Milton Friedman
Part of a series on |
Capitalism |
---|
Part of a series on the |
Chicago school of economics |
---|
Part of a series on |
Libertarianism |
---|
This article is part of a series on |
Libertarianism in the United States |
---|
![]() |
Part of the politics series on |
Neoliberalism |
---|
Milton Friedman (/ˈfriːdmən/ ; July 31, 1912 – November 16, 2006) was an American economist and statistician who received the 1976 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his research on consumption analysis, monetary history and theory and the complexity of stabilization policy.[4] With George Stigler, Friedman was among the intellectual leaders of the Chicago school of economics, a neoclassical school of economic thought associated with the work of the faculty at the University of Chicago that rejected Keynesianism in favor of monetarism until the mid-1970s, when it turned to new classical macroeconomics heavily based on the concept of rational expectations.[5] Several students, young professors and academics who were recruited or mentored by Friedman at Chicago went on to become leading economists, including Gary Becker,[6] Robert Fogel,[7] and Robert Lucas Jr.[8]
Friedman's challenges to what he called "naive Keynesian theory"[9] began with his interpretation of consumption, which tracks how consumers spend. He introduced a theory which would later become part of mainstream economics and he was among the first to propagate the theory of consumption smoothing.[4][10] During the 1960s, he became the main advocate opposing Keynesian government policies,[11] and described his approach (along with mainstream economics) as using "Keynesian language and apparatus" yet rejecting its initial conclusions.[12] He theorized that there existed a natural rate of unemployment and argued that unemployment below this rate would cause inflation to accelerate.[a][13] He argued that the Phillips curve was in the long run vertical at the "natural rate" and predicted what would come to be known as stagflation.[14] Friedman promoted a macroeconomic viewpoint known as monetarism and argued that a steady, small expansion of the money supply was the preferred policy, as compared to rapid, and unexpected changes.[15] His ideas concerning monetary policy, taxation, privatization, and deregulation influenced government policies, especially during the 1980s. His monetary theory influenced the Federal Reserve's monetary policy in response to the global financial crisis of 2007–2008.[16]
After retiring from the University of Chicago in 1977, and becoming Emeritus professor in economics in 1983,[17] Friedman served as an advisor to Republican U.S. president Ronald Reagan and Conservative British prime minister Margaret Thatcher.[18] His political philosophy extolled the virtues of a free market economic system with minimal government intervention in social matters. In his 1962 book Capitalism and Freedom, Friedman advocated policies such as a volunteer military, freely floating exchange rates, abolition of medical licenses, a negative income tax, school vouchers,[19] and opposition to the war on drugs and support for drug liberalization policies. His support for school choice led him to found the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, later renamed EdChoice.[20][21]
Friedman's works cover a broad range of economic topics and public policy issues.[17] His books and essays have had global influence, including in former communist states.[22][23][24][25] A 2011 survey of economists commissioned by the EJW ranked Friedman as the second-most popular economist of the 20th century, following only John Maynard Keynes.[26] Upon his death, The Economist described him as "the most influential economist of the second half of the 20th century ... possibly of all of it".[27]
Early life
[edit]Friedman was born in Brooklyn, New York City on July 31, 1912. His parents, Sára Ethel (née Landau) and Jenő Saul Friedman, were Jewish working-class immigrants from Beregszász in Carpathian Ruthenia, Kingdom of Hungary (now Berehove in Ukraine).[28][29] They emigrated to America in their early teens.[28] They both worked as dry goods merchants. Friedman was their fourth child and only son, as well as the youngest of the children.[30] Shortly after his birth, the family relocated to Rahway, New Jersey.[31] Friedman's father, Jenő Saul Friedman, died during Friedman's senior year of high school, leaving Friedman and two older sisters to care for their mother.[28]
In his early teens, Friedman was injured in a car accident, which scarred his upper lip.[32][33] A talented student and an avid reader, Friedman graduated from Rahway High School in 1928, just before his 16th birthday.[30][34][35] He was the first in his family to attend a university. Friedman was awarded a competitive scholarship to Rutgers University and graduated in 1932.[36]
Friedman initially intended to become an actuary or mathematician, however, the state of the economy, which was at this point in a depression, convinced him to become an economist.[30][31] He was offered two scholarships to do graduate work, one in mathematics at Brown University and the other in economics at the University of Chicago.[37][38] Friedman chose the latter, earning a Master of Arts degree in 1933. He was strongly influenced by Jacob Viner, Frank Knight, and Henry Simons. Friedman met his future wife, economist Rose Director, while at the University of Chicago.[39] Friedman was also the student of Friedrich Hayek.[40]
During the 1933–1934 academic year, he had a fellowship at Columbia University, where he studied statistics with statistician and economist Harold Hotelling. He was back in Chicago for the 1934–1935 academic year, working as a research assistant for Henry Schultz, who was then working on Theory and Measurement of Demand.[41]
During the 1934–1935 academic year, Friedman formed what would later prove to be lifetime friendships with George Stigler and W. Allen Wallis, both of whom later taught with Friedman at the University of Chicago.[42] Friedman was also influenced by two lifelong friends, Arthur Burns and Homer Johnson. They helped Friedman better understand the depth of economic thinking.[43]
Public service
[edit]Friedman was unable to find academic employment, so in 1935 he followed his friend W. Allen Wallis to Washington, D.C., where Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal was "a lifesaver" for many young economists.[44] At this stage, Friedman said he and his wife "regarded the job-creation programs such as the WPA, CCC, and PWA appropriate responses to the critical situation", but not "the price- and wage-fixing measures of the National Recovery Administration and the Agricultural Adjustment Administration".[45] Foreshadowing his later ideas, he believed price controls interfered with an essential signaling mechanism to help resources be used where they were most valued. Indeed, Friedman later concluded that all government intervention associated with the New Deal was "the wrong cure for the wrong disease", arguing the Federal Reserve was to blame, and that they should have expanded the money supply in reaction to what he later described in A Monetary History of the United States as "The Great Contraction".[46] Later, Friedman and his colleague Anna Schwartz wrote A Monetary History of the United States, 1867–1960, which argued that the Great Depression was caused by a severe monetary contraction due to banking crises and poor policy on the part of the Federal Reserve.[47] Robert J. Shiller describes the book as the "most influential account" of the Great Depression.[48] During 1935, he began working for the National Resources Planning Board,[49] which was then working on a large consumer budget survey. Ideas from this project later became a part of his Theory of the Consumption Function, a book which first described consumption smoothing and the permanent income hypothesis. Friedman began employment with the National Bureau of Economic Research during the autumn of 1937 to assist Simon Kuznets in his work on professional income. This work resulted in their jointly authored publication Incomes from Independent Professional Practice, which introduced the concepts of permanent and transitory income, a major component of the permanent income hypothesis that Friedman worked out in greater detail in the 1950s. The book hypothesizes that professional licensing artificially restricts the supply of services and raises prices.[50]
Incomes from Independent Professional Practice remained quite controversial within the economics community because of Friedman's hypothesis that barriers to entry, which were exercised and enforced by the American Medical Association, led to higher than average wages for physicians, compared to other professional groups.[17][50] Barriers to entry are a fixed cost which must be incurred regardless of any outside factors such as work experience, or other factors of human capital.[51]
During 1940, Friedman was appointed as an assistant professor teaching economics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, but encountered anti semitism in the Economics department and returned to government service.[52][53] From 1941 to 1943 Friedman worked on wartime tax policy for the federal government, as an advisor to senior officials of the United States Department of the Treasury. As a Treasury spokesman during 1942, he advocated a Keynesian policy of taxation. He helped to invent the payroll withholding tax system, since the federal government needed money to fund the war.[54] He later said, "I have no apologies for it, but I really wish we hadn't found it necessary and I wish there were some way of abolishing withholding now."[55] In Milton and Rose Friedman's jointly written memoir, he wrote, "Rose has repeatedly chided me over the years about the role that I played in making possible the current overgrown government we both criticize so strongly."[54]
Academic career
[edit]Early years
[edit]In 1940 Friedman accepted a position at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, but left because of differences with faculty regarding United States involvement in World War II. Friedman believed the United States should enter the war.[56] In 1943, Friedman joined the Division of War Research at Columbia University (headed by W. Allen Wallis and Harold Hotelling), where he spent the rest of World War II working as a mathematical statistician, focusing on problems of weapons design, military tactics, and metallurgical experiments.[56][57]
In 1945 Friedman submitted Incomes from Independent Professional Practice (co-authored with Kuznets and completed during 1940) to Columbia as his doctoral dissertation. The university awarded him a PhD in 1946.[58][38] Friedman spent the 1945–1946 academic year teaching at the University of Minnesota (where his friend George Stigler was employed). On February 12, 1945, his only son, David D. Friedman, who would later follow in his father's footsteps as an economist, was born.[59]
University of Chicago
[edit]In 1946 Friedman accepted an offer to teach economic theory at the University of Chicago (a position opened by departure of his former professor Jacob Viner to Princeton University). Friedman would work for the University of Chicago for the next 30 years.[38] There he contributed to the establishment of an intellectual community that produced a number of Nobel Memorial Prize winners, known collectively as the Chicago school of economics.[31]
At the time, Arthur F. Burns, who was then the head of the National Bureau of Economic Research, and later chairman of the Federal Reserve, asked Friedman to rejoin the Bureau's staff.[60] He accepted the invitation, and assumed responsibility for the Bureau's inquiry into the role of money in the business cycle. As a result, he initiated the "Workshop in Money and Banking" (the "Chicago Workshop"), which promoted a revival of monetary studies. During the latter half of the 1940s, Friedman began a collaboration with Anna Schwartz, an economic historian at the Bureau, that would ultimately result in the 1963 publication of a book co-authored by Friedman and Schwartz, A Monetary History of the United States, 1867–1960.[15][31]
In 1951, Friedman was awarded the John Bates Clark Medal, which at the time was awarded every other year to the best economist under the age of 40, by the American Economic Association. Remarkably, his most influential work was still ahead of him.
