Milton Friedman Dies

The man who championed free-markets, Libertarianism and won a Nobel for economics has died.

Both his admirers and his detractors have pointed out that his world view was essentially simple: a passionate belief in personal freedom combined with a conviction that free markets were the best way of co-ordinating the activities of dispersed individuals to their mutual enrichment. Where he shone was in his ability to derive interesting and unexpected consequences from simple ideas. As I knew from my postbag, part of his appeal lay in his willingness to come out with home truths which had occurred to many other people who had not dared to utter them. Friedman would then go on, however, to defend these maxims against the massed forces of economic correctness; and in the course of those defences he,almost unintentionally, added to knowledge.

Milton Friedman led an interesting life.

It's a shame that recent economists such as Paul Krugman don't have half the intelligence of Friedman.