(Milton) Friedman Obits by Justin Raines & Doug Henwood

OpEdNews.com

Original Content at http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_john_cal_061128_the_fraud_of_friedma.htm


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November 30, 2006

The Fraud of Friedman

By Justin Raines

Editor's note: Milton Friedman has died. As expected, instead of being decried as one who played a central role in the tragedy of lives of Americans, Brits, and folks in Chile where he helped the dictator and criminal Augosto Pinochet (just like Kissinger), NPR gave a Friedman another accolade claiming that he was perhaps the most influential economist of the 20th century (John Maynard Keynes apparently lost to the dustbin of history) and explained that Friedman "welcomed market liberalization."<1>

Of course, the sycophants and press release readers of NPR were wrong, but their piece went on to say: that Friedman defied economic establishment as he rejected Keynesian economics in the name of promoting human freedom. Omitting any discussion of Friedman's life as an employee of the very evil and sloth creating government that he opposed, we were told that Friedman advocated school choice, volunteer army, legalizing prostitution, and drug legalization.

DEBUNKS THESE CLAIMS HERE

NPR claimed that Friedman was a scholar and policymaker, then quoting Grover Norquist (never saw a subsidy for the rich he didn't like), Friedman was lauded as consistent.<3> Friedman once said "if you want to see capitalism in action, go to Hong Kong," for he believed the Hong Kong economy is the best example of a laissez-faire capitalism economy.<4> And perhaps it might be. In Hong Kong, housing is so limited and poverty so high, people live in cages without running water, stacked in human chicken coops, where contagious disease and illness are rampant....MORE


a href='http://www.virtualcitizens.com/articles/The+Fraud+of+Friedman' title='View Original'>Original article available here on behalf of Virtual Citizens.

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In Memoriam, Milton Friedman

by Doug Henwood, 16 November 2006

Milton Friedman, one of the prime intellectual influences on the right-wing turn in politics over the last 30 years, died earlier today at the age of 94. Though you're not supposed to speak ill of the dead, at least for a few weeks, for him I'll make an exception.

As an economist, Friedman's major contributions, if you can call them that, don't really hold up to empirical scrutiny. One of his more famous contributions, the notion that people consume based on their long-term expectations for income, rather than on the basis of short- term fluctuations, is, at best, unproved.

And his most famous contribution, the doctrine that changes in the supply of money, which he assumed to be directly under the control of central banks like the Federal Reserve, lead to changes in the rate of inflation has been proved almost completely worthless. Central banks are only in partial control of the money supply; private demand for credit is also a major influence. And, more importantly, it's nearly impossible to find any connection between movements in the supply of money (which, by the way, consists mainly of currency, checking accounts, and short-term bank deposits) and the inflation rate. Friedman advised Margaret Thatcher's government in the late 1970s that it could end high British inflation by cutting back on the money supply without any consequences for real incomes; in fact, the monetary crackdown led to a deep recession and millions of job losses.

So much for his economic contributions. His political influence was malignant. He was at the forefront of reaction since he first came on the scene in the 1950s, both within his profession and in the broader society. Within the profession he sought to undermine the dominance of John Maynard Keynes. Keynes, though no revolutionary was certainly a humanizing influence on economics and economic policy, and associated welfare state policies.

In the broader world, ceaselessly promoted bare-knuckles capitalism as the only way to run a society. It's ugly, polarizing, and destructive. And despite all his libertarian, democratic talk, his approval of the Pinochet regime in Chile, and his students' <7> central role as advisors to that dictatorial, murderous government, reveal thedependence on coercion at the core of neo-liberal policy.

So, goodbye Miltie. You did much damage, and thank you for finally shuffling off.

You can listen to Mr. Henwood's weekly radio show at WBAI (www.wbai.org) airing live at 5:00 pm on Thursdays and available through the WBAI archives.

I've received Doug Henwood's LBO for some time now, and have some of his talks in my HD, but I missed that obit completely.

I have a DU tab in my Firefox browser, and I probably hit it at least a dozen times a day. This is where I get the bulk of my info, leads, and intellectual stimulation.

pnorman

www.grantspub.com/ He's another well-informed debunker of Wall Street hype and neoliberal nostrum.

http://mobile.thenation.com/docmobile.mhtml?i=20061211&s=greider

the conclusion of this article:

"His most profound damage, however, was as a moral philosopher. He championed an ethic of unrelenting, unapologetic self-interest that effectively pushed aside human sympathy. In fact, humans' responsibility to one another has been delegitimized--portrayed as an obstacle to the hardheaded analysis that maximizes returns. Friedman explained: "So the question is, do corporate executives, provided they stay within the law, have responsibilities in their business activities other than to make as much money for their stockholders as possible? And my answer to that is, no, they do not."

Pay no attention to the collateral consequences. Your only obligation is to the bottom line. Friedman's message was highly appealing--he promised people a path to freedom--but it triumphed, ultimately, because it served the powerful forces of capital over labor, economic wealth over social concerns. Government was indeed failing on many fronts, especially inflation, and liberalism had no answer. Friedman's answer was alluringly simple. Get rid of government.

People everywhere now understand what Friedman's kind of "freedom" means. America has been brutally coarsened by his success at popularizing this dictum--millions of innocents injured, mutual trust gravely weakened, society demoralized by the hardening terms of life. Most people know in their gut this is wrong but see no easy way to resist it. Friedman's utopia is also drenched in personal corruption. The proliferating scandals in business, finance and government flow directly from his teaching people to go for it and disregard moral qualms. When you tell people in power that their highest purpose in life is to maximize their own returns, there is no limit to how much "good" they will do for the rest of us. I don't recall hearing Friedman express any discomfort. Perhaps he regarded looting and stealing as natural features of capitalism that market forces would eventually correct.

This is what the memorials left out: the cruel quality of Friedman's obliviousness. Art Hilgart, a retired industrial economist, recalls hearing Friedman lecture in 1991 and recommend the destruction of Medicare, welfare, the postal system, Social Security and public education. The audience was dumbfounded.

Finally, a brave young woman asked what this would mean for poverty. "There is no poverty in America," Friedman instructed. A clear voice arose from the back of hall: "Bullshit!" The audience cheered wildly.