Milton Friedman
Milton Friedman (born July 31, 1912) won The Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel in 1976. His book Free to Choose, written with his wife Rose, became a ten-part television series on PBS in early 1980. His son David Friedman has carried on his tradition of explaining the principles of the free market.
Born in New York, he obtained a Bachelor's degree from Rutgers University, his Master's degree from the University of Chicago, and his PhD from Columbia University. He then worked for Columbia University and for the federal government, and became Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago. There he carried forward the intellectual tradition of the Chicago school of economics. Friedman is currently affiliated with the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.
Friedman can be classified as a monetarist, and is often seen as the leading proponent of this economic school. He maintains that there is a close and stable link between inflation and the money supply, rejects the use of fiscal policy as a tool of demand management and holds that the government's role in the management of the economy should be severely restricted. He argued for the cessation of intervention in exchange markets
thereby spawning an enormous literature as well as the practice of freely
floating exchange rates.
He has supported various libertarian policies such as decriminalization of drugs and prostitution. He also supported the move towards a paid/volunteer armed forces and the abolition of the draft that took place in the 1970s in the U.S.
Friedman visited Chile in 1975 during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. Invited by a private foundation, he gave lectures on economics. Several professors from the University of Chicago school became advisors to the Chilean government and several PhD graduates -- known as "the Chicago boys" served in Chilean ministries. He was heavily criticized and accused of "supporting" a regime (though he had no contact with the Pinochet government) whose policies included torture and murder of political opponents; some demonstrations took place at the 1976 Nobel Prize ceremony. (See: Miracle of Chile)
Friedman defends his role in Chile on the grounds that the move towards open market policies by the dictatorship was laudable and he points out that he gave the very same lectures in communist countries. Critics have remarked that Chile's brutal dictatorship used its power to implement free-market policies, thus contradicting the relationship that he claims exists between open markets and political freedom. Supporters of Friedman note that the repressive policies enacted by the Chilean government had little to do with Friedman's philosophy of open societies and free exchange of information. They also stress that, in the end, economic openness did lead to greater prosperity and to the end of the dictatorship, which was replaced by a democratic government as predicted by Friedman.
In recent years Friedman has devoted much of his effort to promoting school vouchers that can be used to pay for tuition at both private and public schools, saying What is needed in America is a voucher of substantial size available to all students, and free of excessive regulations.
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Notable Academic Publications
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