Only a short time ago, the prediction that Professor Milton Friedman would receive the Nobel Prize in economics would have been greeted by a broad spectrum of reactions ranging from horrified impossibility to an unemotional expression of obvious inevitability. Indeed, when the formal announcements were made in the fall of 1976, the range of reactions was exactly what could have been anticipated: joy, hate, respect, envy, amazement, admiration, horror, satisfaction, and almost any other emotion, or combination, that can be imagined.[1]

Among his fellow economists, the range of reaction was, of course, much more limited. Not that all of them agree with his technical analysis or his prescriptions for economic and political policy, let alone his ideology. Agreement or not, like it or not, it is difficult, if not impossible, to find many economists who have had as great or greater impact on professional economic thought in the twentieth century. I can hear voices raised in protest, claiming that greater impact on professional thought came from John Maynard Keynes. Perhaps, but I remain unconvinced, although, if the impact is broadened to include impact on political affairs as well as economic analysis, I might find it necessary to alter my view. But the end is not yet, the past is prologue, and the ultimate verdict, the final judgment of time, is still far off on both political and economic counts.

Read the article “The Free Market Wisdom of Milton Friedman” on theimaginativeconservative.org.