I have never seen a better documentary on economics ever done. It is not so much a history of globalization, but of the century itself. That PBS made it is stunning. It is one of the finest and most interesting documentaries I have ever seen. Everyone should watch this.
Daniel Yergin is one of my favorite writers of economics and industry, with his The Prize being one of the finest books on the history of the oil industry ever written.
I caught it by accident one night when flipping through the channels and I heard the name “Hayek”, so of course I stopped. I was actually made giddy from watching it. That documentary was a wonderful, level-headed, intelligent antidote to the sort of dreck that you see being put out by various left-wing types nowadays. It was like a breath of fresh air.
It’s pretty long! I’m on the second last chapter of the second part. After I’m finished watching it, I was thinking of opening a Great Debate to discuss it. But maybe you should, since it was your ‘find’.
Aside from the content, it’s one of the best uses of web technology for learning I’ve seen. I love the way the references pop up on the left-hand side, and if you click them it automatically pauses the program and loads the extra documents. Great resource. So far I’m thinking that after I’ve watched it through I’ll watch it again, and stop it each tme a reference comes up and read the supplemental material.
I’m going to watch a couple more chapters before bed tonight. I’ll probably be finished in a couple of days.
I’ve read The Commanding Heights and The Prize by Yergin. He definitely knows his stuff. He also runs an energy consulting firm in DC and I went to a briefing he put on regarding gas prices. He even made that interesting.