Milton Friedman 1912-2006

Nov. 16, 2006


The death announced today of Milton Friedman, Nobel prize winning economist, outspoken defender of laissez-faire, advisor to Margaret Thatcher and many other neo-conservative politicians and political leaders, one time advisor to Augusto Pinochet, the Chilean dictator, leading advocate of the modern quantity theory of money, economic historian of the American monetary system, co-inventor of the concept of the natural rate of unemployment and the expectations adjusted vertical Phillips curve and public intellectual marks the passing of one of the giants of modern economics. Like John Maynard Keynes, Friedrich von Hayek , and John Kenneth Galbraith before him Friedman's contribution is substantial. Whether one agreed with him or not he had an enormous impact upon economics and politics in the latter part of the twentieth century. His study of the history of the American monetary system co-researched and written with Anna Shwartz is a classic.