Capitalism

This elegant and intelligent six-part series from filmmaker Ilan Ziv provides a history of capitalism—both as an economic system and as theory—while also debating its benefits and limitations. The first two episodes are devoted to Adam Smith and the laissez-faire theory of market economics as presented in Smith's seminal The Wealth of Nations (1776). But the emphasis here is on the fact that the theory's potential predatory economic practices actually preceded the theory's arrival during the age of European colonialism, and also noting that Smith's ideas are often caricatured as a philosophy of greed and selfishness—ignoring his complementary work on economic morality. The third episode turns to David Ricardo and Thomas Malthus, whose conclusions about population growth and wage labor were instrumental in transforming perceptions of society into predominantly economic terms. The fourth episode asks whether Karl Marx shouldn't be more properly understood as a critic of capitalism's excesses rather than a prophet of Communist revolution, while the fifth focuses on the conflict between the ideas of John Maynard Keynes and Friedrich Hayek to form the basis for economic policy in the 20th century. The final episode offers a contemporary alternative in the work of Karl Polanyi, whose studies of ancient cultures energized the economic democracy movement, which seeks a reintegration of societal concerns into economic decision-making. Capitalism combines archival material, insightful graphics, and interviews with a large group of scholars, including highly influential author Thomas Piketty. Presenting a judicious, informed overview of one of the world's leading economic systems, this is highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (F. Swietek)