University of Cambridge
[edit]Friedman spent the 1954–1955 academic year as a Fulbright Visiting Fellow at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. At the time, the Cambridge economics faculty was divided into a Keynesian majority (including Joan Robinson and Richard Kahn) and an anti-Keynesian minority (headed by Dennis Robertson). Friedman speculated he was invited to the fellowship because his views were unacceptable to both of the Cambridge factions. Later his weekly columns for Newsweek magazine (1966–84) were well read and increasingly influential among political and business people,[61] and helped earn the magazine a Gerald Loeb Special Award in 1968.[62] From 1968 to 1978, he and Paul Samuelson participated in the Economics Cassette Series, a biweekly subscription series where the economist would discuss the days' issues for about a half-hour at a time.[63][64]
A Theory of the Consumption Function
[edit]One of Milton Friedman's most popular works, A Theory of the Consumption Function, challenged traditional Keynesian viewpoints about the household. This work was originally published in 1957 by Princeton University Press, and it reanalyzed the relationship displayed "between aggregate consumption or aggregate savings and aggregate income".[10]
Friedman's counterpart Keynes believed people would modify their household consumption expenditures to relate to their existing income levels.[65] Friedman's research introduced the term "permanent income" to the world, which was the average of a household's expected income over several years, and he also developed the permanent income hypothesis. Friedman thought income consisted of several components, namely transitory and permanent. He established the formula to calculate income, with p representing the permanent component, and t representing the transitory component.[66] Milton Friedman's research changed how economists interpreted the consumption function, and his work pushed the idea that current income was not the only factor affecting people's adjustment household consumption expenditures.[67] Instead, expected income levels also affected how households would change their consumption expenditures. Friedman's contributions strongly influenced research on consumer behavior, and he further defined how to predict consumption smoothing, which contradicts Keynes' marginal propensity to consume. Although this work presented many controversial points of view which differed from existing viewpoints established by Keynes, A Theory of the Consumption Function helped Friedman gain respect in the field of economics. His work on the permanent income hypothesis is among the many contributions which were listed as reasons for his Sveriges-Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences.[4] His work was later expanded on by Christopher D. Carroll, especially in regards to the absence of liquidity constraints.[68][69]
The permanent income hypothesis faces some criticism, mainly from Keynesian economists. The primary criticism of the hypothesis is based on a lack of liquidity constraints.[70][71]
Capitalism and Freedom
[edit]His book Capitalism and Freedom, inspired by a series of lectures he gave at Wabash College,[72] brought him national and international attention outside academia.[73] It was published in 1962 by the University of Chicago Press and consists of essays that used non-mathematical economic models to explore issues of public policy.[74] It sold over 400,000 copies in the first eighteen years and more than half a million since 1962.[75] Capitalism and Freedom was translated into eighteen languages.[76] Friedman talks about the need to move to a classically liberal society, that free markets would help nations and individuals in the long-run and fix the efficiency problems currently faced by the United States and other major countries of the 1950s and 1960s. He goes through the chapters specifying an issue in each respective chapter from the role of government and money supply to social welfare programs to a special chapter on occupational licensure. Friedman concludes Capitalism and Freedom with his "classical liberal" stance that government should stay out of matters that do not need it and should only involve itself when absolutely necessary for the survival of its people and the country. He recounts how the best of a country's abilities come from its free markets while its failures come from government intervention.[77]
Post-retirement
[edit]In 1977, at the age of 65, Friedman retired from the University of Chicago after teaching there for 30 years. He and his wife moved to San Francisco, where he became a visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. From 1977 on, he was affiliated with the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.[78]
During 1977, Friedman was approached by Bob Chitester and the Free to Choose Network. They asked him to create a television program presenting his economic and social philosophy.[79][80][81]
Friedman and his wife Rose worked on this project for the next three years, and during 1980, the ten-part series, titled Free to Choose, was broadcast by the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). The companion book to the series (co-authored by Milton and his wife, Rose Friedman), also titled Free To Choose, was the bestselling nonfiction book of 1980.[82]
Friedman served as an unofficial adviser to Ronald Reagan during his 1980 presidential campaign, and then served on the President's Economic Policy Advisory Board for the rest of the Reagan Administration. Ebenstein says Friedman was "the 'guru' of the Reagan administration".[18] In 1988 he received the National Medal of Science and Reagan honored him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.[83]
Friedman is known now as one of the most influential economists of the 20th century.[84][85] Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Friedman continued to write editorials and appear on television. He made several visits to Eastern Europe and to China, where he also advised governments. He was also for many years a Trustee of the Philadelphia Society.[86][87][88]
Personal life
[edit]Friedman had two children, David and Jan.[89] He met his wife, Rose Friedman (née Director), at the University of Chicago in 1932, and wed six years later, in 1938.[39][90]
Friedman was noticeably shorter than some of his colleagues; he measured 5 feet 0 inches (1.52 m), and has been described as an "Elfin Libertarian" by Binyamin Appelbaum.[91][92][93]
Rose Friedman, when asked about Friedman's successes, said that "I have never had the desire to compete with Milton professionally (perhaps because I was smart enough to recognize I couldn't). On the other hand, he has always made me feel that his achievement is my achievement."[94][95][96]
During the 1960s Friedman built and subsequently maintained a cottage in Fairlee, Vermont.[97] Friedman also had an apartment in Russian Hill, San Francisco, where he lived from 1977 until his death.[98]
Religious views
[edit]External videos | |
---|---|
![]() |
According to a 2007 article in Commentary magazine, his "parents were moderately observant Jews, but Friedman, after an intense burst of childhood piety, rejected religion altogether".[99] He described himself as an agnostic.[100] Friedman wrote extensively of his life and experiences, especially in 1998 in his memoirs with his wife, Rose, titled Two Lucky People. In this book, Rose Friedman describes how she and Milton Friedman raised their two children, Janet and David, with a Christmas tree in the home. "Orthodox Jews of course, do not celebrate Christmas. However, just as, when I was a child, my mother had permitted me to have a Christmas tree one year when my friend had one, she not only tolerated our having a Christmas tree, she even strung popcorn to hang on it."[101]
Death
[edit]Friedman died of heart failure at the age of 94 years in San Francisco on November 16, 2006.[102] He was still a working economist performing original economic research; his last column was published in The Wall Street Journal the day after his death.[103] He was survived by his wife, Rose Friedman (who would die on August 18, 2009) and their two children, David D. Friedman, known for The Machinery of Freedom, as well as his unique anarcho-capitalism from a Chicago School perspective, and attorney and bridge player Jan Martel.[89]
Scholarly contributions
[edit]Economics
[edit]Friedman was best known for reviving interest in the money supply as a determinant of the nominal value of output, that is, the quantity theory of money.[104] Monetarism is the set of views associated with modern quantity theory. Its origins can be traced back to the 16th-century School of Salamanca or even further; however, Friedman's contribution is largely responsible for its modern popularization. He co-authored, with Anna Schwartz, A Monetary History of the United States, 1867–1960 (1963), which was an examination of the role of the money supply and economic activity in the U.S. history.[105]
Friedman was the main proponent of the monetarist school of economics. He maintained that there is a close and stable association between inflation and the money supply, mainly that inflation could be avoided with proper regulation of the monetary base's growth rate. He famously used the analogy of "dropping money out of a helicopter", to avoid dealing with money injection mechanisms and other factors that would overcomplicate his models.[106]
Friedman's arguments were designed to counter the popular concept of cost-push inflation, that the increased general price level at the time was the result of increases in the price of oil, or increases in wages; as he wrote:
Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon.
— Milton Friedman, 1963[107]
Friedman rejected the use of fiscal policy as a tool of demand management; and he held that the government's role in the guidance of the economy should be restricted severely. Friedman wrote extensively on the Great Depression, and he termed the 1929–1933 period the Great Contraction. He argued that the Depression had been caused by an ordinary financial shock and the duration and seriousness of which were greatly increased by the subsequent contraction of the money supply caused by the misguided policies of the directors of the Federal Reserve.[108][109]
The Fed was largely responsible for converting what might have been a garden-variety recession, although perhaps a fairly severe one, into a major catastrophe. Instead of using its powers to offset the depression, it presided over a decline in the quantity of money by one-third from 1929 to 1933 ... Far from the depression being a failure of the free-enterprise system, it was a tragic failure of government.
— Milton Friedman, Two Lucky People[110]
This theory was put forth in A Monetary History of the United States, and the chapter on the Great Depression was then published as a stand-alone book entitled The Great Contraction, 1929–1933. Both books are still in print from the Princeton University Press, and some editions include as an appendix a speech at a University of Chicago event honoring Friedman[111] in which Ben Bernanke made this statement:
Let me end my talk by abusing slightly my status as an official representative of the Federal Reserve. I would like to say to Milton and Anna: Regarding the Great Depression, you're right. We did it. We're very sorry. But thanks to you, we won't do it again.[109][111]
Friedman also argued for the removal of government intervention in currency markets, thereby spawning an enormous literature on the subject, as well as promoting the practice of freely floating exchange rates. His close friend George Stigler explained, "As is customary in science, he did not win a full victory, in part because research was directed along different lines by the theory of rational expectations, a newer approach developed by Robert Lucas, also at the University of Chicago."[112] The relationship between Friedman and Lucas, or new classical macroeconomics as a whole, was highly complex. The Friedmanian Phillips curve was an interesting starting point for Lucas, but he soon realized that the solution provided by Friedman was not quite satisfactory. Lucas elaborated a new approach in which rational expectations were presumed instead of the Friedmanian adaptive expectations. Due to this reformulation, the story in which the theory of the new classical Phillips curve was embedded radically changed. This modification, however, had a significant effect on Friedman's own approach, so, as a result, the theory of the Friedmanian Phillips curve also changed.[113] Moreover, new classical adherent Neil Wallace, who was a graduate student at the University of Chicago between 1960 and 1963, regarded Friedman's theoretical courses as a mess, highlighting the strained relationship between monetarism and new classical schools.[114]
Friedman was also known for his work on the consumption function, the permanent income hypothesis (1957), which Friedman himself referred to as his best scientific work.[115] This work contended that utility-maximizing consumers would spend a proportional amount of what they perceived to be their permanent income. Permanent Income refers to such factors like human capital. Windfall gains would mostly be saved because of the law of diminishing marginal utility.[10]
Friedman's essay "The Methodology of Positive Economics" (1953) provided the epistemological pattern for his own subsequent research and to a degree that of the Chicago School. There he argued that economics as science should be free of value judgments for it to be objective. Moreover, a useful economic theory should be judged not by its descriptive realism but by its simplicity and fruitfulness as an engine of prediction. That is, students should measure the accuracy of its predictions, rather than the 'soundness of its assumptions'. His argument was part of an ongoing debate among such statisticians as Jerzy Neyman, Leonard Savage, and Ronald Fisher.[116]
While being an advocate of the free market, Friedman believed that the government had two crucial roles. In an interview with Phil Donahue, Friedman argued that "the two basic functions of a government are to protect the nation against foreign enemy, and to protect citizens against its fellows".[117] He also admitted that although privatization of national defense could reduce the overall cost, he has not yet thought of a way to make this privatization possible.[117]
Rejection and subsequent evolution of the Philips curve
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e3/NAIRU-SR-and-LR.svg/220px-NAIRU-SR-and-LR.svg.png)
Other important contributions include his critique of the Phillips curve and the concept of the natural rate of unemployment (1968). This critique associated his name, together with that of Edmund Phelps, with the insight that a government that brings about greater inflation cannot permanently reduce unemployment by doing so. Unemployment may be temporarily lower, if the inflation is a surprise, but in the long run unemployment will be determined by the frictions and imperfections of the labor market. If the conditions are not met and inflation is expected, the "long run" effects will replace the "short term" effects.[118][119]
Through his critique, the Philips curve evolved from a strict model emphasizing the connection between inflation and unemployment as being absolute, to a model which emphasized short term unemployment reductions and long term employment stagnations.[118]
Friedman's revised and updated Phillips Curve also changed as a result of Robert Lucas's idea of Rational expectations, replacing the adaptive expectations Friedman used.[114]
Statistics
