Milton Friedman: The Last Conservative

Stanford historian Burns (Goddess of the Market) delivers a robust if somewhat dry survey of the evolution of Milton Friedman’s economic thought—particularly his struggles to make sense of inflation—and his lasting impact on global monetary policy and conservative politics. Friedman’s economic philosophy, known as “monetarism,” sought to balance the maximization of personal freedom through limited government involvement in economic matters against the belief that inflation needed to be managed, and the best way to do so was to “[rely] upon government control of money.” (This includes the printing of money and the international system of floating exchange rates.) Burns explains that Friedman’s ideas about freedom and government were forged in his young adulthood during the Great Depression (he argued against the direct government intervention, such as hiring public works employees and price controls, that characterized the American response), and can be traced through his other social and political beliefs, among them his resistance to the civil rights movement (“his concept of freedom was woefully thin,” Burns writes). Friedman’s personality occasionally shines through (when his wife dragged him to the opera, he brought along a book to read), but Burns’s focus is on the institutional ramifications of his theory and activism (she notes that by teaming up with far-right politician Barry Goldwater, Friedman “solidified an alliance between libertarian economics and reactionary populism”). It’s a comprehensive accounting of Friedman’s legacy. (Nov.)