In Memoriam: Milton Friedman

Milton Friedman

1912-2006

I am not an economist, so I am nowhere near qualified to outline all of the contributions made by the great Milton Friedman, who died Wednesday at the age of 94. However, I can tell you that Friedman had an amazing impact on modern conservative and libertarian thought. His message was simple, the more freedom people have, the more prosperous they will be. His suggestion to the governments of the world was equally simple - quit messing around in the economy, you'll only screw it up! This may sound like common sense, but the Keynesian economic theory that dominated in the mid 20th century actually advocated active government intervention in the economy in the form of increases in government spending. Friedman's ideas revolutionized economics. They earned him the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1976 and many people (until Wednesday) considered him the world's greatest living economist. Milton Friedman proved that freedom isn't just a pie-in-the-sky idea, but rather that it actually creates a stronger economy. Lovers of liberty everywhere are in his debt.

Tags: Milton Friedman, Economy, Economics, Monetarism, Freedom, Liberty, Libertarian, Classical Liberalism, Libertarians, Libertarianism