[edit]One of his most famous contributions to statistics is sequential sampling.[120] Friedman did statistical work at the Division of War Research at Columbia, where he and his colleagues came up with the technique.[121] It became, in the words of The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, "the standard analysis of quality control inspection". The dictionary adds, "Like many of Friedman's contributions, in retrospect it seems remarkably simple and obvious to apply basic economic ideas to quality control; that, however, is a measure of his genius."[120][122]
Corporate social responsibility
[edit]Friedman criticised corporate social responsibility, most famously in an op-ed in the New York Times Magazine in 1970.[123] Friedman argued that businesses often used claims about social responsibility to increase returns and described them as "hypocritical window dressing".[123] Managers were also poorly prepared to make decisions about social causes and these outlays diverted funds that belonged instead to shareholders. Friedman believed that only monopolistic corporations could routinely make altruistic expenditures on social responsibility, because in a competitive market such costs would undermine the business.[124]
Public policy positions
[edit]Federal Reserve and monetary policy
[edit]Although Friedman concluded the government does have a role in the monetary system[125] he was critical of the Federal Reserve due to its poor performance and felt it should be abolished.[126][127][128] He was opposed to Federal Reserve policies, even during the so-called "Volcker shock" that was labeled "monetarist".[129] Friedman believed the Federal Reserve System should ultimately be replaced with a computer program.[130] He favored a system that would automatically buy and sell securities in response to changes in the money supply.[131]
The proposal to constantly grow the money supply at a certain predetermined amount every year has become known as Friedman's k-percent rule.[132] There is debate about the effectiveness of a theoretical money supply targeting regime.[133][134] The Fed's inability to meet its money supply targets from 1978 to 1982 led some to conclude it is not a feasible alternative to more conventional inflation and interest rate targeting.[135] Towards the end of his life, Friedman expressed doubt about the validity of targeting the quantity of money. To date, most countries have adopted inflation targeting instead of the k-percent rule.[136]
Idealistically, Friedman actually favored the principles of the 1930s Chicago plan, which would have ended fractional reserve banking and, thus, private money creation. It would force banks to have 100% reserves backing deposits, and instead place money creation powers solely in the hands of the US Government. This would make targeting money growth more possible, as endogenous money created by fractional reserve lending would no longer be a major issue.[132]
Friedman was a strong advocate for floating exchange rates throughout the entire Bretton-Woods period (1944–1971). He argued that a flexible exchange rate would make external adjustment possible and allow countries to avoid balance of payments crises. He saw fixed exchange rates as an undesirable form of government intervention. The case was articulated in an influential 1953 paper, "The Case for Flexible Exchange Rates", at a time when most commentators regarded the possibility of floating exchange rates as an unrealistic policy proposal.[137][138]
Foreign policy
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0a/Nixon_Contact_Sheet_WHPO-6503_%28cropped%29.jpg/220px-Nixon_Contact_Sheet_WHPO-6503_%28cropped%29.jpg)
While Walter Oi is credited with establishing the economic basis for a volunteer military, Friedman was a proponent, and was credited with ending the draft,[15] stating that the draft was "inconsistent with a free society".[139][140]
In Capitalism and Freedom he argued conscription is inequitable and arbitrary, preventing young men from shaping their lives as they see fit.[141] During the Nixon administration he headed the committee to research a conversion to paid/volunteer armed force. Friedman did, however, believe the introduction of a system of universal military training as a reserve in cases of war-time could be justified.[141] He still opposed its implementation in the United States, describing it as a "monstrosity".[142]
Biographer Lanny Ebenstein noted a drift over time in Friedman's views from an interventionist to a more cautious foreign policy.[143] He supported US involvement in the Second World War and initially supported a hard-line against Communism, but moderated over time.[143] However, Friedman did state in a 1995 interview that he was an anti-interventionist.[144] He opposed the Gulf War and the Iraq War. In a spring 2006 interview, Friedman said the US's stature in the world had been eroded by the Iraq War, but that it might be improved if Iraq were to become a peaceful and independent country.[145][143]
Libertarianism and the Republican Party
[edit]![Ronald Reagan shaking hands with Milton Friedman giving him the Presidential Medal of Freedom](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/59/President_Ronald_Reagan_and_Nancy_Reagan_in_The_East_Room_Congratulating_Milton_Friedman_Receiving_The_Presidential_Medal_of_Freedom.jpg/220px-President_Ronald_Reagan_and_Nancy_Reagan_in_The_East_Room_Congratulating_Milton_Friedman_Receiving_The_Presidential_Medal_of_Freedom.jpg)
Friedman was an economic advisor and speech writer in Barry Goldwater's failed presidential campaign in 1964. He was an advisor to California governor Ronald Reagan and was active in Reagan's presidential campaigns.[146] He served as a member of President Reagan's Economic Policy Advisory Board starting in 1981. In 1988, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the National Medal of Science.[147]
In a 1995 interview with Reason magazine, Friedman criticized Murray Rothbard and Ayn Rand as "cult builders" and "dogmatists", citing this as justification for not joining the U.S. Libertarian Party. Friedman stated that he was a member of the Republican Party, "not because they have any principles, but because that's the way I am the most useful and have most influence." He described his philosophy as "clearly libertarian", though distanced himself from "zero-government" libertarianism, which he called "infeasible", citing the lack of historical examples of that philosophy succeeding.[3] Friedman attended The Future of Freedom Conference, which was a meeting for libertarians, in 1990.[148]
His citation for the Presidential Medal of Freedom reads: "He has used a brilliant mind to advance a moral vision: the vision of a society where men and women are free, free to choose, but where government is not as free to override their decisions. That vision has changed America, and it is changing the world. All of us owe a tremendous debt to this man's towering intellect and his devotion to liberty."[149]
Governmental involvement in the economy
[edit]In a 1962 essay that builds on arguments made by A. V. Dicey, Friedman argued that a "free society" would constitute a desirable but unstable equilibrium, due to an asymmetry between the visible benefits and the hidden harms of government intervention; he uses tariffs as an example of a policy that brings noticeable financial benefits to a visible group, but causes worse harms to a diffuse group of workers and consumers.[3][150]
Friedman was supportive of the state provision of some public goods that private businesses are not considered as being able to provide. However, he argued that many of the services performed by government could be performed better by the private sector. Above all, if some public goods are provided by the state, he believed that they should not be a legal monopoly where private competition is prohibited; for example, he wrote:
There is no way to justify our present public monopoly of the post office. It may be argued that the carrying of mail is a technical monopoly and that a government monopoly is the least of evils. Along these lines, one could perhaps justify a government post office, but not the present law, which makes it illegal for anybody else to carry the mail. If the delivery of mail is a technical monopoly, no one else will be able to succeed in competition with the government. If it is not, there is no reason why the government should be engaged in it. The only way to find out is to leave other people free to enter.
— Milton Friedman, [151]
In 1962, Friedman criticized Social Security in his book Capitalism and Freedom, arguing that it had created welfare dependency. However, in the penultimate chapter of the same book, Friedman argued that while capitalism had greatly reduced the extent of poverty in absolute terms, "poverty is in part a relative matter, [and] even in [wealthy Western] countries, there are clearly many people living under conditions that the rest of us label as poverty." Friedman also noted that while private charity could be one recourse for alleviating poverty and cited late 19th century Britain and the United States as exemplary periods of extensive private charity and eleemosynary activity, he made the following point:[152]
It can be argued that private charity is insufficient because the benefits from it accrue to people other than those who make the gifts – ... a neighborhood effect. I am distressed by the sight of poverty; I am benefited by its alleviation; but I am benefited equally whether I or someone else pays for its alleviation; the benefits of other people's charity therefore partly accrue to me. To put it differently, we might all of us be willing to contribute to the relief of poverty, provided everyone else did. We might not be willing to contribute the same amount without such assurance. In small communities, public pressure can suffice to realize the proviso even with private charity. In the large impersonal communities that are increasingly coming to dominate our society, it is much more difficult for it to do so. Suppose one accepts, as I do, this line of reasoning as justifying governmental action to alleviate poverty; to set, as it were, a floor under the standard of life of every person in the community. [While there are questions of how much should be spent and how, the] arrangement that recommends itself on purely mechanical grounds is a negative income tax. ... The advantages of this arrangement are clear. It is directed specifically at the problem of poverty. It gives help in the form most useful to the individual, namely, cash. It is general and could be substituted for the host of special measures now in effect. It makes explicit the cost borne by society. It operates outside the market. Like any other measures to alleviate poverty, it reduces the incentives of those helped to help themselves, but it does not eliminate that incentive entirely, as a system of supplementing incomes up to some fixed minimum would. An extra dollar earned always means more money available for expenditure.
Friedman argued further that other advantages of the negative income tax were that it could fit directly into the tax system, would be less costly, and would reduce the administrative burden of implementing a social safety net.[153] Friedman reiterated these arguments 18 years later in Free to Choose, with the additional proviso that such a reform would only be satisfactory if it replaced the current system of welfare programs rather than augment it.[154] According to economist Robert H. Frank, writing in The New York Times, Friedman's views in this regard were grounded in a belief that while "market forces ... accomplish wonderful things", they "cannot ensure a distribution of income that enables all citizens to meet basic economic needs".[155] Friedman also criticized urban renewal programs in the United States due to their racially discriminatory and economically regressive effects.[156]
In 1979 Friedman expressed support for environmental taxes in general in an interview on The Phil Donahue Show, saying "the best way to [deal with pollution] is to impose a tax on the cost of the pollutants emitted by a car and make an incentive for car manufacturers and for consumers to keep down the amount of pollution."[157] In Free to Choose, Friedman reiterated his support for environmental taxes as compared with increased environmental regulation, stating "The preservation of the environment and the avoidance of undue pollution are real problems and they are problems concerning which the government has an important role to play. … Most economists agree that a far better way to control pollution than the present method of specific regulation and supervision is to introduce market discipline by imposing effluent charges."[158][159]
In his 1955 article "The Role of Government in Education",[160] Friedman proposed supplementing publicly operated schools with privately run but publicly funded schools through a system of school vouchers.[161] Reforms similar to those proposed in the article were implemented in, for example, Chile in 1981 and Sweden in 1992.[162] In 1996, Friedman, together with his wife, founded the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice to advocate school choice and vouchers. In 2016, the Friedman Foundation changed its name to EdChoice to honor the Friedmans' desire to have the educational choice movement live on without their names attached to it after their deaths.[20]
Michael Walker of the Fraser Institute and Friedman hosted a series of conferences from 1986 to 1994. The goal was to create a clear definition of economic freedom and a method for measuring it. Eventually this resulted in the first report on worldwide economic freedom, Economic Freedom in the World. This annual report has since provided data for numerous peer-reviewed studies and has influenced policy in several nations.[163]
With sixteen other distinguished economists he opposed the Copyright Term Extension Act, and signed on to an amicus brief filed in Eldred v. Ashcroft.[164] Friedman jokingly described it as a "no-brainer".[165]
Friedman argued for stronger basic legal (constitutional) protection of economic rights and freedoms to further promote industrial-commercial growth and prosperity and buttress democracy and freedom and the rule of law generally in society.[166]
Friedman suggested medical savings accounts, repealing tax exemptions of employer-provided medical care and income-based deductibles as ways to lower health care costs in America. Friedman also argued that federal involvement in health care should be restricted, with state and local governments financing health care for the poor.[167]
Social issues
[edit]Friedman also supported libertarian policies such as legalization of drugs and prostitution. During 2005, Friedman and more than 500 other economists advocated discussions regarding the economic benefits of the legalization of marijuana.[168]
Friedman was also a supporter of gay rights.[169] He never specifically supported same-sex marriage, instead saying "I do not believe there should be any discrimination against gays."[170]
Friedman favored immigration, saying "legal and illegal immigration has a very positive impact on the U.S. economy".[171] However, he suggested that immigrants ought not to have access to the welfare system.[171] Friedman stated that immigration from Mexico had been a "good thing", in particular illegal immigration.[171] Friedman argued that illegal immigration was a boon because they "take jobs that most residents of this country are unwilling to take, they provide employers with workers of a kind they cannot get" and they do not use welfare.[171] In Free to Choose, Friedman wrote:[154]
No arbitrary obstacles should prevent people from achieving those positions for which their talents fit them and which their values lead them to seek. Not birth, nationality, color, religion, sex, nor any other irrelevant characteristic should determine the opportunities that are open to a person – only his abilities.
