In Praise of Milton Friedman

[ChinoCoug]

SIEQ has lamented the dearth of conservative intellectuals after Milton Friedman. Ahem. Ahem. He obviously hasn't been paying attention to who's been winning the Nobel Prize lately; Gary Becker, Thomas Schilling, and many other right-leaning economists have received the award in the last decade. He's forgotten about Alan Greenspan, Ben Bernanke, and Martin Feldstein, author of the new supply-side (and IMO, flawed) economics. Friedman has left many intellectual descendants.

He resurrected classical economics when Keynesianism was the order of the day. Today, all economists support free trade and recognize the power of markets. Twenty-five percent of economics departments are Republican (cf. 10% in the social sciences), including 50% at Harvard, 50%+ at Chicago, and 50% libertarian at BYU.

Friedman provided the intellectual firepower for the Reagan Revolution, but his influence lives on the left as well. Friedman's brainchild, the Earned Income Tax Credit, was expanded by Bill Clinton as part of one of the greatest poverty reduction programs in history.

We are all Friedmanites now.