A Second Hand Conjecture

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For all of our coverage of the passing of Milton Friedman, and all the links you could ever want, go to our Milton Friedman Memorial page.

From Pejman,”That’s right. A lecture concerning a mundane topic like the creation of a pencil was made dazzling and fascinating by Milton Friedman. Imagine what he could do with questions and debate regarding matters of great import and consequence.”

Reuters

The BBC

Tyler Cowen who, like me, started with Friedman:”I believe Capitalism and Freedom was the second or third book I ever read on economics and it definitely shaped my life. I knew Milton only a bit but he was always gracious and of course razor sharp and a lover of liberty and prosperity. He was one of the most important minds of the second half of the twentieth century and his influence remains felt all around the world. In purely academic terms, he easily could have won two or three Nobel Prizes from the quality and quantity of his work.”

The New York Times has a long piece on his life.

Steve Levitt makes a wonderful point: “He was truly a revolutionary thinker. People do not realize how revolutionary because so many of his ideas that were thought to be crazy when he suggested them eventually came to be seen as obvious: school choice, a volunteer army, etc.”

Jane Galt pretending to be Economist Magazine: “An economics giant, he not only revolutionised monetary theory, but singlehandedly did more than almost any economist in history to advance the cause of free markets. He was not merely an accomplished economist, but an accomplished popular writer; his Newsweek columns remain gems of clarity and brilliance decades later. We will not soon see his like again.”

The only way that has ever been discovered to have a lot of people cooperate together voluntarily is through the free market. And that’s why it’s so essential to preserving individual freedom. ~ Milton Friedman

Brian Doherty of Reason magazine needless to say has a lot to say:

Undoubtedly the most successful and influential proponent of libertarian thought in the 20th century, Milton Friedman, died last night at age 94. His successes as both a technical economist and libertarian polemicist are enormous. We can thank him, in large part, for happy events from the elimination of the draft to the conquest of inflation. Just a quick note now–his impact was staggering, and there could never be enough words said in praise of him.

My 1995 Reason interview with him.

A 2005 Reason interview, with Nick Gillespie, on his legacy of fighting for school choice.

His most recent Reason interview, with me, in our November issue, as part of a roundtable on the Federal Reserve.

Jacob Sullum’s celebration of Friedman’s 90th birthday.

Recently Russ Roberts had an engaging conversation with Milton and this is a wonderful interview with Milton and Rose which led to two posts discussing the question of libertarians and war here at A Second Hand Conjecture.

Radley Balko gives his thoughts and recommends this letter he sent to William Bennett on the Drug War.

Blake Hounshell (aka Praktike) and Ezra Klein give their thoughts despite their opposition to his views.

Representative Jeff Flake leaves his thoughts:

“It’s a rare economist who can translate numbers and statistics into concepts and ideas that change the way people live,” said Flake. “Milton Friedman was such an economist. His influence on those of us who believe in the power of free markets cannot be measured.”

Deep Thoughts points out: “A little known fact about Friedman was that he did not consider his economic work to be his greatest achievement. He felt it was his contribution towards ending the draft in the 70s. I would be proud of that accomplishment too.”

For a collection of short videos, including one the great justifications for limited government ever recorded we suggest you visit here. There are more archived here.

Needless to say the denizens of the Democratic Underground are actually happy.

Jom Henke at QandO gives us his thoughts.

Tyler Cowen gives further thoughts: “Milton was always on a quest toward a greater truth. If an argument ran against him — and usually it didn’t — he would submit and pick up the pieces in a purely forward-looking manner.”

Read why he thinks this to be true as well as his partner at Marginal Revolution, Alex Tabarrok: “On a personal note, Friedman inspired my book, Entrepreneurial Economics: Bright Ideas from the Dismal Science, in which I said Milton Friedman was the greatest entrepreneurial economist of the twentieth century. It was thus a real thrill for me and a bringing around of the circle when I sent him a draft and he wrote back praising the book (see the back cover!).”

