Milton Friedman was one of the greatest economists on the planet, and influenced the United States and British governments in becoming more pro-free market and pro-liberty. Born on July 31, 1912, in New York City, Milton Friedman was a second-generation Jewish immigrant. His parents came from the Kingdom of Hungary, a place alien to American values.
Milton Friedman was the first in his family to go to University, and he began to think deeply about economics during the great depression. As John Maynard Keynes had his viewpoint of how to solve depressions, so did Friedman.
As Keynes believed in government intervention, Friedman (much like Hayek) did not. Friedman recognized the fact that the great depression was not a failure of capitalism, but a failure of leadership in the late 1920s. When gold set the standard for money’s value at the time, gold which was supposed to be shipped to certain places and therefore converted into money never reached its destination, and caused a crash.
One book of his, Capitalism and Freedom, explains how a society needs to be capitalist economically in order to be free. Another major work of Friedman’s was his series Free to Choose, which explained concisely why he supported the free market, how it works, and how it should be run.
Milton Friedman gave a series of lectures in the 1970s and 1980s, and his philosophy directly influenced Reagan’s economic policy, as well as Thatcher’s.
Friedman died of heart failure in San Francisco on November 16, 2006. He was 94 years old. The legacy of Friedman cannot be underestimated, and his lectures, as well as his Free to Choose Series, are available for free on youtube.*
*Maybe we will add it at Camelot!!!!