From the Wall Street Journal:
Nobel prize winner Milton Friedman, one of the most influential economists of the last century, died today. He was 94.Mr. Friedman's death was also announced at a conference of the libertarian Cato Institute in Washington by the institute's vice president of academic affairs, James A. Dorn. The audience of academics and policy makers observed several moments of silence in observance.
Mr. Friedman was awarded the Nobel prize in 1976. He has long championed the cause of political and economic freedom and the links between the two. He has originated, or been associated with, many breakthroughs in economics since the 1950s. He is best known for explaining the role of the money supply in economic and inflation fluctuations. He also, with this year's Nobel prize winner Edmund Phelps, developed the theory in the 1960s that policy makers couldn't achieve a permanent tradeoff between lower unemployment and higher inflation, and that efforts to do so would simply result in the same unemployment rate and higher inflation, a view that holds sway at major central banks today, including the Fed.
Mr. Friedman also exercised extraordinary influence not just through his academic work but through his advice to politicians and his many popular books, such as Capitalism and Freedom in 1962 and Free to Choose, with Rose Friedman, in 1990, which was made into a television series.
Mr. Friedman had enormous impact on economic policy though he never had a formal job in a government administration after World War Two. His opposition helped lead to the end of the draft. He was an adviser to President Ronald Reagan. He has been closely associated with school vouchers and other applications of free market principles to policy issues.
Mr. Friedman died of heart failure after being taken to hospital near his home in San Francisco, his daughter, Janet Martell, said today. His wife Rose Friedman, who co-authored many of his books, survives him.
Influential Economist Friedman Dies at 94 [Wall Street Journal]
Posted by Robert Burton , Nov 16, 2006 1:42PM
The most memorable quote from Milton Freidman to me was:
Capitalism is the worst system in the world, except when compared to all others.
Alan Greenspan had a similar one, no doubt influenced by Freidman:
With strong regulation, you can be guranteed that nothing will go wrong. You can also be assured that nothing will go right.
Posted by william I. Griffith , Nov 16, 2006 5:35PM
Over the years I have been a fan of free markets and Milton Friedman. There have been few economists with such impact. In recent years however, I have thought that his position regarding our National debt and our recent fiscal policy was incorrect. He always referred to our debt as a percentage of our GDP. There is nothing to guarantee that our GDP will continue to grow. It is foolish to add debt as we have in recent years.
Posted by Poseidon , Nov 16, 2006 6:56PM
Friedman was brilliant. He identified decades ago in the 60's that do-gooders and special interest groups, while having the best of intentions, will pave a road to hell. Getting kinda hot, huh? I also like "there is nothing as permanent as a temporary government program".
Posted by Bulging Bracket , Nov 16, 2006 8:47PM
Robert: I believe that the source for that is Winston Churchill's November 11, 1947 House of Commons speech, where he said "democracy is the worst form of Government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time". Friedman was a giant, but lets not go inventing quotes for him.
Posted by Robert Burton , Nov 16, 2006 10:40PM
Bulging Bracket,
Ask not what your counrty...
Whose quote? Most say JFK, and he did say it. But most don't know that G.B. Shaw originated it.
or "An idea whose time has come" commonly acredited to Victor Hugo. Not, it predated Hugo by decades, with a large number of people know being attributed to having said it. So it ends up that no one knows who said it first.
"Survival of the fittest" Spencer, not Darwin.
The list goes on. I do not object to being corrected. I welcome it. I do however take exception to the "lets not go inventing quotes for him." comment. Perhaps it meant more facetiously than sarcastic. I think we can let this thing rest - and Milton too.
Peace
Posted by lawrence , Nov 17, 2006 1:40AM
Milton Friedman died on January 20, 2001 at noon, when George W. Bush's right hand went up and he took the oath of office. At that very moment, the GOP forgot free market capitalism and replaced it with whatever the hell it is Bush and the imbeciles in Congress were advocating.
Posted by david ard , Nov 17, 2006 4:45AM
"Ask not what your country..." originated by Wm. Jennings Bryan during a speech made at the turn of the century. Yes?
Posted by SEBASTIANO , Nov 17, 2006 3:28PM
Milton Friedman was a father to the chilean economy.
Posted by SAMUEL SILVA SANHUEZA , Nov 17, 2006 3:31PM
Don Milton fue un gran maestro para una generación de economistas chilenos que con sus teorías aplicadas a la realidad de nuestro país es que hoy se observa sus aciertos pragmaticos en el empirismo nacional económico