Milton Friedman

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Milton Friedman

Milton Friedman (1912-2006) was a Nobel Prize winning libertarian economist who emphasized freedom. He was a leader of the Chicago School of Economics and made the University of Chicago the leading center for conservative economics. He was the favorite economist of many conservatives (including Ronald Reagan), in part because nearly all other economists have been liberal. Friedman was an early advocate of free choice in education, such that parents could spend their school tax dollars on the school of their choice.[1] Friedman received the 1976 Nobel Prize for economics.

Comments on the Great Depression

Milton Friedman said, "Roosevelt's policies were very destructive. Roosevelt's policies made the depression longer and worse than it otherwise would have been. What pulled us out of the depression was the natural resilience of the economy plus WW2."[2]

Chicago School

In one celebrated case, Milton Friedman called a special meeting at the University of Chicago, where he taught, to prove that the Coase theorem was false. But within two hours of discussion, Friedman had the intellectual courage and objectivity to reverse himself and admit that he was wrong and Ronald Coase was right. Many lesser intellectuals can spend their entire lives refusing to admit that they were wrong about something.



Milton Friedman in his own words:

Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program.
The most unresolved problem of the day is precisely the problem that concerned the founders of this nation: how to limit the scope and power of government. Tyranny, restrictions on human freedom, come primarily from governmental restrictions that we ourselves have set up.
Governments never learn. Only people learn.
Hell hath no fury like a bureaucrat scorned.
There's no such thing as a free lunch.
If, for example, existing government intervention is minor, we shall attach a smaller weight to the negative effect of additional government intervention. This is an important reason why many earlier liberals, like Henry Simons, writing at a time when government was small by today’s standards, were willing to have government undertake activities that today’s liberals would not accept now that government has become so overgrown.
We have a system that increasingly taxes work and subsidizes nonwork.

He attempted to explain economics to the general public, as in this appearance on the Phil Donahue show.[3]

See also

External links


  1. "Free to Choose" (1980)
  2. An Interview With Milton Friedman - Right Wing News (Conservative News and Views)