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Another tribute to Milton Friedman

As Catherine observed, Milton Friedman steered us away from the ill-judged theories of Brit John Maynard Keynes to the much sounder theories of an earlier Brit, Adam Smith. He was a major influence on Margaret Thatcher, who adopted his principles of lower taxation and less regulation to good effect.

He also understood exactly what a nation's monetary policy could do. He rallied a monetarist revolution behind the idea that central banks should focus on controlling inflation because that's all they could hope to do well.

Milton Friedman believed completely in individual liberty, and defended it. The books he co-wrote with his wife Rose, a respected economist, were smuggled behind the Iron Curtain, and influenced Eastern Europe's revolutions for freedom and economic recovery from Communism.

In a rebuke that could easily be applied to the European Union, Friedman wrote in Capitalism and Freedom, "a society which is socialist cannot be democratic in the sense of guaranteeing individual freedom."

He will be missed.