Friedman also famously argued that the welfare state must end before immigration, or more specifically, before open borders, because immigrants might have an incentive to come directly because of welfare payments.[172] Economist Bryan Caplan has disputed this assertion, arguing that welfare is generally distributed not among immigrants, but instead retirees, through Social Security.[173]
Friedman was against public housing as he believed it was also a form of welfare. He believed that one of the main arguments politicians have for public housing is that regular low-income housing was too expensive due to the imposed higher cost of a fire and police department.[75] He believed that it would only increase taxes and not benefit low-income people in the long run. Friedman was an advocate for direct cash instead of public housing believing that the people would be better off that way. He argued that liberals would never agree with this idea due to them not trusting their own citizens.[174] He also stated that regression has already happened with more land being left vacant due to slow construction. Friedman argued that public housing instead encourages juvenile delinquency.[175][176]
Friedman was also against minimum wage laws; he saw them as a clear case as one can find that the precise opposite is happening when this was attempted. Minimum wage laws would increase unemployment in his eyes and that employers would not hire back workers that were already there for less pay.[174] In his view, this would leave low-income people worse off because the voters for minimum wage laws would then become the victims of unemployment. He believed that these ideas of new minimum wage laws came from Northern factories and Unions, in an attempt to reduce competition from the South.[177][178]
Honors, recognition and legacy
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5c/Milton_Friedman_1976.jpg/220px-Milton_Friedman_1976.jpg)
George H. Nash, a leading historian of American conservatism, says that by "the end of the 1960s he was probably the most highly regarded and influential conservative scholar in the country, and one of the few with an international reputation".[179] In 1971, Friedman received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.[180][181] Friedman allowed the libertarian Cato Institute to use his name for its biennial Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty beginning in 2001. A Friedman Prize was given to the late British economist Peter Bauer in 2002, Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto in 2004, Mart Laar, former Estonian Prime Minister in 2006 and a young Venezuelan student Yon Goicoechea in 2008. His wife Rose, sister of Aaron Director, with whom he initiated the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, served on the international selection committee.[182][183]
Friedman was a recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics.[4]
Upon Friedman's death, Harvard President Lawrence Summers called him "The Great Liberator", saying "any honest Democrat will admit that we are now all Friedmanites." He said Friedman's great popular contribution was "in convincing people of the importance of allowing free markets to operate".[184]
Stephen Moore, a member of the editorial forward of The Wall Street Journal, said in 2013: "Quoting the most-revered champion of free-market economics since Adam Smith has become a little like quoting the Bible." He adds, "There are sometimes multiple and conflicting interpretations."[185]
Although post-Keynesian economist J. K. Galbraith was a prominent critic of Friedman and his ideology, he observed that "The age of John Maynard Keynes gave way to the age of Milton Friedman."[99]
1976 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences
[edit]Friedman was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, the sole recipient for 1976, "for his achievements in the fields of consumption analysis, monetary history and theory and for his demonstration of the complexity of stabilization policy".[4] His appointment was controversial, mainly for his association with military dictator Augusto Pinochet. Some economists, such as Institutional economist and 1974 Nobel Prize winner Gunnar Myrdal, criticized Friedman, and Myrdal's own 1974 Nobel Prize partner Friedrich Hayek, for being reactionaries. Myrdal's criticism caused some economists to oppose the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economics Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel itself.[186][187]
Hong Kong
[edit]Friedman said, "If you want to see capitalism in action, go to Hong Kong."[188] He wrote in 1990 that the Hong Kong economy was perhaps the best example of a free market economy.[189]
One month before his death, he wrote "Hong Kong Wrong – What would Cowperthwaite say?" in The Wall Street Journal, criticizing Donald Tsang, Chief Executive of Hong Kong, for abandoning "positive non interventionism".[190] Tsang later said he was merely changing the slogan to "big market, small government", where small government is defined as less than 20% of GDP. In a debate between Tsang and his rival Alan Leong before the 2007 Hong Kong Chief Executive election, Leong introduced the topic and jokingly accused Tsang of angering Friedman to death (Friedman had died only a year prior).[191]
Chile
[edit]During 1975, two years after the military coup that brought military dictator Augusto Pinochet to power and ended the government of Salvador Allende, the economy of Chile experienced a severe crisis.[192] Friedman and Arnold Harberger accepted an invitation of a private Chilean foundation to visit Chile and speak on principles of economic freedom.[193] He spent seven days in Chile giving a series of lectures at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile and the University of Chile. One of the lectures was entitled "The Fragility of Freedom" and according to Friedman, "dealt with precisely the threat to freedom from a centralized military government."[194]
In a letter to Pinochet of April 21, 1975, Friedman considered the "key economic problems of Chile are clearly ... inflation and the promotion of a healthy social market economy".[195] He stated that "There is only one way to end inflation: by drastically reducing the rate of increase of the quantity of money" and that "cutting government spending is by far and away the most desirable way to reduce the fiscal deficit, because it ... strengthens the private sector thereby laying the foundations for healthy economic growth".[195] As to how rapidly inflation should be ended, Friedman felt that "for Chile where inflation is raging at 10–20% a month ... gradualism is not feasible. It would involve so painful an operation over so long a period that the patient would not survive." Choosing "a brief period of higher unemployment" was the lesser evil.. and that "the experience of Germany, ... of Brazil ..., of the post-war adjustment in the U.S. ... all argue for shock treatment". In the letter Friedman recommended to deliver the shock approach with "a package to eliminate the surprise and to relieve acute distress" and "for definiteness let me sketch the contents of a package proposal ... to be taken as illustrative" although his knowledge of Chile was "too limited to enable [him] to be precise or comprehensive". He listed a "sample proposal" of 8 monetary and fiscal measures including "the removal of as many as obstacles as possible that now hinder the private market. For example, suspend ... the present law against discharging employees". He closed, stating "Such a shock program could end inflation in months". His letter suggested that cutting spending to reduce the fiscal deficit would result in less transitional unemployment than raising taxes.[196][197][198]
Sergio de Castro, a Chilean Chicago School graduate, became the nation's Minister of Finance in 1975.[198] During his six-year tenure, foreign investment increased, restrictions were placed on striking and labor unions, and GDP rose yearly.[199] A foreign exchange program was created between the Catholic University of Chile and the University of Chicago. Many other Chicago School alumni were appointed government posts during and after Pinochet's dictatorship; others taught its economic doctrine at Chilean universities. They became known as the Chicago Boys.[200]
Friedman defended his activity in Chile on the grounds that, in his opinion, the adoption of free market policies not only improved the economic situation of Chile but also contributed to the amelioration of Pinochet's rule and to the eventual transition to a democratic government during 1990. That idea is included in Capitalism and Freedom, in which he declared that economic freedom is not only desirable in itself but is also a necessary condition for political freedom. In his 1980 documentary Free to Choose, he said the following: "Chile is not a politically free system, and I do not condone the system. But the people there are freer than the people in Communist societies because government plays a smaller role. ... The conditions of the people in the past few years has been getting better and not worse. They would be still better to get rid of the junta and to be able to have a free democratic system."[201][202] In 1984, Friedman stated that he has "never refrained from criticizing the political system in Chile".[194] In 1991 he said: "I have nothing good to say about the political regime that Pinochet imposed. It was a terrible political regime. The real miracle of Chile is not how well it has done economically; the real miracle of Chile is that a military junta was willing to go against its principles and support a free market regime designed by principled believers in a free market. ... In Chile, the drive for political freedom, that was generated by economic freedom and the resulting economic success, ultimately resulted in a referendum that introduced political democracy. Now, at long last, Chile has all three things: political freedom, human freedom and economic freedom. Chile will continue to be an interesting experiment to watch to see whether it can keep all three or whether, now that it has political freedom, that political freedom will tend to be used to destroy or reduce economic freedom."[203] He stressed that the lectures he gave in Chile were the same lectures he later gave in China and other socialist states.[204] He further stated "I do not consider it as evil for an economist to render technical economic advice to the Chilean Government, any more than I would regard it as evil for a physician to give technical medical advice to the Chilean Government to help end a medical plague."[205]
During the 2000 PBS documentary The Commanding Heights (based on the book), Friedman continued to argue that "free markets would undermine [Pinochet's] political centralization and political control",[206][207] and that criticism over his role in Chile missed his main contention that freer markets resulted in freer people, and that Chile's unfree economy had caused Pinochet's rise. Friedman advocated for free markets which undermined "political centralization and political control".[208]
Because of his involvement with the government of Chile, which was a dictatorship at the time of his visit, there were international protests, spanning from Sweden to America when Friedman was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in 1976. Friedman was accused of supporting the military dictatorship in Chile because of the relation of economists of the University of Chicago to Pinochet, and a seven-day trip[209] he took to Chile during March 1975 (less than two years after the coup that ended with the death of President Salvador Allende). Friedman answered that he was never an advisor to the dictatorship, but only gave some lectures and seminars on inflation, and met with officials, including Augusto Pinochet the head of the military dictatorship, while in Chile.
After a 1991 speech on drug legalization, Friedman answered a question on his involvement with the Pinochet regime, saying that he was never an advisor to Pinochet (also mentioned in his 1984 Iceland interview), but that a group University of Chicago students were involved in Chile's economic reforms. Friedman credited these reforms with high levels of economic growth and with the establishment of democracy that has subsequently occurred in Chile. In October 1988, after returning from a lecture tour of China during which he had met with Zhao Ziyang, General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, Friedman wrote to The Stanford Daily asking if he should anticipate a similar "avalanche of protests for having been willing to give advice to so evil a government? And if not, why not?"
Iceland
[edit]Friedman visited Iceland during the autumn of 1984, met with important Icelanders and gave a lecture at the University of Iceland on the "tyranny of the status quo". He participated in a lively television debate on August 31, 1984, with socialist intellectuals, including Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, who later became President of Iceland.[210] When they complained that a fee was charged for attending his lecture at the university and that, hitherto, lectures by visiting scholars had been free-of-charge, Friedman replied that previous lectures had not been free-of-charge in a meaningful sense: lectures always have related costs. What mattered was whether attendees or non-attendees covered those costs. Friedman thought that it was fairer that only those who attended paid. In this discussion Friedman also stated that he did not receive any money for delivering that lecture.[211]
Estonia
[edit]Although Friedman never visited Estonia, his book Free to Choose influenced Estonia's then 32-year-old prime minister, Mart Laar, who has claimed that it was the only book on economics he had read before taking office. Laar's reforms are often credited with responsibility for transforming Estonia from an impoverished Soviet republic to the "Baltic Tiger". A prime element of Laar's program was introduction of the flat tax.[212] Laar won the 2006 Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty, awarded by the Cato Institute.[213]
United Kingdom
[edit]After 1950 Friedman was frequently invited to lecture in Britain, and by the 1970s his ideas had gained widespread attention in conservative circles. For example, he was a regular speaker at the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), a libertarian think tank. Conservative politician Margaret Thatcher closely followed IEA programs and ideas and met Friedman there in 1978. He also strongly influenced Keith Joseph, who became Thatcher's senior advisor on economic affairs, as well as Alan Walters and Patrick Minford, two other key advisers. Major newspapers, including the Daily Telegraph, The Times, and The Financial Times all promulgated Friedman's monetarist ideas to British decision-makers. Friedman's ideas strongly influenced Thatcher and her allies when she became Prime Minister in 1979.[214][215] Galbraith strongly criticised the "workability of the Friedmanite formula" for which, he said, "Britain has volunteered to be the guinea pig".[216]
United States
[edit]After his death a number of obituaries and articles were written in Friedman's honor, citing him as one of the most important and influential economists of the post-war era.[217][218][219][220] Milton Friedman's somewhat controversial legacy[221][222] in America remains strong within the conservative movement.[223] However, some journalists and economists like Noah Smith and Scott Sumner have argued Friedman's academic legacy has been buried under his political philosophy and misinterpreted by modern conservatives.[224][225][226][227]
Criticism of published works
[edit]Friedman exogenous money supply theory has been deeply criticized by British Post-Keynesian economist Nicholas Kaldor in the 1970s. While Friedman and monetarist economists claimed that the money supply was exogenously created by a powerful central bank, Kaldor claimed that the money was created by second-tier banks through the distribution of credits to households and companies. In the Post-Keynesian framework, central banks simply refinance second-tier banks on demand but are not in the core of monetary creation. Milton Friedman and Nicholas Kaldor were involved in a fierce debate in 1969–70, in which the monetarist economist had the upper hand.[228] In 1982, Kaldor published a book entitled The Scourge of Monetarism, deeply criticizing monetarist-inspired policies.
Econometrician David Hendry criticized part of Friedman's and Anna Schwartz's 1982 Monetary Trends.[229] When asked about it during an interview with Icelandic TV in 1984,[230] Friedman said that the criticism referred to a different problem from that which he and Schwartz had tackled, and hence was irrelevant,[231] and pointed out the lack of consequential peer review amongst econometricians on Hendry's work.[232] In 2006, Hendry said that Friedman was guilty of "serious errors" of misunderstanding that meant "the t-ratios he reported for UK money demand were overstated by nearly 100 per cent", and said that, in a paper published in 1991 with Neil Ericsson,[233] he had refuted "almost every empirical claim ... made about UK money demand" by Friedman and Schwartz.[234] A 2004 paper updated and confirmed the validity of the Hendry–Ericsson findings through 2000.[235] Some commentators believe that Friedman was not open enough, in their view, to the possibility of market inefficiencies.[236] Economist Noah Smith argues that while Friedman made many important contributions to economic theory not all of his ideas relating to macroeconomics have entirely held up over the years and that too few people are willing to challenge them.[135][237]
Political scientist C. B. Macpherson disagreed with Friedman's historical assessment of economic freedom leading to political freedom, suggesting that political freedom actually gave way to economic freedom for property-owning elites. He also challenged the notion that markets efficiently allocated resources and rejected Friedman's definition of liberty.[238] Friedman's positivist methodological approach to economics has also been critiqued and debated.[239][240][241] Finnish economist Uskali Mäki argued some of his assumptions were unrealistic and vague.[242][243]
Friedman has been criticized by some prominent Austrian economists, including Murray Rothbard and Walter Block. Block called Friedman a "socialist" and was critical of his support for a central banking system, saying "First and foremost, this economist supported the Federal Reserve System all throughout his professional life. That organization of course does not own the money stock, but controls it. Friedman was an inveterate hater of the gold standard, denigrating its advocates as 'gold bugs'."[244] Rothbard criticized Friedman's conclusion that the Great Depression happened as a result of a deflationary spiral, arguing that this is inconsistent with the data, even though during the period described by Friedman as "The Great Contraction", the money supply did in fact decrease year-over-year by over 10 percentage points.[245]
Although the book was described by the Cato Institute as among the greatest economics books in the 20th century, and A Monetary History of the United States is widely considered to be among the most influential economics books ever made,[246][247] it has endured criticisms for its conclusion that the Federal Reserve was to blame for the Great Depression. Some economists, including noted Friedman critic Peter Temin, have raised questions about the legitimacy of Friedman's claims about whether or not monetary quantity levels were endogenous rather than exogenously determined, as A Monetary History of the United States posits.[248] Nobel-prize winning economist Paul Krugman argued that the 2008 recession proved that, during a recession, a central bank cannot control broad money (M3 money, as defined by the OECD[249]), and even if it can, the money supply does not bear a direct or proven relationship with GDP. According to Krugman, this was true in the 1930s, and the claim that the Federal Reserve could have avoided the Great Depression by reacting to what Friedman called The Great Contraction is "highly dubious".[250][251]
James Tobin questioned the importance of velocity of money, and how informative this measure of the frequency of transactions is to the understanding of the various fluctuations observed in A Monetary History of the United States.[252]
Economic historian Barry Eichengreen argued that because of the gold standard, which was at this point in time the chief monetary system of the world, the Federal Reserve's hands were tied. This was because, to retain the credibility of the gold standard, the Federal Reserve could not undertake actions like dramatically expanding the money supply as proposed by Friedman and Schwartz.[253]
Lawrence Mishel, distinguished fellow of the Economic Policy Institute, argues that wages have been kept low in the United States because of the Friedman doctrine, namely the adoption of corporate practices and economic policies (or the blocking of reforms) at the behest of business and the wealthy elite, which resulted in the systematic disempowerment of workers.[254] He argues that the lack of worker power caused wage suppression, increased wage inequality, and exacerbated racial disparities. Notably, mechanisms such as excessive unemployment, globalization, eroded labor standards (and their lack of enforcement), weakened collective bargaining, and corporate structure changes that disadvantage workers, all collectively functioned to keep wages low.[254] From 1980 to 2020, while economy-wide productivity rose almost 70 percent, hourly compensation for typical workers increased less than 12 percent, while the earnings of the top 1 percent and 0.1 percent increased 158 percent and 341 percent, respectively.[254]
Selected bibliography
[edit]- A Theory of the Consumption Function (1957) ISBN 1614278121.
