies to give citizens work.As Daniel Yergin, an American author, mentions, Roosevelt and the New Deal instituted a program of regulating capitalism in a way that had neer been done before, in order to protect people from what they saw as therecklessness of the unfettered market (Ch.5 Washington, D.C., 1933). Regardless of the effort Friedrich Hayek put in to convince citizens that the government should not be given more control over the economy, the majority followed Keynes come across. Once World War II hit, numerous job opportunities undefended up for the preparation of the war, and the Great Depression was defeated. After the war ended, many countries took to following Keynes theory, resulting in triple-crown economies and in some cases, socialism.Hayek still did not think Keynes plan was going to work and wrote a mordacious novel to disclaim this. The message he was getting across with this book was that too much government planning means too much government power, and too much government power over the economy destroys freedom and makes men slaves (Ch.6 London, 1944). In truth, Germanys market had diminished and hyperinflation had caused the German currency to flummox worthless, leaving them in need of a new leader to change their situation. This is when a new manager of economic affairs, Ludwig Erhard, was appointed. He had similar views to Hayek, including the belief that price controls were not stopping inflation from occurring, nor were they helping the economy in any way.For this reason, Erhard got rid of price controls, leaving citizens with more freedom, and less desire to make trades in the black market. This is an example of Friedrich von Hayeks view of how the economy should be run. He thought Keynes idea was plentiful the government too much powe r over the economy instead of giving that influence to the citizens. Hayek followed the view of a libertarian named Ludwig von Mises who believed markets, like people, needed to be free from government meddling (Ch.3 Vienna, 1919). He thought that the economy would fail because of the control over wages and prices.In the end, Keynes theory prevailed, which is why I find his argument more compelling. With the evidence to back him up, he seemed to be on the right track in damage of how the government should react and how the economy should be run. Many people prospered from his ideas and beliefs. I believe that he do society feel more secure in terms of finances and their overall style of living.