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Freedom Man - Milton Friedman had both genius and common sense (Tribute by Sowell)
The Wall Street Journal ^ | November 18, 2006 | Thomas Sowell

Posted on 11/17/2006 11:33:58 PM PST by Zakeet

PALO ALTO, Calif.--Milton Friedman was one of the very few intellectuals with both genius and common sense. He could express himself at the highest analytical levels to his fellow economists in academic publications and still write popular books such as "Capitalism and Freedom" and "Free to Choose" that could be understood by people who knew nothing about economics. Indeed, his television series, "Free to Choose," was readily understandable even by people who don’t read books.

Milton Friedman may well have been the most important economist of the 20th century, even if John Maynard Keynes was the most famous. No small part of Friedman’s achievement was rescuing economics from the pervasive and virtually unquestioned Keynesian orthodoxy that reigned in many places.

(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Editorial; News/Current Events; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: economics; friedman; inflation; johnmaynardkeynes; keynesian; keynesians; miltonfriedman; phillipscurve; unemployment
Another excellent tribute.

Sowell is a former student of Friedman's at the University of Chicago and presently serves as the Rose and Milton Friedman Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, at Stanford.

1 posted on 11/17/2006 11:33:59 PM PST by Zakeet
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To: Zakeet

Milton Friedman was a brilliant man who could express his ideas with a clarity that made them easy to understand. I can't believe I'm talking about him in the past tense. I wish they would run his "Free to Choose" series on television again.


2 posted on 11/17/2006 11:49:52 PM PST by Chesterbelloc
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To: Zakeet
"He could express himself at the highest analytical levels to his fellow economists in academic publications and still write popular books such as "Capitalism and Freedom" and "Free to Choose" that could be understood by people who knew nothing about economics. Indeed, his television series, "Free to Choose," was readily understandable even by people who don’t read books."

Probably the best part about Friedman, IMHO. While von Mises is probably THE authoritative thinker on economics, his writings tended to be beyond the average person to understand (his work 'Human Action', is long, dry, but illuminative if one has the patience to read through it).
Friedman was able to translate how the free market economics impacted the individual into terms the average person could understand, and subsequently (along with the Chicago school) had a lot of influence in politics--Chile's move to privatized social security, for instance.
RIP, Milton, even if von Mises once accused you of being a socialist.

3 posted on 11/17/2006 11:53:41 PM PST by Tench_Coxe
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To: Zakeet

Gov. Haley Barbour just gave a beautiful tribute to Mr. Friedman speaking at the Federalist Society dinner. on C-SPAN. He's still speaking and answering questions now...


4 posted on 11/17/2006 11:54:48 PM PST by Liberty Valance (Keep a simple manner for a happy life)
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To: Zakeet
Mr. Sowell is the Rose and Milton Friedman Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, at Stanford. (A selection of excerpts from Mr. Friedman’s op-eds for The Wall Street Journal is posted here..)

His student writing his obituary in the Wall Street Journal. It doesn't get much better than this. I was just about to post this editorial.

5 posted on 11/18/2006 12:03:24 AM PST by neverdem (May you be in heaven a half hour before the devil knows that you're dead.)
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To: Tench_Coxe
RIP, Milton, even if von Mises once accused you of being a socialist.

There are no shortage of "Austrian school" types - fans of L.V. Mises and Murray Rothbard, primarily - who think that even the great F.A. Hayek was a borderline socialist! ....and they probably think Friedman was a pinko supreme. To them, advocacy of any gov't whatsoever (even national defense) is a sure sign of commie leanings. They're anarchists, essentially. .....or "anarchocapitalists."

6 posted on 11/18/2006 12:24:18 AM PST by Mr. Mojo
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To: Mr. Mojo
"..and they probably think Friedman was a pinko supreme."

Well, there is that fiat money thing......:)

7 posted on 11/18/2006 12:29:30 AM PST by Tench_Coxe
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To: Zakeet

My library has quite of few of Milton's works. Some still unread, but the one's I did read, profoundly changed me.

I'm on my third copy of "Free to Choose." I gave the other two to liberals and they never gave it back. Probably never read it either.

His genius is unquestioned by this Freeper. I've never found him to be wrong on his theories (when he predicts what will happen - it happens - and the world economy has a billion and one parameters to fiddle with).

In my youth, I studied Buckley, Rand, then Friendman, and then, by golly, Ronald Reagan ran for President clutching a copy of "Free to Choose." Would Reagen win? Although he predated Friedman, the Conservative Goldwater got trounced and Reagan was wearing the same label.

Somehow - it all came into place. The world was fixed.

But, alas, it was temporary. Here we go again.

I'm off to read those unread books.


8 posted on 11/18/2006 2:21:32 AM PST by The Raven (There's no such thing as a free lunch.)
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To: Zakeet

Though I never had Friedman as a professor, he changed my life. I went to the University of Chicago because of him, and while there learned from many of his students. His writings were also a deep influence. He had the genius of being able to write brilliant technical economics articles and equally brilliant (and persuasive) polemics. He stood out not just as a thinker, but a writer--something all too rare in economics.


9 posted on 11/18/2006 7:23:00 AM PST by financeprof (Proud to be a climate change skeptic--skepticism is the hallmark of science)
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