Episode I: The Battle of Ideas
A global economy, energized by technological change and unprecedented flows of people and money, collapses in the wake of a terrorist attack .... The year is 1914.
Worldwide war results, exhausting the resources of the great powers and convincing many that the economic system itself is to blame. From the ashes of the catastrophe, an intellectual and political struggle ignites between the powers of government and the forces of the marketplace, each determined to reinvent the world's economic order.
Two individuals emerge whose ideas, shaped by very different experiences, will inform this debate and carry it forward. One is a brilliant, unconventional Englishman named John Maynard Keynes. The other is an outspoken émigré from ravaged Austria, Friedrich von Hayek.
But a worldwide depression holds the capitalist nations in its grip. In opposition to both Keynes and Hayek stand not only Hitler's Third Reich but Stalin's Soviet Union, schooled in the communist ideologies of Marx and Lenin and bent on obliterating the capitalist system altogether.
For more than half a century the battle of ideas will rage. From the totalitarian socialist systems to the fascist states, from the independent nations of the developing world to the mixed economies of Europe and the regulated capitalism of the United States, government planning will gradually take over the commanding heights.
But in the 1970s, with Keynesian theory at its height and communism fully entrenched, economic stagnation sets in on all sides. When a British grocer's daughter and a former Hollywood actor become heads of state, they join forces around the ideas of Hayek, and new political and economic policies begin to transform the world.
Chapter 1: Prologue
The present situation
Title sequence
Chapter 2: The Old Order Fails
Meet Keynes and Hayek
The first era of globalization
World war and revolution
Keynes foresees disaster
Chapter 3: Communism on the Heights
Hayek explores socialism
The Austrian School's critique
What Lenin learned
Stalin's totalitarian plan
Chapter 4: A Capitalist Collapse
German hyperinflation
American boom and bust
Fascism takes hold in Europe
Can Keynes save capitalism?
Chapter 5: Global Depression
Roosevelt improvises
Regulating the markets
Keynes completes his Theory
Keynes's apostles in America
Chapter 6: Worldwide War
A victory for planning
Hayek's warning
Keynes at Bretton Woods
World at a crossroads
Chapter 7: Planning the Peace
Britain seeks "fair shares"
Churchill's defeat
Labor nationalizes the heights
Communism's rapid gains
Chapter 8: Pilgrim Mountain
Hayek's Mont Pélerin conference
Enter Milton Friedman
Democracy and free markets
A long fight ahead
Chapter 9: Germany's Bold Move
The ruins of postwar Germany
Price controls vs. inflation
Erhard defies the Allies
The market economy revives
Chapter 10: India's Way
Nehru and Gandhi part ways
A science of central planning
The Mahalanobis equation
A socialist model for development
Chapter 11: Chicago Against the Tide
Outside the mainstream
The spirit of Chicago
Harnessing economic forces
The Keynesian high tide
Chapter 12: The Specter of Stagflation
Hayek in eclipse
Stagflation besets America
Nixon becomes a Keynesian
U.S. wage and price controls
Chapter 13: A Mixed Economy Flounders
Britain under price controls
The "Mad Monk" repents
The grocer's daughter listens
Thatcher and Hayek
Chapter 14: Deregulation Takes Off
America bogged down
The airlines and Panamania
Deregulating the sandwiches
Costs and benefits
Chapter 15: Thatcher Takes the Helm
The Winter of Discontent
Hayek's birthday present
Shock therapy for Britain
The lady's not for turning
Chapter 16: Reagan Rides In
The double-digit dragon
Volcker at the Fed
Reagan tightens the reins
Tax cuts, deregulation, deficits
Chapter 17: War in the South Atlantic
Argentina attacks
Thatcher gambles all
Victory's dividend
An economic sea change
Chapter 18: The Heights Go Up for Sale
Targeting state-owned industries
The economics of coal
Breaking the miners' strike
Can Keynes save capitalism?
Chapter 19: The Battle Decided?
Idea politicians
The whole world watches
A century comes full circle
The battle decided for good?