Milton Friedman: An economy genius or exagerated?

I think there were three Milton Friedman:
1) The reseracher and theorist
2) the practitioner and mentor
3) the politician

In my opinion he was very succesful in 1) (monetary theory became a doxa of its own) moderatly successful in 2) (he made mistakes but inspired successful policies) and completely over the top in 3) (in my opinion he was trapped in a maximalist speach and couldn't escape it).

For my one thousand and first post, I will defend the economic policies of Milton Freidman, as well as those of the R. Reagan adminhistration!

Uncle Milty, as we used to call him on the high holiday celebretations the I used to attend with the family, was always a highlight of our lives! He was one of those of us who actually "made it!"

But, no matter how the family felt about him, the rest of this nation should have loved him more! It was by his fiscal control that America pulled itself out of the quagmire created by the Carter Administration!

But, please note that I am only kidding about being related to "Uncle Milty", either of them! Do any of you know about the other one?

Regardless, all any of you have to do is look at the current "money supply!" That is the amount of "real" US dollars that have to sometime be in circulation to meet the comitments made by both the Bush and the current Obama administrations!

As Wikipedia says; "Friedman's political philosophy, which he considered classically liberal and libertarian, emphasized the advantages of free market economics and the disadvantages of government intervention and regulation, strongly influencing the opinions of American conservatives and libertarians. In his 1962 book Capitalism and Freedom, Friedman advocated policies such as a volunteer military, freely floating exchange rates, abolition of licensing of doctors, a negative income tax, and education vouchers.[6] His books and essays were well read and were even circulated illegally in Communist countries.[7][8]"

Thus, whenever I see the "unfunded" National debt, as a part of our future, not much longer mine, but you younger people, all I can say, is I hope there is a "Uncle Milty" junior out there somewhere!

Unless someone, a president I hope, sees the ultimate end of our current economic policies, and takes drastic steps to institute reforms, then I actually see my nation (The USA) take a step that will almost mirror the state that existed in Germany during the Weimar Republic!

Inflation of the greatest degree! And, since the Weimar Republic was not the "greatest" or "wealthist" nation during its existance then its inflationary demise could not influence the rest of the worlds economy as would the same conditions (if transfered to the USA) soon influenced the "World's Economy!"

If one doubts the influence Freidman's policies had upon both US and the world's economies, then one only has to compare the Carter era to the Reagan!

Here is how Freidman is characterized by Wikipedia;

"Originally a Keynesian supporter of the New Deal and advocate of government intervention in the economy, during the 1950s his reinterpretation of the Keynesian consumption function challenged the basic Keynesian model. At the University of Chicago, Friedman became the main advocate for opposing Keynesianism.[3] During the 1960s he promoted an alternative macroeconomic policy known as "monetarism". He theorized there existed a "natural rate of unemployment" and he argued the central government could not micromanage the economy because people would realize what the government was doing and change their behavior to neutralize such policies. He rejected the Phillips Curve and predicted that Keynesian policies then existing would cause "stagflation" (high inflation and minimal growth).[4] Friedman's claim that monetary policy could have prevented the Great Depression was an attempt to refute the analysis of Keynes, who argued that monetary policy is ineffective during depression conditions and that fiscal policy — large-scale deficit spending by the government — is needed to decrease mass unemployment. Though opposed to the existence of the Federal Reserve, Friedman argued that, given that it does exist, a steady expansion of the money supply was the only wise policy, and he warned against efforts by a treasury or central bank to do otherwise.[5]"

I now rest my case!

Regards, (1001)

PS,   By the way the definition of "maxiamialist" from the earlier posts here is;

"maximalist definition maxi·mal·ist (-məl ist)

noun- a person who favors direct or revolutionary action to achieve a goal

Etymology: maximal + -ist
Webster's New World College Dictionary Copyright © 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc."

Was Freidman either a direct approach kind of guy or was he a revolutionary?


Edited by opuslola - 03-Apr-2010 at 16:40