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Monetarism Is Dead.

Well, it’s inventor and biggest supporter is, in any case.

Milton Friedman did more for popularizing economic thinking and the understanding of government’s role in causing economic difficulty than any other Economist of the 20th century. He helped foster the Rational Expectations revolution, and, I think most importantly, argued strongly against the Phillips Curve and established grounding for the NAIRU. I think the last paragraph of the FT obit sums it up nicely:

Friedman himself attributed the spread of both free markets and monetarist ideas to belated recognition of the consequences of soaring government spending and high inflation in the 1970s. But so far as the reaction was coherent and rational, much of the credit must go to him. The very success of free market policies has, of course, led to fresh problems; and what would one not give for a reborn 30-year-old Milton Friedman to comment upon and analyse these new challenges?

Goodbye, Milton. And thank you.

  1. Ian says:

    Free to Choose is probably the single book that had the biggest impact on my own political views. R.I.P. Mr. Friedman.

  2. Sho says:

    Here’s the Dinosaur Comics shout out for Mr. Friedman.

  3. Doomscheissah says:

    Timothy = Capitalism of Capitalization.

  4. Timothy says:

    The increased prosperity leading to people wanting to use government to solve other “problems” like earnings disparity or such, would be my guess.

  5. Andy says:

    The success of free market policies has lead to new problems? Like what? higher wages? better service? WTF?

  6. Timothy says:

    I Capitalize what I Want to Capitalize, BITCH.

  7. Danimal says:

    We’re capitalizing “economist” now?

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