Milton Friedman

Thursday 16 November 2006 SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman has died at the age of 94, according to media reports Thursday. Friedman, one of the most influential economists of the past century, died last night, the Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site, citing an official at the Cato Institute in Washington. Friedman was a professor at the University of Chicago from 1946 until 1976. He was awarded the Nobel in 1976

2006

Wed1290 Milton Friedman, Nobel Economics Laureate (1976), died on November 16 at the age of 94. Arguably the most influential economist of the 20th century, certainly of the latter half, his free market and small government philosophy profoundly influenced Presidents Nixon, Ford and Reagan and was the guiding light of Reaganomics, as well as, to a lesser extent, Margaret Thatcher's government's policies.

Milton Friedman

By Lawrence Summers, Harvard economist and Treasury Secretary under President Clinton

If Keynes was the most influential economist of the first half of the 20th century, Friedman was the most influential of the second half. Republican Richard Nixon once pointed out that "we are all Keynesians now." Equally, any honest Democrat will admit that we are all Friedmanites now. We are because he won so many of his arguments with the conventional wisdoms of his time. The ideas that inflation does not buy more prosperity, that the draft could be replaced with the volunteer army and that giving more choice to parents improves schools are just a few of Friedman's heresies that are today's orthodoxy.

Sunday 19 November 2006 When Canada gave the economist a try
Mixed legacy for Friedman's ideas

maisonneuve Sunday 19 November 2006 DEATH OF A FREE MARKET HERO
The Post and the Citizen front, while The National and the Globe go inside with romantic waxings on the passing, at age 94, of Nobel laureate Milton Friedman, a man the Post calls “the most important economist of the 20th century.” Friedman is widely credited with starting the sea change in economic thought that helped bring the West’s economies out of their malaise in the 1970s. His policies were implemented by such world leaders as Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, and many give him credit for laying the groundwork for America’s stupendous economic growth during the 1990s.

But while Friedman is known principally for uncovering a seemingly obvious cause for inflation—too much money chasing after too few products—he is less known for his sometimes controversial political views. A lifelong libertarian, Friedman argued for the decriminalization of drugs and prostitution. “If people want to kill themselves, they have every right to do so,” he wrote. “Most of the harm that comes from drugs is because they are illegal.” Friedman’s views on economics were inseparable from his views on social policy and morality. So it is interesting to see, in hindsight, just how thoroughly the Reaganites and Thatcherites who worshipped his ideas were able to separate his monetary policy from their moral underpinnings.

from Wed1262 10 May 2006

John Kenneth Galbraith – can a popular communicator be a 'good' economist?

One of the greatest advantages of Wednesday Night is to imagine the unimaginable and to explore the unthinkable. John Kenneth Galbraith passed away recently at the age of ninety-seven. A controversial Economist (actually an agricultural economist, points out one of our economists) but "one of the greatest communicators economics has ever had", he enjoyed wide popularity among the reading public and exercised much influence over a string of Democratic presidents. His ability to communicate the broad economic issues of the day is something that is severely lacking today.

He is not necessarily viewed with unlimited enthusiasm by his fellow economists, some of whom suggest that his fame rests on his enunciation in the 50's and 60's of the idea that we are released from the thraldom of productive efficiency and the real problem is what to do with all our affluence. Although he is praised for having foreseen in 1952, the ability of large merchants to virtually dictate the price at which they purchased merchandise, referring to it as countervailing power. It is suggested that this was not an original thought. "Probably the original model for the term 'limousine Liberal'", suggests one, referring to his very high speaking fees. On the other hand,- as all good economists would say -, there are those who liked many of the things he said and believe that as a political economist he was extremely effective, perhaps more so than any other than Milton Friedman, precisely because he insisted on consideration of the institutional framework within which we operate. Why is the dismal science so lacking in good communicators? For whatever reason, economists cannot speak in a language that a layperson or even a politician can understand. (One wonders if this is intellectual arrogance or simply done on purpose to maintain a sense of superiority) A current example cited is the inability to explain 'fiscal imbalance'. [see:: theglobeandmail.com]

[Editor's note: a post-Wednesday Night reading of Newsweek found this comment: "Ours is a postaffluent society. Because so much previous suffering and social conflict stemmed from poverty, the advent of widespread affluence suggested utopian possibilities. Up to a point, affluence succeeds. There is much less physical misery than before. People are better off. Unfortunately, affluence also creates new complaints and contradictions." We will raise this again.msnbc.msn.com]

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