Sad Day for Liberty
My brother just sent me this news story from Reuters:
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=businessNews&storyid=2006-11-16T185745Z_01_WBT006219_RTRUKOC_0_US-FRIEDMAN.xml&src=rss&rpc=23
The story is about the death of Milton Friedman at the age of 94. Professor Friedman was probably one of the 20th century’s most important social thinkers. His theories, and those of his followers, helped convince policy makers about the importance of bringing down inflation, and why inflation is such a poor tool to fight unemployment. In the 70s when I was in college, inflation spiralled from about 4% per year to about 13% and really got out of hand. Since then, the Fed has been more careful about the growth of the money supply and our inflation rate has gone to about 2-3% per year, as measured by the CPI, which usually overstates the inflation rate by at least 1 percentage point.
In addition, Milton Friedman has been a tireless freedom fighter, fighting for everyday freedoms. He also was the person who invented education vouchers and started the whole education choice discussion.
Professor Friedman will be missed, but he certainly will not be forgotten.
Morris Coats
November 17th, 2006 at 10:33 pm
I’ll second Dr. Coats’ sentiments.
If you were to only read one book in college, you could do far worse that reading Milton Friedman’s Free to Choose. It’s probably close to 25 years old, but still every bit as relevant today as it was then.
For those of you who may be apprehensive, let me assure you that Dr. Friedman was one of those rare breed of economists who could communicate complex economic issues to laypeople clearly. Check it out. His other famous book, Capitalism and Freedom, is no slouch either.
–CT
November 23rd, 2006 at 12:56 pm
He will certainly be missed.
After reading a bit of his work, I found that he unlike most clearly explained things that were complex and generally not easy to understand otherwise. I appreciated the non-pretentious presentation of nearly revolutionary ideas. His work actually made me enjoy economic thinking(as I am generally not as logical).I encourage econ students to research him and his work. – Amanda
November 27th, 2006 at 2:26 pm
Friedman was a true philosopher of economics. He had studied the market system and applied it to evryday life. I guess he made it understandable for people to read.(Especially, individuals like myself who do not understand a economies.) He was a pioneer for modern ecomonies.
November 27th, 2006 at 11:57 pm
Okay so I’m convinced I should put this book on my must read, especially if it will help with my quest to someday understand economics.
November 29th, 2006 at 4:20 pm
After learning about inflation and how it works in 255 today, I definitely realize the importance of Professor Friedman’s work. Just imagine if inflation was still going at a rate of 13% a year. Scary thought.
Another interesting piece of informatoin about Milton Friedman was that he was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in 1976 for his achievements in the fields of consumption analysis, monetary history and theory and for his demonstration of the complexity of stabilization policy. (Wikipedia)