At the Volokh Conspiracy Ilya Somin and David Bernstein also note how their fathers introduction to the thought of Friedman set them on their intellectual path. Ilya also points out the many ways he challenged traditional conservative ideals:

In addition to his more technical scholarship in economics, Friedman also invented an impressive range of public policy proposals, many of which remain relevant today. For example, his 1955 essay “The Role of Government in Education” introduced the idea of school vouchers, which recent studies show provide far greater benefits to poor and minority students than any other potential education policy reforms. Friedman was also a longtime proponent of the volunteer military on both economic and individual rights grounds. The abolition of the draft in 1971 was partially a result of his advocacy and its influence on political conservatives (most of whom previously were inclined to support conscription). Other influential Friedman policy ideas include the negative income tax (on which today’s earned income tax credit is partly based), and – of course -the monetary rule. Somewhat unfortunately, Friedman (at that time still a left-winger) also invented the idea of income tax withholding while working as an economist for the the Treasury Department during World War II. Although Friedman intended it to be a temporary wartime measure, it soon turned into a permanent expansion of government power – a result that the later, libertarian Friedman would surely have predicted:)!

Jane Galt compares the legacy of Milton with that of John Kenneth Galbraith since Ezra Klein compared them. In the comments Ezra concedes her point, but feels she missed his. Here is Jane’s take:

Unlike other popularisers, such as Paul Krugman, whose best popular work (such as Pop Internationalism) focused on his own field, what Mr Friedman is known for within the academy is completely different from what has made him famous outside it, which is possibly why liberals tend to classify him with Mr Galbraith. Mr Friedman has done more than possibly any other economist to advance the cause of free markets. But that is not his only contribution; perhaps it is not even his largest. Anyone who would compare the Nobel prize-winner to JKG as an economist can only have a gaping hole in their economic education.

From the Wall Street Journal:

George Shultz, Reagan’s secretary of state and longtime friend, says Milton Friedman’s reputation as a debater intimidated his critics. The saying was, he says, “Everyone loves to argue with Milton, particularly when he isn’t there.”

Alan Greenspan, former Fed chairman, says of Friedman’s self-assuredness: “The famous joke was ‘I wish I could be as sure of anything as Milton is of everything.’ ”

James Galbraith, son of John Kenneth Galbraith, says at a lunch in Geneva in 1955, India’s statistician mentioned to his father that the Indian government had asked several economists, including Milton Friedman, to visit and comment on Indian’s next five-year plan. His father replied: “Asking Milton Friedman to comment on a five year plan is like asking the pope to comment on the running of a birth control clinic.” As a result, his father was invited instead. He later served as U.S. ambassador to India in the Kennedy administration.

Not long after being elected in 1979, Margaret Thatcher invited Friedman to meet several of her cabinet ministers. She had to leave the meeting early and as she did, she asked him to “instruct some of the ‘wets’ in her cabinet,” he later wrote.

A particularly disdainful view of Friedman from Edward Champion:

When considering Friedman, one does not often consider such “suicidal” values as empathy, a concern for humanity, or even a sense of wonder (save perhaps that all-seeing eye on the dollar bill). One does not consider duty, except as it pertains to earning the maximum profits possible for the employer. One does not consider an economic system that provides safeguards against greed, corruption, and providing welfare for the vanquished. One considers the free market and only the free market.

Mark Steyn points out something of a more political nature:

I write this from the National Review Mexico cruise on which one of my fellow panelists this week was scheduled to be Milton Friedman. He was taken ill shortly before we sailed, was forced to cancel, and died last night. He was the principal economic influence on President Reagan, Mrs Thatcher and other leaders determined to reverse the ill-effects of Keynesianism in the west, and through them he became equally influential in post-Soviet eastern Europe. He was one of the most important figures of the age, and, had the Republican Congress understood why, they might still be in power.

Andrew Sullivan agrees with Steyn, something that happens more than many people would suspect.

Larry Kudlow has an especially warm assessment.

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