Commanding Heights Episode 1Movie Worksheet PDF

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Macroeconomics - Q&A on Commanding Heights - Movie Worksheet...

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Commanding Heights Episode 1: The Battle of Ideas Movie Worksheet Directions: Answer the following questions based on the movie. The answers are listed in the order they appear in the film. You do not need to use complete sentences. 1. What two important economists shared air-warden duty at Cambridge College during the Blitz in 1940? How did these two men disagree about government involvement in the economy? J 2. What had Hayek and Keynes both witnessed at the beginning of the 20th century? What brought this system down? 3. What did Freidrich von Hayek serve in WWI? What did this cause him to vow? 4. How did Keynes spend the first world war? How did Keynes feel about the treaty of Versailles that concluded the war? 5. What economic theories were popular in post-war Austria and how did this influence the young Hayek? 6. What was the New Economic Policy that Lenin issued in the Soviet Union in the mid 1920's? What were the “Commanding Heights” in the economy that Lenin referred to? 7. How did Germany and Austria pay the reparation payments that they had been assigned at Versailles? What did this do to the value of German and Austrian money? 8. What did the hyperinflation seen in the 1920's in German and Austria do to the savings of the middle class? How did this influence Hayek's economic theory? 9. What happened to banks in capitalist nations during the early days of the Great Depression and why? 10. What did Keynes do as he witnessed the collapse of the world economy in the Great Depression and in doing so what study does he become the father of? 11. What two ways did Roosevelt's government respond to the collapse of the economy the Depression had caused? 12. How did Keynes make himself the most influential economist of the age in 1936? How did he believe governments should intervene in the economy? 13. What did it take for Keynesian economic theories to become reality in capitalist nations? What ultimately cured unemployment and ended the Depression? 14. What was the message of Hayek's book The Road to Serfdom? What economic system did this book attack? 15. What happened to the popularity of Keynes and Hayek's opposing theories after Keynes died in 1946?

16. Who won the election of 1946 in Great Britain and what platform did he run on? 17. What were private owners of certain businesses compelled to do when the Labour government took power in Britain? What is a “mixed economy”? 18. How did Russian victory in WWII changed the economies of half of Europe? How much of the world ended up living under socialism in the post-war era? 19. What kind of conference did Hayek organize in 1947? What did these folks believe about democracy and a free economy? 20. What did Hayek say was the “great strength of the socialists” at his 1947 conference? How long did he think the struggle for ideas might go before there was a change? 21. What did German Chancellor Erhardt do to allied price controls in post-war Germany? How did this affect the German economy and which nation did Germany overtake economically within a few years of this decision? 22. What kind of economy did India choose when it gained its independence in 1948? Why did many newly independent countries choose economies like this? 23. What US University hired Hayek in 1950 and what kind of intellectual atmosphere did this college have? 24. By the 1960's, who had become the most articulate spokesman for the “Chicago school of economics”? What did this group believe in? 25. How did Keynesian economists view the forces of the economy different than those of the Chicago school? 26. What were the “thirty glorious years”? Which economic ideas did these years validate? 27. What is “stagflation”? When did this mark the end of and why? 28. What was Nixon's solution to stagflation? How did Nixon's solution work? 29. What did the defeated British economic minister Keith Joseph say was causing the stagnation in the British economy seen in the 1970's? What did he believe the solution to this mess was? 30. Where did Keith Joseph mostly give speeches and why? How did most people here react to him? 31. What English politician did become a convert to Keith Joseph's message? What book had this politician read while at Oxford? 32. What did Hayek win in 1974 and why did this mark a turning point in peoples' attitude toward Keynesian economics? 33. What did President Jimmy Carter make Fred Kahn head of in 1977? What did Kahn do to this

agency? 34. How had the airline industry change in the 20 years since Kahn's deregulation? 35. What was the “Winter of Discontent” in Great Britain in 1979? What kind of government did this bring in headed by whom? 36. What did Thatcher do to government spending and cut subsidies to? How did many Britons react to this? 37. What did President Carter make Paul Volker the Chairman of in 1979? Whose ideas was Volker steeped in and what did he think was the worst economic evil? 38. What “blunt weapon” did Volker use to fight inflation and what did it do to the economy? 39. Whose economic ideas did Carter's opponent in 1980 Ronald Reagan believe in? What did Reagan want to do to government involvement in the economy? 40. What happened to unemployment in the US as Volker continued to tighten the money supply under President Reagan? How high did interest rates go? 41. What finally happened to inflation by 1982? How did this change the primary job of the Federal Reserve? 42. What are the four basic components of “Reaganomics”? 43. In 1985, how many of Britain's nationalized coal mines were losing money? How much money was Britain spending annually to keep these coal mines open? 44. What “battle of ideas” did the British Coal Miner Strike of 1985 symbolize? How ugly did things get and who ended up winning? 45. What was the greatest impact of the Strike of 1985 for the British Labour Party? What was privatization? 46. What kind of politicians did George Schulz call Reagan and Thatcher? How has economic thinking changed since these two leaders?

Short Essay: The subtitle of the Commanding Heights series is “The Battle for the World Economy”. This episode is titled “The Battle of Ideas” and begins with the introduction of the two most important economists in the 20th century, John Maynard Keynes and Friedrich von Hayek. Keynes and Hayeks ideas were oppositional to each other, yet in the end, both men would have a profound impact in the world economy of the 20th century. Write a short essay of 1-2 paragraphs identifying the basic ideas of both men and explaining why Keynes dominated the early post WWII era and Hayek that late post WWII era....