History Behind Our Global Institutions (many video links)

In 2002, the PBS documentary, Commanding Heights, presented the history of economic thought from 1914 to the present. It followed the debate between Friedrich von Hayek and John Maynard Keynes over what role the government should play in the domestic and world economies. Hayek was part of the Austrian School and believed the economy should operate with little government control. However, after the United States, Russia, and others struggled through the Great Depression, many economists and government officials searched for ways to control economic disturbances. The solutions to the economic downturn came in many forms: Communist Russia, Fascist Germany, Facist Italy, and later Socialist India. After World War II, Keynes developed a theory attempting to reduce the possibility of another Great Depression while maintaining a controlled form of capitalism and democracy.

His ideas led to the Bretton Woods Conference. The conference founded the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, with the hope that these institutions would bring stability to the world economy.