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The most powerful force in the world economy today is the redefinition of the relationship between state and marketplace - a process that goes by the name of privatization though this term is inadequate to express its far-reaching changes. We are moving from an era in which governments sought to seize and control the 'commanding heights' of the economy to an era in which the idea of free markets is capturing the commanding heights of world economic thinking. Basic views of how society ought to be organized are undergoing rapid change, trillions of dollars are changing hands and so is fundamental political power. Great new wealth is being created - as are huge opportunities and huge risks. Taking a worldwide perspective, including Britain, where the process began with Mrs Thatcher, Europe and the former USSR, China, Latin America and the US, THE COMMANDING HEIGHTS shows how a revolution in ideas is transforming the world economy - why it is happening, how it can go wrong and what it will mean for the global economy going into the twenty-first century.