Yesterday was “Milton Freidman day”, and I didn’t get any cards out…. again:-) He was a giant in economics, his ideas have had far reaching consequences. One of his more provocative claims was that it was the federal reserve bank (the fed) that had caused the great depression. At the time, this was really controversial, it isn’t any more. His idea that “Inflation everywhere is a monetary phenomena” is now widely followed. In fact, whenever rampant inflation rears its head, a quick look at the money supply is all it takes to check this. Ben Bernanke, the current chairman of the board of governors of the fed (he replaced Alan Greenspan) had this to say on Milton’s 90th birthday:
“On Milton Friedman’s Ninetieth Birthday, Nov. 8, 2002 he stated: “Let me end my talk by abusing slightly my status as an official representative of the Federal Reserve. I would like to say to Milton and Rose: Regarding the Great Depression. You’re right, we did it. We’re very sorry. But thanks to you, we won’t do it again.”…”
Any man that can prevent future great depressions by using his insight alone is worthy of praise. We’ll miss you Milton…
Isaac