- A Program for Monetary Stability (Fordham University Press, 1960) 110 pp. online version Archived November 1, 2011, at the Wayback Machine ISBN 0823203719
- Capitalism and Freedom (1962), highly influential series of essays that established Friedman's position on major issues of public policy (excerpts)
- A Monetary History of the United States, 1867–1960, with Anna J. Schwartz, 1963; part 3 reprinted as The Great Contraction
- "The Role of Monetary Policy", American Economic Review, Vol. 58, No. 1 (Mar. 1968), pp. 1–17 JSTOR presidential address to American Economics Association
- "Inflation and Unemployment: Nobel Lecture", 1977, Journal of Political Economy. Vol. 85, pp. 451–472. JSTOR
- Free to Choose: A Personal Statement, with Rose Friedman, (1980), highly influential restatement of policy views
- The Essence of Friedman, essays edited by Kurt R. Leube, (1987) (ISBN 0817986626)
- Two Lucky People: Memoirs (with Rose Friedman) ISBN 0226264149 (1998) excerpt and text search
- Milton Friedman on Economics: Selected Papers by Milton Friedman, edited by Gary S. Becker (2008)
See also
[edit]- Causes of the Great Depression
- David D. Friedman
- History of economic thought
- List of economists
- List of Jewish Nobel laureates
- List of Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients
- Ludwig von Mises
- Monetary/fiscal debate
- Patri Friedman
- "We are all Keynesians now"
Explanatory notes
[edit]- ^ Among macroeconomists, the "natural" rate has been increasingly replaced by James Tobin's non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment (NAIRU), which is seen as having fewer normative connotations.
References
[edit]- ^ Ebenstein, Lanny (2007). Milton Friedman: A Biography. St. Martin's Publishing Group. p. 89. ISBN 978-0230604094.
- ^ "APS Member History".
- ^ a b c Doherty, Brian (June 1995). "Best of Both Worlds: An Interview with Milton Friedman". Reason. Retrieved March 29, 2023.
- ^ a b c d e "The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 1976". Nobel Prize. 1976. Archived from the original on April 12, 2008. Retrieved February 20, 2008.
- ^ "The Chicago School". Commanding Heights. PBS. Retrieved May 17, 2021.
- ^ "Our Legacy". Becker Friedman Institute. Retrieved May 17, 2021.
- ^ Chicago Remembers Milton Friedman, Sanderson, Allen; 2012, University of Chicago, [1]
- ^ Van Overtveldt, Johan (2009). The Chicago School: How the University of Chicago Assembled the Thinkers Who Revolutionized Economics and Business. Agate Publishing. p. 8. ISBN 978-1572846494.
- ^ "Milton Friedman". Commanding Heights. PBS. October 1, 2000. Archived from the original on September 8, 2011. Retrieved September 19, 2011.
- ^ a b c Friedman, Milton (2018). A Theory of the Consumption Function. Princeton University Press. pp. 20–37. ISBN 978-0691188485.
- ^ "Milton Friedman – Economist as Public Intellectual" Archived May 29, 2009, at the Wayback Machine. Dallasfed.org (April 1, 2016). Retrieved on September 6, 2017.
- ^ Mark Skousen (2009). The Making of Modern Economics: The Lives and Ideas of the Great Thinkers. M.E. Sharpe. p. 407. ISBN 978-0765622273.
- ^ Friedman, Milton (1968). The Role of Monetary Policy. Essential Readings in Economics. Macmillan Education UK. pp. 215–231. ISBN 978-0333594520.
- ^ Krugman, Paul R. (1995). Peddling prosperity: economic sense and nonsense in the age of diminished expectations. New York: W. W. Norton. p. 43. ISBN 978-0393312928.
- ^ a b c Doherty, Brian (June 1, 1995). "Best of Both Worlds". Reason Magazine. Archived from the original on October 11, 2014. Retrieved October 24, 2009.
- ^ Edward Nelson (April 13, 2011). "Friedman's Monetary Economics in Practice" Archived December 31, 2014, at the Wayback Machine. "in important respects, the overall monetary and financial policy response to the crisis can be viewed as Friedman's monetary economics in practice. ... Friedman's recommendations for responding to a financial crisis largely lined up with the principal financial and monetary policy measures taken since 2007". "Review" in Journal of Economic Literature (December 2012). 50#4. pp. 1106–1109.
- ^ a b c Caldwell, Bruce. "Milton Friedman". Encyclopedia Britannica. Archived from the original on August 2, 2017. Retrieved August 2, 2017.
- ^ a b Ebenstein, Lanny (2007). Milton Friedman: A Biography. St. Martin's Publishing Group. p. 208. ISBN 978-0230604094.
- ^ "Milton Friedman (1912–2006)" Archived January 3, 2007, at the Wayback Machine. Econlib.org. Retrieved on September 6, 2017.
- ^ a b Maureen Sullivan (July 30, 2016). "Milton Friedman's Name Disappears From Foundation, But His School-Choice Beliefs Live On". Forbes. Archived from the original on September 21, 2016. Retrieved September 14, 2016.
- ^ "Friedman Foundation changes name to focus on benefits of educational choice". Atlas Network. July 29, 2016. Archived from the original on May 23, 2021. Retrieved May 23, 2021.
- ^ "Capitalism and Friedman" (editorial). The Wall Street Journal. November 17, 2006.
- ^ Václav Klaus (January 29, 2007). "Remarks at Milton Friedman Memorial Service". Archived from the original on July 2, 2007. Retrieved August 22, 2008.
- ^ Johan Norberg (October 2008). "Defaming Milton Friedman: Naomi Klein's disastrous yet popular polemic against the great free market economist" Archived April 11, 2010, at the Wayback Machine. Reason Magazine. Washington, D.C.
- ^ Friedman 1999, p. 506.
- ^ William L Davis, Bob Figgins, David Hedengren and Daniel B. Klein (May 2011). "Economic Professors' Favorite Economic Thinkers, Journals, and Blogs" Archived December 18, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. Econ Journal Watch. 8(2). pp. 126–146.
- ^ "Milton Friedman, a giant among economists". The Economist. November 23, 2006. Archived from the original on February 17, 2008. Retrieved February 20, 2008.
- ^ a b c "The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 1976". NobelPrize.org. Retrieved May 13, 2021.
- ^ Ebenstein, Lanny (2007). Milton Friedman: A Biography. St. Martin's Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0230604094.
- ^ a b c "Milton Friedman, Ph.D." Academy of Achievement. Retrieved May 13, 2021.
- ^ a b c d Doherty, Brian (2007). "The Life and Times of Milton Friedman". Reason.com. Reason Foundation.
- ^ Ebenstein, Lanny (2007). Milton Friedman: A Biography. St. Martin's Publishing Group. p. 10. ISBN 978-0230604094.
- ^ Milton Friedman, Rose Friedman, Two Lucky People. Memoirs, Chicago 1998, p. 22.
- ^ Eamonn Butler (2011). "Ch. 1". Milton Friedman. Harriman Economic Essentials.
- ^ Ebenstein, Lanny (2007). Milton Friedman: A Biography. St. Martin's Publishing Group. pp. 5–12. ISBN 978-0230604094.
- ^ "Milton Friedman". Rutgers Alumni. Archived from the original on December 17, 2022. Retrieved May 10, 2021.
- ^ "Milton Friedman and his start in economics". Young America's Foundation. August 2006. Archived from the original on February 23, 2013. Retrieved March 12, 2012.
- ^ a b c Harms, William (November 16, 2006). "Professor Emeritus Milton Friedman dies at 94". www-news.uchicago.edu. Retrieved March 7, 2019.
- ^ a b "Nov. 8 conference to honor University of Chicago economist Milton Friedman on the occasion of his 90th birthday". www-news.uchicago.edu. Retrieved February 3, 2021.
- ^ Solty, Ingar (May 8, 2024). "Friedrich August von Hayek Was an Enemy of Freedom". Jacobin. Jacobin.
He and his followers have always done this in the name of 'liberty.' This word runs throughout Hayek's work, which his student Milton Friedman called the 'battle for freedom.'
- ^ "Chicago. Theory and Measurement of Demand. Henry Schultz, 1934". Economics in the Rear-View Mirror. January 23, 2016. Retrieved May 16, 2021.
- ^ Ebenstein, Lanny (2007). Milton Friedman: A Biography. St. Martin's Publishing Group. pp. 13–30. ISBN 978-0230604094.
- ^ Milton Friedman EconLib
- ^ Mark Feeney (November 16, 2006). "Nobel laureate economist Milton Friedman dies at 94". The Boston Globe. Archived from the original on March 30, 2007. Retrieved February 20, 2008.
- ^ Friedman 1999, p. 59
- ^ "Right from the Start? What Milton Friedman can teach progressives" (PDF). J. Bradford DeLong. Archived (PDF) from the original on February 16, 2008. Retrieved February 20, 2008.
- ^ Bernanke 2004, p. 7
- ^ Shiller, Robert J. (2017). "Narrative Economics". American Economic Review. 107 (4): 967–1004. doi:10.1257/aer.107.4.967. ISSN 0002-8282.
- ^ Daniel J. Hammond, Claire H. Hammond (eds.) (2006), Making Chicago Price Theory: Friedman-Stigler Correspondence 1945–1957, Routledge, p. xiii. ISBN 1135994293
- ^ a b Incomes from Independent Professional Practice, 1945, Milton Friedman, Simon Kuznets
- ^ Mankiw, Gregory (1997). Principles of Economics. Harcourt. pp. 216–219. ISBN 0030270871.
- ^ Friedman 1999, p. 42
- ^ Friedman 1999, pp. 84–85
- ^ a b Milton Friedman; Rose D. Friedman (1999). Two Lucky People: Memoirs. University of Chicago Press. pp. 122–123. ISBN 978-0226264158.
- ^ Brian Doherty (June 1995). "Best of Both Worlds". Reason.com. Reason Foundation. Archived from the original on July 9, 2010. Retrieved July 28, 2010.
- ^ a b "Milton Friedman Biography and Interview – American Academy of Achievement". www.achievement.org. American Academy of Achievement.
- ^ Philip Mirowski (2002). Machine Dreams: Economics Becomes a Cyborg Science. Cambridge University Press. pp. 202–203. ISBN 978-0521775267.
- ^ "Milton Friedman". c250.columbia.edu. Retrieved March 7, 2019.
- ^ Block, Walter E. (2011). "David Friedman and Libertarianism: A Critique". Libertarian Papers. 3: 1 – via HeinOnline.
- ^ "NBER. Mitchell to Burns about Friedman. 1945". Economics in the Rear-View Mirror. July 22, 2017. Retrieved May 17, 2021.
- ^ Cato, "Letter from Washington," National Review, September 19, 1980, Vol. 32 Issue 19, p. 1119
- ^ Devaney, James J. (May 22, 1968). "'Playboy', 'Monitor' Honored". Hartford Courant. Vol. CXXXI, no. 143 (final ed.). p. 36. Retrieved March 20, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Rose and Milton Friedman. stanford.edu
- ^ Inventory of the Paul A. Samuelson Papers, 1933–2010 and undated | Finding Aids | Rubenstein Library Archived January 12, 2013, at the Wayback Machine. Library.duke.edu. Retrieved on September 6, 2017.
