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Roguish Lawyer
11-16-2006, 17:51
I just received an e-mail indicating that he is dead. RIP.

http://www.cato.org/

Prominent free-market economist Milton Friedman, recipient of the 1976 Nobel Prize for Economic Science, passed away today at the age of 94. Friedman was widely regarded as the leader of the Chicago School of monetary economics, which stresses the importance of the quantity of money as an instrument of government policy and as a determinant of business cycles and inflation. In addition to his scientific work, Friedman also wrote extensively on public policy, always with primary emphasis on the preservation and extension of individual freedom. Friedman's ideas hugely influenced both the Reagan administration and the Thatcher government in the early 1980s, revolutionized establishment economic thinking across the globe, and have been employed extensively by emerging economies for decades.

Edward H. Crane, president of the Cato Institute, said of Friedman: "Here's a guy who won the Nobel Prize in economics for his work in monetary theory and he was a great Chicagoan, a great empiricist and theoretician of economics. But ultimately, what Milton believed in was human liberty and he took great joy in trying to promote that concept....Milton would say, 'Maybe I did well and maybe I led the battle but nobody ever said we were going to win this thing at any point in time. Eternal vigilance is required and there have to be people who step up to the plate, who believe in liberty, and who are willing to fight for it.' ...In my view he was the greatest champion of human liberty in my lifetime, certainly in the 20th century. And he didn’t slack off in the 21st century."

Surf n Turf
11-16-2006, 19:46
RL,

Milton Friedman also help fix the malaise of the “Jimmy Carter” years, (Remember the misery index ?), strengthen the dollar, and restore some order to the financial markets.

Shame now that I’m retiring, but I could sure do with some of the Carter 17% interest CD’s about right now.

Additional Bio info from Hoover
http://www.hoover.org/bios/friedman/

He was a member of the President's Commission on an All-Volunteer Armed Force and the President's Commission on White House Fellows. He was a member of President Ronald Reagan's Economic Policy Advisory Board (a group of experts from outside the government named in 1981 by President Reagan).

RIP Dr. Friedman

SnT

vsvo
11-16-2006, 21:56
Rest in Peace, Professor.

Gypsy
11-16-2006, 22:25
I.

'Maybe I did well and maybe I led the battle but nobody ever said we were going to win this thing at any point in time. Eternal vigilance is required and there have to be people who step up to the plate, who believe in liberty, and who are willing to fight for it.' ...

How appropriate...

RIP, Sir.

Peregrino
11-16-2006, 22:53
His books were the texts we used in my economics courses. His works influenced much of my own ideas about economics, cost/benefit, and the proper role of government and regulatory institutions. His wisdom, insight, and communications ability will be sorely missed. Rest in Peace Dr. Friedman.

tk27
11-16-2006, 23:07
He was a great man with a great mind, RIP Dr. Friedman.