Commanding Heights - The Battle for the World Economy (2002) 

Episode 2 - The Agony of Reform


"We were in a shortage economy. My father waited 15 years to buy a car."
   - Jairam Ramesh


Technical Specs:

Encoded With.....: AutoGK
Audio Codec......: MP3 VBR
Audio Bitrate....: 128 kbit/s
Video Codec......: DIVX 6
Video Bitrate....: 704 kbit/s
Video Info.......: 29.97 fps 432x256
Size.............: 698 MB
Rating...........: 8.0/10 (33 votes) 

IMDB -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0319210/

The entire film can be viewed/previewed online -> http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/commandingheights/hi/story


CHAPTER LIST - EPSISODE 2: THE AGONY OF REFORM

Chapter 1: Prologue
Chapter 2: The essence of Soviet Power, Socialism's Influence
Chapter 3: Behind the Iron Façade, no water, no fire, no incentives
Chapter 4: India's Permit Raj, Hindustan vs. Toyota
Chapter 5: Latin American Dependencia
Chapter 6: Counterrevolution in Chile, Salvador Allende Assasinated
Chapter 7: Chicago Boys and Pinochet
Chapter 8: Heresy in the USSR
Chapter 9: Poland's Solidarity
Chapter 10: Bolivia at the Brink
Chapter 11: Shock Therapy Applied
Chapter 12: The Miracle Year in Poland
Chapter 13: Poland in Transition
Chapter 14: Gorbachev Tries China
Chapter 15: Soviet Free Fall
Chapter 16: Reform Goes Awry
Chapter 17: India Escapes Collapse
Chapter 18: Russia Tries to Privatize
Chapter 19: Loans For Shares
Chapter 20: Closing the Deal
Chapter 21: A Decade of Radical Change


CAST

BILL CLINTON               ....  President of the United States of America, 1993-2001 
VICENTE FOX                ....  President of Mexico 
RICHARD CHENEY             ....  Vice President of the United States of America
JEFFREY SACHS              ....  Director, Columbia University Earth Institute  
MILTON FRIEDMAN            ....  Professor Emeritus, University of Chicago   
GEORGE SHULTZ              ....  U.S. Secretary of State, 1982-1989  
LARRY LINDSEY              ....  Assistant to the U.S. President for Economic Policy, 2001-2002 
LAWRENCE SUMMERS           ....  President of Harvard University; U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, 1999-2001 
ROBERT RUBIN               ....  U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, 1995-1999 
PAUL VOLCKER               ....  Chairman, Federal Reserve Board, 1979-1987 
HERNANDO DE SOTO           ....  Economist; Founder and Director, Institute for Liberty and Democracy, Peru 
RICHARD GEPHARDT           ....  Democratic Leader, U.S. House of Representatives, 1989-2002  
NEWT GINGRICH              ....  Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, 1995-1999  
MARK MOBIUS                ....  President, Templeton Emerging Markets 
MIKHAIL GORBACHEV          ....  General Secretary, Communist Party, USSR, 1985-1991  
ANATOLY CHUBAIS            ....  First Deputy Prime Minister of Russia, 1994-1996 
VLADIMIR POTANIN           ....  President, Interros Holding Company  
GRIGORY YAVLINSKY          ....  Deputy Prime Minister of Russia, 1990  
YEGOR GAIDAR               ....  Acting Prime Minister of Russia, 1992  
LEE KUAN YEW               ....  Senior Minister of Singapore   
DR. MAHATHIR BIN MOHAMAD   ....  Prime Minister of Malaysia  
GONZALO SANCHEZ DE LOZADA  ....  President of Bolivia, 1993-1997, 2002-2003  
MANMOHAN SINGH             ....  Finance Minister of India, 1991-1996 
THEA LEE                   ....  Assistant Director for International Economics, AFL-CIO 
LORD KENNETH BAKER         ....  Conservative Party Minister of British Parliament, 1981-1992
LESZEK BALCEROWICZ         ....  Deputy Prime Minister of Finance of Poland, 1989-1991
TONY BENN                  ....  Labor Party Minister of British Parliament, 1950-2001
GORDON BROWN               ....  Labor Party Finance Minister (Chancellor of the Exchequer)
KEN CAPSTICK               ....  Former Chairman, Yorkshire National Union of Mineworkers
JORGE CASTANEDA            ....  Foreign Minister of Mexico, 2001-2003
JON CORZINE                ....  First Deputy Managing Director, International Monetary Fund, 1994-2001 
ALEJANDRO FOXLEY           ....  Finance Minister of Chile, 1990-1994 
JOSEPH STIGLITZ            ....  Senior Vice President and Chief Economist, The World Bank,1997-2000 
LECH WALESA                ....  President of Poland, 1990-1995   
et al.


The history and impact of the new global economy are made clear--and compelling--in Commanding Heights: The Battle for the World Economy. This three-part, six-hour documentary does an astonishingly thorough job of dissecting and explaining macroeconomics and their current political and social importance without ever causing a loss of consciousness for the viewer. 

Part 1, The Battle of Ideas, chronicles the history of economic thought from the start of the 20th century and its socialist reforms right through the deregulation of the 1980s. 

Part 2, The Agony of Reform, explores the upheavals that such deregulation caused, focusing primarily on economic growth and gains and touching briefly on the wrenching consequences for the poor. 

Part 3, The New Rules of the Game, explores the consequences of globalization, including terrorism and the contagion of market collapse. 

The series makes good use of both large-and small-scale examples, and features interviews with several major world leaders. Big ideas are made extremely accessible to the average viewer (without condescension). Well worth watching.