I was aware of this comment by Richard – and I agree with every word of it.

However, mdc and Rob raise an interesting point.

What the bleep is Karl Marx doing in the series?

And why is he getting the last word?

This is weird – even by the absurd standards of the BBC.

Two shows for the collectivists (one on Karl Marx – who was not even a monetary economist anyway).

And one (messed up) show for the anti collectivists.

Still it is possible to get a contribution from Karl Marx – Hunter Lewis shows (in”Where Keynes Went Wrong”) sneering (quite rightly sneering) at Keynesianism – before John Keynes was even born.

However, somehow, I do not think the BBC will be citeing the same stuff – or have the same target.

The first should have been 19th century, but based around Classical economics, not Marxism, which was never taken seriously by the economics profession. Then it should be Keynes; right or wrong his ideas were extremely influential. Then it should be Milton Friedman, who actually did destroy the Keynesian view of money, and established the one that persists to this day (including among people who call themselves Keynesians, if you read between the lines).

You’re welcome.

Yes, being able easily to search out other stuff about Hayek changes things, when it comes to TV shows like this one. You are right that Mises was ignored. But at least Hayek got a big mention, up there alongside Keynes and Marx.

Those who want to learn more now easily can.

Here’s an interesting interview by Bernard Levin with Hayek from 1980, which I haven’t seen before:

I wouldn’t have even looked for this, had it not been for the BBC programme annoying me, so I guess I should bear in mind not only ‘what is seen’ but also ‘what is unseen’.

I too was unimpressed with what I saw and ended up switching the TV off to continue reading an excellent Jo Nesbo thriller.

What did strike me was just how poor TV can be as a medium for communication – although I suspect it was also due to Beeb laziness. They managed to show the same shot of fish from Billingsgate market twice within half an hour. Couldn’t they at least have had some nice animations trying to illustrate his ideas on the business cycle?

No? Ok then.