- ^ "What Is Keynesian Economics? – Back to Basics Compilation Book – IMF Finance & Development magazine". www.imf.org. Retrieved May 10, 2021.
- ^ A Theory of Consumption Function, 1957, Friedman, Milton; Princeton University Press, p. 22
- ^ Carlin, Wendy; Soskice, David W. (2014). Macroeconomics: Institutions, instability, and the financial system. US: Oxford University Press. pp. 20–29.
- ^ "A Theory of Consumption Function, With and Without Liquidity Constraints", Christopher D. Carroll, 2001, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 15, No. 3, pp. 23–45, doi:10.1257/jep.15.3.23
- ^ Carroll, Christopher D. (1997). "Buffer-Stock Saving and the Life Cycle/Permanent Income Hypothesis". Quarterly Journal of Economics. 112 (1): 1–55
- ^ Beznoska, Martin; Ochmann, Richard (2012). "Liquidity Constraints and the Permanent Income Hypothesis: Pseudo Panel Estimation with German Consumption Survey Data", EconStar.
- ^ Stafford, Frank P. (July 1974). "Permanent income, wealth, and consumption: A critique of the permanent income theory, the life cycle hypothesis, and related theories". Journal of Econometrics, pp. 195–196
- ^ Schnetzer, Amanda (2016). "Reading Friedman in 2016: Capitalism, Freedom, and the China Challenge". George W. Bush Institute. Retrieved October 29, 2020.
- ^ Sorkin, Andrew Ross (September 11, 2020). "A Free Market Manifesto That Changed the World, Reconsidered". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 10, 2021.
- ^ Ebenstein, Lanny (2007). Milton Friedman: A Biography. St. Martin's Publishing Group. pp. 135–146. ISBN 978-0230604094.
- ^ a b 1982 edition preface of Capitalism and freedom, p. xi of the 2002 edition
- ^ Friedman, Milton (February 15, 2009). Capitalism and Freedom. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0226264189. Archived from the original on May 23, 2021. Retrieved May 23, 2021.
- ^ Milton Friedman; Rose D. Friedman (1962). Capitalism and Freedom: Fortieth Anniversary Edition. U. of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0226264189.
- ^ "Milton Friedman". Hoover Institution. Retrieved May 23, 2021.
- ^ Boaz, David (May 10, 2021). "Bob Chitester, RIP". www.cato.org. Retrieved May 20, 2021.
- ^ Hawkins, Marjory (May 10, 2021). "Free To Choose Network Founder & Chairman Bob Chitester Dies". GlobeNewswire News Room (Press release). Retrieved May 20, 2021.
- ^ "Free To Choose Network | Tribute to Our Founder, Bob Chitester". freetochoosenetwork.org. 2021. Retrieved May 20, 2021.
- ^ Friedman, Milton; Friedman, Rose (1990). Free to Choose: A Personal Statement. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 978-0547539751.
- ^ Bush, George W. (2002). "President Honors Milton Friedman for Lifetime Achievements". georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov. Retrieved May 10, 2021.
- ^ "Milton Friedman: An enduring legacy". The Economist. November 17, 2006. Archived from the original on February 17, 2008. Retrieved February 20, 2008.
- ^ Patricia Sullivan (November 17, 2006). "Economist Touted Laissez-Faire Policy". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on July 26, 2008. Retrieved February 20, 2008.
- ^ Milton Friedman – Biography | Cato Institute Archived May 2, 2012, at the Wayback Machine. Cato.org (November 16, 2006). Retrieved on September 6, 2017.
- ^ "Trustees". Archived from the original on August 27, 2013.
- ^ Milton Friedman. phillysoc.org
- ^ a b "David D. Friedman on his Famous Father, Anarcho-Capitalism and Free-Market Solutions". The Daily Bell. April 8, 2012. Retrieved May 10, 2021.
- ^ Weber, Bruce (August 19, 2009). "Rose Friedman, Economist and Collaborator, Dies at 98". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 18, 2021.
- ^ "Milton Friedman, An 'Elfin Libertarian' Giant". Hoover Institution. Retrieved May 18, 2021.
- ^ "A heavyweight champ, at five foot two". The Economist. November 23, 2006. ISSN 0013-0613. Retrieved May 18, 2021.
- ^ "How the Cold War led the CIA to promote human capital theory – Peter Fleming | Aeon Essays". Aeon. Retrieved May 18, 2021.
- ^ Chen, Vivien Lou (August 20, 2009). "Rose Friedman, economist promoted freedom; at 97". Boston.com. Retrieved May 20, 2021.
- ^ "Rose Friedman, Economist Partner of Husband Milton, Dies at 97". Bloomberg.com. November 5, 2013. Archived from the original on November 5, 2013. Retrieved May 20, 2021.
- ^ Bresnahan, Timothy (1998–1999). "Two Lucky People: Memoirs: The Independent Review". The Independent Review. 3 (3) – via Independent Institute.
- ^ Hannan, Dan (November 11, 2019). "Milton Friedman's arguments will never age". Washington Examiner. Retrieved May 22, 2021.
- ^ Abate, Tom (February 12, 2006). "PROFILE / Decades don't douse Milton Friedman's fire / Retired economist still champions free-market theory". SFGATE. Retrieved May 22, 2021.
- ^ a b Lanny Ebenstein (May 2007), Milton Friedman, Commentary, p. 286.
- ^ David Asman (November 16, 2006). "'Your World' Interview With Economist Milton Friedman". Fox News. Archived from the original on February 6, 2011. Retrieved August 2, 2011.
- ^ Friedman, Milton; Friedman, Rose (1999). Two Lucky People (Paperback ed.). Chicago & London: The University of Chicago Press. p. 129. ISBN 0226264157.
- ^ Jim Christie (November 16, 2006). "Free market economist Milton Friedman dead at 94". Reuters. Archived from the original on April 10, 2008. Retrieved February 20, 2008.
- ^ Peter Robinson (October 17, 2008). "What Would Milton Friedman Say?". Forbes. Archived from the original on October 27, 2014. Retrieved December 13, 2014.
- ^ Hamilton, Earl J. (1965). American Treasure and the Price Revolution in Spain, 1501–1650. New York: Octagon, pp. 301–302
- ^ Harrod, Roy. "Review of A Monetary History of the United States". Chicago Unbound. 32.
- ^ Friedman, Milton (1969). Optimum Quantity of Money. Aldine Publishing Company. p. 4. ISBN 978-0333107799.
- ^ Friedman, Milton. Inflation: Causes and Consequences, p. 24, New York: Asia Publishing House.
- ^ Friedman, Schwartz (2008). The Great Contraction, 1929–1933. Princeton University Press.
- ^ a b FRB Speech: FederalReserve.gov: Remarks by Governor Ben S. Bernanke, At the Conference to Honor Milton Friedman, University of Chicago, Nov. 8, 2002
- ^ "Milton Friedman: End The Fed". Themoneymasters.com. Archived from the original on June 15, 2014. Retrieved April 22, 2014.
- ^ a b Milton Friedman; Anna Jacobson Schwartz; National Bureau of Economic Research (2008). "B. Bernanke's speech to M. Friedman". The Great Contraction, 1929–1933. Princeton University Press. p. 247. ISBN 978-0691137940.
- ^ Milton Friedman (1969). Memoirs of an Unregulated Economist. Aldine Publishing Company. p. 4.
- ^ Peter Galbács (2015). The Theory of New Classical Macroeconomics. A Positive Critique. Contributions to Economics. Heidelberg/New York/Dordrecht/London: Springer. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-17578-2. ISBN 978-3319175782.
- ^ a b Kevin Hoover; Warren Young (2011). Rational Expectations – Retrospect and Prospect (PDF). Durham: Center for the History of Political Economy at Duke University. Archived (PDF) from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved December 15, 2015.
- ^ "Charlie Rose Show". Nobel Laureates. December 26, 2005.
- ^ David Teira, "Milton Friedman, the Statistical Methodologist," History of Political Economy (2007) 39#3 pp. 511–527
- ^ a b "Friedman's on the Military Industrial Complex". www.youtube.com. February 14, 2010. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021. Retrieved January 8, 2021.
- ^ a b Chang, Roberto (1997) "Is Low Unemployment Inflationary?" Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. pp. 4–13.
- ^ Landsburg, Steven (November 5, 2019). "Milton Friedman". Essential Scholars. Fraser Institute. Retrieved May 10, 2021.
- ^ a b "Sequential Analysis". New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd edition.
- ^ Keir Armstrong. "Friedman, Milton (1912–2006)". carleton.ca. Retrieved May 21, 2021.
- ^ Doherty, Brian; The Life and Times of Milton Friedman – Remembering the 20th century's most influential libertarian Archived February 24, 2007, at the Wayback Machine. Reason.com. Retrieved on September 6, 2017.
- ^ a b Friedman, Milton (September 13, 1970). "The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits". New York Times Magazine.
- ^ Smith, David Chan (March 26, 2024). "The Intellectual History of Milton Friedman's Criticism of Corporate Social Responsibility". Modern Intellectual History: 1–27. doi:10.1017/S1479244324000027. ISSN 1479-2443.
- ^ Friedman, M., & Schwartz, A.J. (1986). Has government any role in money?. Journal of Monetary Economics, 17(1), 37–62.
- ^ Milton Friedman – Abolish The Fed Archived June 11, 2015, at the Wayback Machine. Youtube: "There in no institution in the US that has such a high public standing and such a poor record of performance" "It's done more harm than good"
- ^ Milton Friedman – Abolish The Fed Archived June 11, 2015, at the Wayback Machine. Youtube: "I have long been in favor of abolishing it."
- ^ "My first preference would be to abolish the Federal Reserve" on YouTube
- ^ Reichart Alexandre & Abdelkader Slifi (2016). The Influence of Monetarism on Federal Reserve Policy during the 1980s. Cahiers d'économie Politique/Papers in Political Economy, (1), pp. 107–150 Archived December 3, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Mr. Market". Hoover Institution. January 30, 1999. Archived from the original on September 23, 2018. Retrieved September 22, 2018.
- ^ Friedman, M. (1996). The Counter-Revolution in Monetary Theory. In Explorations in Economic Liberalism (pp. 3–21). Palgrave Macmillan, London. "It is precisely this leeway, this looseness in the relation, this lack of a mechanical one-to-one correspondence between changes in money and in income that is the primary reason why I have long favored for the USA a quasi-automatic monetary policy under which the quantity of money would grow at a steady rate of 4 or 5 per cent per year, month-in, month-out."
- ^ a b Salter, Alexander, William. (2014). An Introduction to Monetary Policy Rules. Mercatus Workıng Paper. George Mason University.
- ^ Marimon, R., & Sunder, S. (December 1995). "Does a constant money growth rule help stabilize inflation?: experimental evidence. In Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy (Vol. 43, pp. 111–156). North-Holland.
- ^ Evans, G.W., & Honkapohja, S. (2003). Friedman's money supply rule vs. optimal interest rate policy". Scottish Journal of Political Economy, 50(5), 550–566.
- ^ a b Smith, Noah (July 30, 2016). "Noahpinion: How are Milton Friedman's ideas holding up?". Noahpinion. Archived from the original on September 23, 2018. Retrieved September 22, 2018.
- ^ Simon London, "Lunch with the FT – Milton Friedman," Financial Times (June 7, 2003) "The use of quantity of money as a target has not been a success ... I'm not sure I would as of today push it as hard as I once did."
- ^ Ruger, William (2013). Milton Friedman. Bloomsbury Publishing US. pp. 72–. ISBN 978-1623566173.
- ^ Atish R. Ghosh, Mahvash S. Qureshi, and Charalambos G. Tsangarides (2014) Friedman Redux: External Adjustment and Exchange Rate Flexibility Archived April 13, 2015, at the Wayback Machine. International Monetary Fund; IMF Working Paper
- ^ Milton Friedman (1991). The War on Drugs. America's Drug Forum. Archived from the original on October 29, 2009. Retrieved August 4, 2009.
- ^ Bernard Rostker (2006). I Want You!: The Evolution of the All-Volunteer Force. Rand Corporation. p. 4. ISBN 978-0833038951.
- ^ a b Friedman, Milton (1962). Capitalism and Freedom. University Of Chicago Press. p. 36. ISBN 0226264211.
