Milton Friedman (1912-2006)

Milton Friedman died this morning. Though a towering figure in the field of economics, Friedman was probably not, "the most influential economist of the 20th century," as NPR described him (Keynes might have had something to say about that...) nor did he win the Nobel Peace Prize, as NPR also mistakenly reported. (The Nobel prize Friedman won was, of course, for Economics.)

Friedman was, however, the most renowned and eloquent exponent of the libertarian view of economics of his time. He wrote for Newsweek and PBS. He served as an economic advisor to President Reagan. He argued against anything he considered government interference in the marketplace. He held that the Keynesian notion of counter-cyclical spending was dangerous nonsense. He believed the Federal Reserve had exacerbated (if not caused) the Great Depression by attempting to meddle with the money supply. He famously advocated replacing the Delphic Federal Reserve Board with a computer that would set interest rates by a transparent, predictable algorithm. He advocated the flat tax and the negative income tax as the only acceptable forms of social engineering. Above all, Friedman argued always that what he considered to be economic "freedom" was the surest path to political freedom.

When I was a senior at Cal, I took a course on public sector economics and our professor strongly encouraged us to read Friedman's book, Capitalism and Freedom. She wanted us to read it not for enlightenment, but because, "It is important to understand the enemy." I imagine Friedman would have been honored to hear himself described that way. For though she disputed nearly every sentence he wrote, my professor grudgingly admired Friedman for his intellectual honesty... a sadly scarce quality in right-wing academics these days.

For his many brilliant contributions to economics, and most of all for the sincerity with which he approached his work, I mourn Friedman's passing.