Many Years, Milton Friedman

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Michael G

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One of the greatest freemarket economists in some time passed away yesterday. Many, many years Mr. Friedman

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,230004,00.html

SAN FRANCISCO — Milton Friedman, the Nobel Prize-winning economist who advocated an unfettered free market and had the ear of three U.S. presidents, died Thursday at age 94.

Friedman died in San Francisco, said Robert Fanger, a spokesman for the Milton and Rose D. Friedman Foundation in Indianapolis. He did not know the cause of death.

"Milton's passion for freedom and liberty has influenced more lives than he ever could possibly know," said Gordon St. Angelo, the foundation's president and CEO, said in a statement. "His writings and ideas have transformed the minds of U.S. presidents, world leaders, entrepreneurs and freshmen economic majors alike."

In more than a dozen books, a column in Newsweek magazine and a TV show on PBS, Friedman championed individual freedom in economics and politics. The longtime University of Chicago professor pioneered a school of thought that became known as the Chicago school of economics.

His theory of monetarism, adopted in part by the Nixon, Ford and Reagan administrations, opposed the traditional Keynesian economics that had dominated U.S. policy since the New Deal. He was a member of Reagan's Economic Policy Advisory Board.

His work in consumption analysis, monetary history and stabilization policy earned him the Nobel Prize in economics in 1976...

...Friedman favored a policy of steady, moderate growth in the money supply, opposed wage and price controls and criticized the Federal Reserve when it tried to fine-tune the economy.

A believer in the principles of 18th century economist Adam Smith, he consistently argued that individual freedom should rule economic policy. Outspoken and controversial, Friedman saw his theories attacked by many traditional economists such as Harvard's John Kenneth Galbraith.

In an essay titled "Is Capitalism Humane?" he said that "a set of social institutions that stresses individual responsibility, that treats the individual ... as responsible for and to himself, will lead to a higher and more desirable moral climate."

Friedman acknowledged that "pure capitalism" did not exist, but said that nations that cherished freedom must strive to keep the economy as close to the ideal as possible.

He said government should allow the free market to operate to solve inflation and other economic problems. But he also urged adoption of a "negative income tax" in which people who earn less than a certain amount would get money from the government.

He lived to see free market reforms spread in the former communist world and Latin America, but played down his own influence.

"I hope what I wrote contributed to that, but it was not the moving force," Friedman told The New York Sun in March 2006. "People like myself, what we did was keep these ideas open until the time came when they could be accepted."

Born in New York City on July 31, 1912, Friedman began developing his economic theories during the Great Depression when President Franklin D. Roosevelt's based his New Deal on the ideas of Britain's John Maynard Keynes, the most influential economist of the time.

Keynes argued that the government should intervene in economic affairs to avoid depressions by increasing spending and controlling interest rates.

Friedman graduated from Rutgers University in 1932 and earned his master's degree the following year at the University of Chicago...
 

romanov

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A lot of folks today impugn Adam Smith's invisible hand. It's funny how that invisible hand keeps slapping us up side the head. I think that is one of the things Friedman understood.

Since I had the opportunity to study Keynsian economics and Roosevelt's implementation of said same. I have argued that the Fed caused the Great Depression and Roosevelt's policies extended it. I've been called every thing but a Child of God for believing that. It's funny how recently the Fed admitted that not only did they cause but also that they exacerbated the Great Depression.

All this is laid out in Milton Friedman's works which after I read, I was able to refine my arguments.

Another "great" econimist which people seem to be in love with now is that fellow they made that movie A Beautiful Mind about; John Forbes Nash. A lot of his theories have been applied to union negotiations, public policy, foreign policy and he even won a Nobel Prize for his work. Part of the problem that General Motors and Ford have is the union contracts they've negotiated over the last 25 years or so are dang near bankrupting them. These contracts were based on the theories of Nash. 25 years later, here comes the invisible hand slapping them up side the head again.
 
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ArnautDaniel

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Hmmm...Adam Smith...

If more people who quoted the "Wealth of Nations" actually read it, they would know that Smith wasn't exactly laissez faire and had a distinct mistrust of what we now term "corporations".

The statement about the "invisible hand" was meant to be ironic, and a slap in the face to those who thought markets would magically take care of problems by themselves.

Ah, the power of propaganda...

...oh and didn't the collapse of the Chilean economy under Pinochet pretty much show Friedman's economics for the vacuous failure it is?
 
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romanov

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Hmmm...Adam Smith...

If more people who quoted the "Wealth of Nations" actually read it, they would know that Smith wasn't exactly laissez faire and had a distinct mistrust of what we now term "corporations".

Read it.

Know he wasn't totally laissez faire, but he certianly would not go for the micro managed economy of today.

And I do have a problem myself with the modern incarnation of "corparations."

I try to keep my post short.

The statement about the "invisible hand" was meant to be ironic, and a slap in the face to those who thought markets would magically take care of problems by themselves.

Ironic or not the invisable hand is another way of saying for every action there is an equal reaction. I still know that I would reather the market dictate than self serving Bankers, politicians, Wall Street Mogals, and corporations.

Ah, the power of propaganda...

Yeah I see that.

...oh and didn't the collapse of the Chilean economy under Pinochet pretty much show Friedman's economics for the vacuous failure it is?

Ah, the power of propaganda...
 
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Michael G

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Hmmm...Adam Smith...

If more people who quoted the "Wealth of Nations" actually read it, they would know that Smith wasn't exactly laissez faire and had a distinct mistrust of what we now term "corporations".

The statement about the "invisible hand" was meant to be ironic, and a slap in the face to those who thought markets would magically take care of problems by themselves.

Ah, the power of propaganda...

...oh and didn't the collapse of the Chilean economy under Pinochet pretty much show Friedman's economics for the vacuous failure it is?
This thread is not about debating economic policy. This thread is about remembering the great economist Milton Friedman. I have read the Wealth of Nations and understand fully what Smith was saying in the book, and have studied Friedman's teachings. Please refrain from debating economics in this thread.
 
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romanov

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This thread is not about debating economic policy. This thread is about remembering the great economist Milton Friedman. I have read the Wealth of Nations and understand fully what Smith was saying in the book, and have studied Friedman's teachings. Please refrain from debating economics in this thread.

My apologies for my part.
 
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Paisley

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Sorry, Michael, I could not contain myself. :D hehe...

Just so it all isn't a complete waste of time.... a famous quote:

"Let your secret sympathies and your compassion be always with the under dog in the fight -- this is magnanimity; but bet on the other one -- this is business." ~Mark Twain


:hug: :holy:
 
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Michael G

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Sorry, Michael, I could not contain myself. :D hehe...

Just so it all isn't a complete waste of time.... a famous quote:

"Let your secret sympathies and your compassion be always with the under dog in the fight -- this is magnanimity; but bet on the other one -- this is business." ~Mark Twain


:hug: :holy:
That is fine, I just don't want this to turn into a debate about free market economics vs. keynsian economics.
 
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Paisley

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That is fine, I just don't want this to turn into a debate about free market economics vs. keynsian economics.
That's why I added the Mark Twain quote.... change the subject yet another way. :)
 
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