It’s Milton Friedman’s birthday. The American Nobel economist, who died last year, was his generation’s leading champion of sound money, and its most persuasive proponent of social and economic freedom.

As Alan Ebenstein’s new biography shows, Friedman was born in New York in 1912 to poor Jewish immigrant parents, but became the most influential economist of the late twentieth century. As the former Federal Reserve Bank chief Alan Greenspan noted “There are very few people over the generations who have ideas that are sufficiently original to materially alter the direction of civilization. Milton is one of those very few people.”

Friedman is best known for his monetarist policies – insisting that inflation is highly destructive and that only monetary policy can control it – though monetary policy is a heavyweight instrument and cannot be used for short-term economic management. But he is also distinguished for pioneering work on other subjects such as the unintended effects of professional licensing and price regulation, tax policy, and the theory of the consumption function. Through his books Capitalism and Freedom and Free to Choose, both written with his wife Rose, he reached an audience of millions with his chippy, straightforward belief in smaller government and greater personal freedom.

From Adam Smith Institute

Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom