Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Happy 100th Birthday Milton Friedman!

Milton Friedman, economic adviser to Ronald Reagan and Nobel-prize-winning leader of the Chicago school of economics, was born a century ago today, on July 31, 1912.

Thomas Sowell, who was lucky enough to be a student of Friedman's, wrote an article about his former professor at National Review:


If Milton Friedman were alive today — and there has never been a time when he was more needed — he would be 100 years old. He was born on July 31, 1912. But Professor Friedman’s death at age 94 deprived the nation of one of those rare thinkers who had both genius and common sense. Most people would not be able to understand the complex economic analysis that won him a Nobel Prize, but people with no knowledge of economics had no trouble understanding his popular books like Free to Choose or the TV series of the same name...
No one converted Milton Friedman, either in economics or in his views on social policy. His own research, analysis, and experience converted him.
As a professor, he did not attempt to convert students to his political views. I made no secret of the fact that I was a Marxist when I was a student in Professor Friedman’s course, but he made no effort to change my views. He once said that anybody who was easily converted was not worth converting.
Read the rest of the article here.

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