- ^ Friedman, Milton (1982). ""National Service, the Draft and Volunteers" A debate featuring Milton Friedman In Registration and the Draft: Proceedings of the Hoover-Rochester Conference on the All-Volunteer Force" (PDF). Hoover Institution. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 21, 2020. Retrieved October 24, 2019.
- ^ a b c Ebenstein, Lanny (2007). Milton Friedman: A Biography. St. Martin's Publishing Group. pp. 231–232. ISBN 978-0230604094.
- ^ Matt Barganier; Milton Friedman, RIP – Antiwar.com Blog Archived September 22, 2016, at the Wayback Machine. Antiwar.com (November 16, 2006). Retrieved on September 6, 2017.
- ^ Ebenstein, Lanny (2007). Milton Friedman: A Biography. St. Martin's Publishing Group. p. 243. ISBN 978-0230604094.
- ^ Van Horn, Robert; Mirowski, Philip; Stapleford, Thomas A. (2011). Building Chicago Economics: New Perspectives on the History of America's Most Powerful Economics Program. Cambridge UP. pp. 49–50. ISBN 978-1139501712.
- ^ Terrell, Ellen; Wilson, Angela (2009). "Milton Friedman: A Resource Guide". Library of Congress.
- ^ "Milton Friedman, "Say 'No' to Intolerance," Liberty magazine, vol. 4, no. 6, July 1991, pp. 17–20". Archived from the original on February 16, 2015. Retrieved January 20, 2015.
- ^ AvenueChicago, The University of ChicagoEdward H. Levi Hall5801 South Ellis; Us, Illinois 60637773 702 1234 Contact. "Presidential Medal of Freedom". The University of Chicago. Retrieved May 20, 2021.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ Friedman, Milton (April 2017). Milton Friedman on Freedom: Selections from The Collected Works of Milton Friedman. Hoover Institution Press. pp. chapter 4. ISBN 978-0817920340. Retrieved March 29, 2023.
- ^ Friedman, Milton & Rose D. Capitalism and Freedom, University of Chicago Press, 1982, p. 29
- ^ Friedman, Milton (2002) [1962]. Capitalism and Freedom (40th anniversary ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. pp. 182–189. ISBN 978-0226264219.
- ^ Friedman, Milton (2002) [1962]. Capitalism and Freedom (40th anniversary ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. pp. 190–195. ISBN 978-0226264219.
- ^ a b Friedman, Milton; Friedman, Rose (1990) [1980]. Free to Choose: A Personal Statement (1st Harvest ed.). New York: Harcourt. pp. 119–124. ISBN 978-0156334600.
- ^ Frank, Robert H. (November 23, 2006). "The Other Milton Friedman: A Conservative With a Social Welfare Program". The New York Times. Archived from the original on July 1, 2017. Retrieved February 22, 2017.
- ^ Friedman, Milton; Friedman, Rose (1990) [1980]. Free to Choose: A Personal Statement (1st Harvest ed.). New York: Harcourt. pp. 111–112. ISBN 978-0156334600.
- ^ McMahon, Jeff (October 12, 2014). "What Would Milton Friedman Do About Climate Change? Tax Carbon". Forbes. Retrieved March 20, 2016.
- ^ Friedman, Milton; Friedman, Rose (1990) [1980]. Free to Choose: A Personal Statement (1st Harvest ed.). New York: Harcourt. pp. 213–218. ISBN 978-0156334600.
- ^ Kearl, J. R.; Pope, Clayne L.; Whiting, Gordon C.; Wimmer, Larry T. (1979). "A Confusion of Economists?". American Economic Review. 69 (2). American Economic Association: 28–37. JSTOR 1801612.
- ^ Milton Friedman (1955). Robert A. Solo (ed.). "The Role of Government in Education," as printed in the book Economics and the Public Interest (PDF). Rutgers University Press. pp. 123–144. Archived (PDF) from the original on May 10, 2017. Retrieved February 12, 2017.
- ^ Ross, Leonard; Zeckhauser, Richard (December 1970). "Review: Education Vouchers". The Yale Law Journal. 80 (2). The Yale Law Journal Company, Inc.: 451–461. doi:10.2307/795126. JSTOR 795126.
- ^ Carnoy, Martin (August 1998). "National Voucher Plans in Chile and Sweden: Did Privatization Reforms Make for Better Education?". Comparative Education Review. 42 (3). University of Chicago Press: 309–337. doi:10.1086/447510. JSTOR 1189163. S2CID 145007866.
- ^ "Economic Freedom of the World project". Fraser Institute. Archived from the original on March 5, 2016. Retrieved February 16, 2016.
- ^ "In the Supreme Court of the United States" (PDF). Harvard Law School. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 2, 2015. Retrieved February 20, 2008.
- ^ Lawrence Lessig (November 19, 2006). "only if the word 'no-brainer' appears in it somewhere: RIP Milton Friedman (Lessig Blog)". Lessig.org. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved April 2, 2013.
- ^ "A New British Bill of Rights: The Case For". ISR Online Guide. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved February 16, 2016.
- ^ Friedman, 2001
- ^ "An open letter". prohibitioncosts.org. Prohibition Costs. Archived from the original on October 31, 2012. Retrieved November 9, 2012.
- ^ "Milton Friedman". ldp.org. Liberal Democratic Party (Australia). 2009. Archived from the original on April 10, 2013. Retrieved February 19, 2013.
- ^ Ebenstein, Lanny (2007). Milton Friedman: A Biography. St. Martin's Publishing Group. p. 228. ISBN 978-0230604094.
- ^ a b c d Dalmia, Shikha (July 19, 2018). "The weaponization of Milton Friedman". The Week. Archived from the original on July 19, 2018. Retrieved July 19, 2018.
- ^ Friedman, Milton; Kowalczyk, Henryk (2006). "A Letter to Mr. Friedman" (PDF). freedomofmigration.com.
- ^ Mangu-Ward, Katherine (2019). "Bryan Caplan says Milton Friedman is wrong about Open Borders". Reason Magazine. Reason Foundation.
- ^ a b Fredman, Milton. Capitalism and Freedom. pp. 179–181.
- ^ Peterson, Jonathan (December 14, 1986). "The Captain of Capitalism : Even as Milton Friedman's Theories Have Gone Out of Vogue in Washington, His Ideas Have Come to Shape the Way Nations Manage Their Money". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved January 11, 2022.
- ^ "The Negro in America". miltonfriedman.hoover.org. Retrieved January 11, 2022.
- ^ "Milton Friedman in a 1966 Newsweek op-ed: the minimum-wage law is a 'monument to the power of superficial thinking'". American Enterprise Institute – AEI. December 5, 2016. Retrieved January 11, 2022.
- ^ "Minimum-Wage Rates". miltonfriedman.hoover.org. Retrieved January 11, 2022.
- ^ Ebenstein, Lanny (2007). Milton Friedman: A Biography. St. Martin's Publishing Group. p. 260. ISBN 978-0230604094.
- ^ "Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement". www.achievement.org. American Academy of Achievement.
- ^ "Milton Friedman Biography and Interview". American Academy of Achievement.
- ^ "Selection Committee Announced for the 2008 Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty". Cato Institute. September 5, 2007. Archived from the original on January 5, 2014. Retrieved January 4, 2014.
- ^ "Milton Friedman Prize page". Cato Institute. Archived from the original on January 20, 2014. Retrieved January 5, 2014.
- ^ Larry Summers (November 19, 2006). "The Great Liberator". The New York Times. Archived from the original on March 28, 2017. Retrieved February 22, 2017.
- ^ Moore, Stephen (May 30, 2013). "What Would Milton Friedman Say?". The Wall Street Journal. p. A13.
- ^ Silk, Leonard (March 31, 1977). "Nobel Award in Economics: Should Prize Be Abolished?". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 16, 2021.
- ^ Dopfer, Kurt (1988). "In Memoriam: Gunnar Myrdal's Contribution to Institutional Economics". Journal of Economic Issues. 22 (1): 227–231. doi:10.1080/00213624.1988.11504742. ISSN 0021-3624. JSTOR 4225966.
- ^ Waldemar Ingdahl (March 22, 2007). "Real Virtuality". The American. Archived from the original on October 3, 2014. Retrieved February 20, 2008.
- ^ Milton Friedman and Rose Friedman (1990). Free to Choose: A Personal Statement. Harvest Books. p. 34. ISBN 978-0156334600.
- ^ Friedman, Milton (October 6, 2006). "Dr. Milton Friedman". Opinion Journal. Archived from the original on October 6, 2006. Retrieved February 20, 2008.
- ^ Chan, Carrie (March 16, 2007). "'Genuine' Tsang turns aggressive". Archived from the original on March 11, 2008.
- ^ Richards, Donald (1997). "The Political Economy of the Chilean Miracle". Latin American Research Review. 32 (1): 139–159. doi:10.1017/S0023879100037705. JSTOR 2504050. S2CID 252743251.
- ^ Letter from Arnold Harberger to Stig Ramel as reprinted in The Wall Street Journal, October 12, 1976, and in Two Lucky People: Memoirs By Milton Friedman, Rose D. Friedman. Appendix A, pp. 598–599. Accessible at books.google.com
- ^ a b Milton Friedman (August 31, 1984). Iceland Television Debate (Flash Video) (Television production). Reykjavík: Icelandic State Television. Event occurs at 009:48:00. Archived from the original on April 23, 2016. Retrieved June 27, 2010.
- ^ a b [Two Lucky People: Memoirs By Milton Friedman, Rose D. Friedman. Appendix A, pp. 591–593. Letter from Friedman to Pinochet, April 21, 1975.]
- ^ Edwards, Sebastian; Montes, Leonidas (2020). "Milton Friedman in Chile: Shock Therapy, Economic Freedom, and Exchange Rates". Journal of the History of Economic Thought. 42: 105–132. doi:10.1017/S1053837219000397. S2CID 214507780 – via Cambridge University Press.
- ^ "Economist's View: The Rivals (Samuelson and Friedman)". economistsview.typepad.com. Retrieved May 21, 2021.
- ^ a b Opazo, Tania (January 12, 2016). "The "Boys" Who Completely Transformed Chile's Economy". Slate Magazine. Retrieved May 21, 2021.
- ^ William Ray Mask II (May 2013). The Great Chilean Recovery: Assigning Responsibility For The Chilean Miracle(s) (Thesis). California State University, Fresno. hdl:10211.3/105425.
- ^ "Chile and the "Chicago Boys"". The Hoover Institution. Stanford University. Archived from the original on August 10, 2012. Retrieved June 20, 2014.
- ^ "Free to Choose Vol. 5". Archived from the original on February 9, 2008. Retrieved February 20, 2008.
- ^ Frances Fox Piven vs. Milton Friedman, Thomas Sowell Archived October 16, 2014, at the Wayback Machine, debate, 1980, YouTube.
- ^ The Smith Center: Milton Friedman's lecture Archived September 22, 2013, at the Wayback Machine, "Economic Freedom, Human Freedom, Political Freedom", by Milton Friedman, delivered November 1, 1991.
- ^ Friedman 1999, pp. 600–601
- ^ Newsweek of June 14, 1976
- ^ "Interview with Jeffery Sachs on the "Miracle of Chile"". PBS. Archived from the original on February 22, 2008. Retrieved February 20, 2008.
- ^ "Commanding Heights: Milton Friedman". PBS. Archived from the original on December 28, 2008. Retrieved December 29, 2008.
- ^ "Milton Friedman interview". PBS. Archived from the original on January 9, 2011. Retrieved February 20, 2008.
- ^ Doherty, Brian (December 15, 2006). "The Economist and the Dictator". Reason.com. Reason Magazine. Retrieved October 8, 2021.
- ^ Friedman, Milton; Grímsson, Ólafur Ragnar. Milton Friedman on Icelandic State Television in 1984.
- ^ Gratulatoria, Tabula; Árnason, Ragnar. "The Libertarian Alliance | RNH". rnh.is. Retrieved May 16, 2021.
- ^ Stolberg, Sharyl (2006). "In Estonia, Bush Finds a Tax Actually to His Liking". The New York Times. Retrieved May 25, 2021.
- ^ "Mart Laar". Cato Institute. Archived from the original on May 15, 2006. Retrieved February 20, 2008.
- ^ Lyons, John F. (2013). America in the British Imagination: 1945 to the Present. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 102. ISBN 978-1137376800.
- ^ Subroto Roy & John Clarke, eds. (2005), Margaret Thatcher's Revolution: How it Happened and What it Meant. Continuum. ISBN 0826484840
- ^ Galbraith, J K (October 8, 1980). "A Fair Trial of the Friedman Formula". The Washington Post.
