Milton Friedman Analysis

Milton Friedman was a world-famous economist, statistician, and public policy analysis. He was perhaps the most prominent economist of the 20th century and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1976 (nobelprize.org). He was also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Reagan in 1988 (reaganlibrary.gov). Mr. Friedman firmly believed in the free enterprise system. He stood by the notion that an atmosphere of competition and the rewards of individual success, are, and should be, the single most effective way of ensuring a strong economy. He also held that it is misleading to label capitalism as greed, pointing out that greed is present everywhere and a natural component of the human condition. Mr. Friedman was quick to suggest that greed is also prominent in politics, it is simply labeled in more altruistic terms, and thus it is a sure-fire way to slow the cogs of a healthy economy by stifling productivity in bureaucratic red …show more content…
Their view is that this system causes an inequality in the distribution of wealth. It is crucial to point out that Mr. Friedman often prequalified his belief in this system by stating that that the business practices are assumed to be ethical and absent of corruption. He did not claim that there should be absolutely no safeguards over fair business practices, merely as minimal amount of governmental and regulatory interference. Mr. Friedman, along with many fellow economists pushed for policies supporting hard money (asset secured lending) and small government influence. The most prominent view regarding the role the government should play was basically to insure a measured monetary policy where the government keeps the supply of money at a steady rate, with only a small, set annual expansion to allow for the natural economic growth. An economic growth that should be driven the free