- ^ "An enduring legacy". The Economist. November 17, 2006. Archived from the original on September 26, 2018. Retrieved September 25, 2018.
- ^ Noble, Holcomb B. (November 16, 2006). "Milton Friedman, Free Markets Theorist, Dies at 94". The New York Times. Archived from the original on September 26, 2018. Retrieved September 25, 2018.
- ^ Norton, Justin M. (November 17, 2006). "Economist Milton Friedman Dies at 94". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Archived from the original on November 27, 2015. Retrieved September 25, 2018.
- ^ "We Are Live at Salon, with an Obituary for Milton Friedman". Grasping Reality with at Least Three Hands. Archived from the original on September 26, 2018. Retrieved September 25, 2018.
- ^ Adams, Richard (November 16, 2006). "Milton Friedman: a study in failure". The Guardian. Archived from the original on September 26, 2018. Retrieved September 25, 2018.
- ^ Goldstein, Evan (August 1, 2008). "Milton Friedman's Controversial Legacy". The Chronicle of Higher Education. Archived from the original on September 26, 2018. Retrieved September 25, 2018.
- ^ Wapshott, Nicholas (2012). "Milton Friedman's legacy: He is the economist conservatives love but don't understand". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Archived from the original on September 26, 2018. Retrieved September 25, 2018.
- ^ Kristula-Green, Noah (July 31, 2012). "Milton Friedman's Unfinished Legacy". The Daily Beast. Retrieved September 25, 2018.
- ^ Smith, Noah (August 14, 2013). "Noahpinion: The cruel trick played by history on Milton Friedman". Noahpinion. Archived from the original on September 26, 2018. Retrieved September 25, 2018.
- ^ "TheMoneyIllusion » Milton Friedman vs. the conservatives". www.themoneyillusion.com. Archived from the original on September 26, 2018. Retrieved September 25, 2018.
- ^ O'Brien, Matthew (March 13, 2012). "What GOP Economists Don't Understand About Milton Friedman". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on September 26, 2018. Retrieved September 25, 2018.
- ^ Reichart Alexandre [2022], 'A Reappraisal of the Friedman-Kaldor Debate in the Light of the Great Recession', SocioEconomic Challenges 6(4), pp. 60–79
- ^ David F. Hendry; Neil R. Ericsson (October 1983). "Assertion without Empirical Basis: An Econometric Appraisal of 'Monetary Trends in ... the United Kingdom' by Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz," in Monetary Trends in the United Kingdom, Bank of England Panel of Academic Consultants, Panel Paper No. 22, pp. 45–101.
See also Federal Reserve International Finance Discussion Paper No. 270 Archived November 3, 2013, at the Wayback Machine (December 1985), which is a revised and shortened version of Hendry–Ericsson 1983. - ^ "M.Friedman – Iceland TV (1984)". YouTube. Archived from the original on March 13, 2016. Retrieved February 16, 2016.
- ^ van Steven Moore, CMA (August 31, 1984). "Milton Friedman – Iceland 2 of 8". YouTube. Archived from the original on May 12, 2014. Retrieved April 22, 2014.
- ^ J. Daniel Hammond (2005). Theory and Measurement: Causality Issues in Milton Friedman's Monetary Economics. Cambridge U.P. pp. 193–199. ISBN 978-0521022644.
- ^ Hendry, David F.; Ericsson, Neil R. (July 1989). "An Econometric Analysis of UK Money Demand in Monetary Trends in the United States and the United Kingdom by Milton Friedman and Anna J. Schwartz" (PDF). International Finance Discussion Papers: 355. Federal Reserve. Archived (PDF) from the original on November 3, 2013. Retrieved August 2, 2013.
- ^ Hendry, David F. (April 25, 2013). "Friedman's t-ratios were overstated by nearly 100%". Financial Times. Archived from the original on October 30, 2013. Retrieved May 1, 2013.
- ^ Escribano, Alvaro (2004). "Nonlinear error correction: The case of money demand in the United Kingdom (1878–2000)" (PDF). Macroeconomic Dynamics. 8 (1): 76–116. doi:10.1017/S1365100503030013. hdl:10016/2573. S2CID 154353317. Archived (PDF) from the original on November 3, 2013. Retrieved August 1, 2013.
Escribano's approach had already been recognized by Friedman, Schwartz, Hendry et al. (p. 14 of the pdf) as yielding significant improvements over previous money demand equations. - ^ Colander, D. (1995). Is Milton Friedman an artist or a scientist?. Journal of Economic Methodology, 2(1), 105–122.
- ^ Smith, Noah (January 12, 2017). "Milton Friedman's Cherished Theory Is Laid to Rest". www.bloomberg.com. Archived from the original on September 26, 2018. Retrieved September 25, 2018.
- ^ Macpherson, Crawford (1968). "Elegant Tombstones: A Note on Friedman's Freedom". Canadian Journal of Political Science / Revue canadienne de science politique. 1 (1). Canadian Political Science Association: 95–106. doi:10.1017/S0008423900035241. JSTOR 3231697. S2CID 154470384 – via JSTOR.
- ^ Caldwell, Bruce J. (1980). "A Critique of Friedman's Methodological Instrumentalism". Southern Economic Journal. 47 (2): 366–374. doi:10.2307/1057529. ISSN 0038-4038. JSTOR 1057529.
- ^ Hill, Lewis E. (1968). "A Critique of Positive Economics". The American Journal of Economics and Sociology. 27 (3): 259–266. doi:10.1111/j.1536-7150.1968.tb01047.x. ISSN 0002-9246. JSTOR 3485086.
- ^ Ng, Yew-Kwang. (2016). Are unrealistic Assumptions/Simplifications Acceptable? Some Methodological Issues in Economics. Pacific Economic Review, 21(2), 180–201.
- ^ Mäki, Uskali (2009). 3 – Unrealistic assumptions and unnecessary confusions: rereading and rewriting F53 as a realist statement. Cambridge University Press. pp. 90–116. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511581427.005
- ^ Maki, U., & Mäki, U. (Eds.). (2009). The methodology of positive economics: reflections on the Milton Friedman legacy. Cambridge University Press.
- ^ Block, Walter (2013). "Was Milton Friedman a Socialist? Yes". MEST Journal. 1(1):11–26: 13–14. doi:10.12709/mest.01.01.01.02.pdf – via ResearchGate.
- ^ "Historical Inflation Rates: 1914-2024". www.usinflationcalculator.com. July 24, 2008. Retrieved February 7, 2024.
- ^ Bordo, Michael (1989). "The Contributions of "A Monetary History of the United States, 1867–1960" to Monetary History". Money, History, and International Finance: Essays in Honor of Anna J. Schwartz. University of Chicago Press. p. 15. ISBN 0226065936.
- ^ "A Monetary History of the United States, 1867–1960". Cato Institute. November 21, 2003. Retrieved May 16, 2021.
- ^ Temin, Peter. "Review: Money, Money Everywhere: A Retrospective Review. Reviewed work(s): A Monetary History of the United States, 1867–1960. By Milton Friedman; Anna Jacobson Schwartz." Reviews in American History, Vol. 5, No. 2 (Jun. 1977), pp. 151–159.
- ^ "Monetary aggregates – Broad money (M3)". theOECD. Retrieved May 16, 2021.
- ^ Krugman, Paul (2012). "Milton's Paradise Lost". The New York Times.
- ^ "Milton Friedman, Unperson". New York Times. August 8, 2013. Retrieved May 16, 2021.
- ^ Tobin, James (1965). "The Monetary Interpretation of History". American Economic Review. 55 (3): 464–485. JSTOR 1814559 – via JSTOR.
- ^ Eichengreen, Barry (1992). Golden Fetters. Oxford University Press. pp. 187–222. ISBN 978-0195064315.
- ^ a b c "Rebuilding Worker Power – IMF F&D". www.imf.org. Retrieved January 11, 2022.
Sources
[edit]- Bernanke, Ben (2004). Essays on the Great Depression. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0691118208.
- Ebenstein, Alan O. (2007). Milton Friedman: A Biography. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0230603455.
- Friedman, Milton (1999). Two Lucky People: Memoirs. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0226264158.
Further reading
[edit]External videos | |
---|---|
![]() |
- Burns, Jennifer (2023). Milton Friedman: The Last Conservative. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 9780374601140. OCLC 1355021202.
- "Symposium: Why Is There No Milton Friedman Today?". Econ Journal Watch. 10 (2). May 2013.
- Jones, Daniel Stedman. Masters of the Universe: Hayek, Friedman, and the Birth of Neoliberal Politics (2nd ed. 2014)
- McCloskey, Deirdre (Winter 2003). "Other Things Equal: Milton". Eastern Economic Journal. 29 (1): 143–146. JSTOR 40326463.
- Steelman, Aaron (2008). "Friedman, Milton (1912–2006)". In Hamowy, Ronald (ed.). The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage; Cato Institute. pp. 195–197. doi:10.4135/9781412965811.n118. ISBN 978-1412965804. LCCN 2008009151. OCLC 750831024.
- Wood, John Cunningham; Ronald N. Wood, eds. (1990). Milton Friedman: Critical Assessments. Critical Assessments of Contemporary Economists Vol. IV. London: Routledge. ISBN 9780415020053. OCLC 20296405.
External links
[edit]- Collected Works of Milton Friedman (Multiple Text, audio, video)
- The Milton Friedman papers at the Hoover Institution Archives
- Selected Bibliography for Milton Friedman at the University of Chicago Library
- Profile and Papers at Research Papers in Economics/RePEc
- Milton Friedman collected news and commentary at The New York Times
- Becker Friedman Institute at the University of Chicago
- The Foundation for Educational Choice
- Milton Fridman at Scarlett
- Inflation and Unemployment 1976 lecture at NobelPrize.org
- Nobel Memorial Prize acceptance speech
- "Milton Friedman (1912–2006)". The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics. Library of Economics and Liberty (2nd ed.). Liberty Fund. 2008.
- Milton Friedman vs. The Fed Bailout by Michael Hirsh, Newsweek, July 17, 2009
- Four Deformations of the Apocalypse, David Stockman, The New York Times, July 31, 2010
- Roberts, Russ. "Milton Friedman Podcasts". EconTalk. Library of Economics and Liberty.
- Milton Friedman publications indexed by Google Scholar
- A collection of Milton Friedman's works
- Videos
- Appearances on C-SPAN
- A film clip "The Open Mind – Living Within Our Means (1975)" is available for viewing at the Internet Archive
- A film clip "The Open Mind – A Nobel Laureate on the American Economy (1977)" is available for viewing at the Internet Archive
- Milton Friedman on Charlie Rose
- "'Free to Choose' (1980) a [PBS] TV series by Milton Friedman"
- Free to Choose on YouTube
- Milton Friedman, Commanding Heights, PBS, October 1, 2000, interview, profile and video
- Milton Friedman at the Cato Institute
- Free to Choose Network
- Milton Friedman
- 1912 births
- 2006 deaths
- 20th-century American economists
- 20th-century American Jews
- 20th-century American male writers
- 20th-century American non-fiction writers
- 21st-century American economists
- 21st-century American Jews
- 21st-century American male writers
- 21st-century American non-fiction writers
- Academics from San Francisco
- American agnostics
- American anti-communists
- American classical liberals
- American drug policy reform activists
- American economics writers
- American libertarians
- American male non-fiction writers
- American Nobel laureates
- American people of Hungarian-Jewish descent
- American political philosophers
- American political writers
- Cato Institute people
- Chicago School economists
- Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni
- Columbia University faculty
- Critics of socialism
- Deaths from congestive heart failure
- Distinguished Fellows of the American Economic Association
- Earhart Foundation Fellows
- Economists from California
- Economists from Illinois
- Fellows of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge
- Fellows of the American Statistical Association
- Fellows of the Econometric Society
- Friedman family
- Illinois Republicans
- Jewish agnostics
- Jewish American activists
- Jewish American economists
- Jewish American non-fiction writers
- Jewish anti-communists
- Libertarian economists
- Libertarian theorists
- American macroeconomists
- Mathematicians from Illinois
- Member of the Mont Pelerin Society
- Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
- Monetarists
- Monetary economists
- Monetary reformers
- National Bureau of Economic Research
- National Medal of Science laureates
- Nobel laureates in Economics
- People from Chicago
- Philosophy writers
- Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients
- Presidents of the American Economic Association
- Rahway High School alumni
- Rutgers University alumni
- University of Chicago alumni
- University of Chicago faculty
- Writers from Chicago
- Writers from San Francisco