Economist Milton Friedman: biography, ideas, life path and sayings

Milton Friedman is an American economist who won the Nobel Prize in 1976 for his studies in the field of consumption, monetary history and the difficulties of stabilization policy. Together with George Stigler, he was the intellectual leader of the second generation of the Chicago School. Among his students are such outstanding economists as Gary Becker, Robert Vogel, Ronald Coase, Robert Lucas Jr.. The main ideas of Friedman concern monetary policy, taxation, privatization, deregulation of state policy, especially in the 1980s. Monetarism also influenced the decisions of the US Federal System during the global financial crisis.

A Brief Biography of Milton Friedman: Early Years

The future scientist was born in Brooklyn, one of the poor areas of New York. His parents were emigrants from Hungary. The city from which they emigrated is now located on the territory of Ukraine (Beregovo in the Transcarpathian region). Friedman's parents were engaged in the sale of textiles. Soon after the birth of the child, the family moved to the city of Roway, New Jersey. As a child Friedman got into an accident, the scar on his upper lip remained with him for life. He graduated from high school in 1928 and entered Rutgers University. The young man specialized in mathematics and economics. Initially, he intended to become a secretary. However, during his studies he met two scientists - Arthur Burns and Homer Jones, who convinced him that the economy could help bring the world out of the Great Depression.

After graduation, he was offered two scholarships: in mathematics in Brown and in economics in Chicago. Friedman chose the latter and received his Master of Arts degree in 1933. His views were influenced by Jacob Wiener, Frank Knight and Henry Simons. There he met his future wife, Rose. Then he studied statistics under the guidance of the well-known economist Harold Hotelling and worked as an assistant to Henry Schulz. At the University of Chicago, Friedman met two of his best friends - George Stigler and Allen Wallis.

Public service

After graduation Friedman did not manage to find a job as a teacher. So he decided to go to Washington with his friend Allen Wallis, where Roosevelt was just starting to implement his "new course." Later Friedman concluded that all government interventions are "ineffective drugs for the wrong disease." In 1935 he worked in the Committee of National Resources, where he first began to think about the interpretation of the function of consumption. Then Friedman settled in the National Bureau of Economic Research. He worked as an assistant to Simon Kuznets.

In 1940, Friedman was promoted to professor at the University of Wisconsin, but returned to the civil service because of anti-Semitism. He worked on the Federal Government's military tax policy as an adviser. As a matter of duty, he advocated the Keynesian intervention of the state in the economy.

Career and achievements

Milton Friedman was an adviser to the US president from the Republican Party of Ronald Reagan and the British Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. His political philosophy extolled the dignity of the free market with minimal state interference. Somehow Friedman noted that he considers his main achievement to be the elimination of conscription into the army in the United States. During his life he wrote many monographs, books, articles in scientific journals and newspapers, was a guest of television programs, lectured at various universities. His works were popular not only in the United States and Great Britain, but also in the countries of the socialist camp. The Economist magazine named him the most influential economist of the second half of the 20th century, and possibly the whole century. Although some polls give the palm to John Maynard Keynes.

Economic Views

Milton Friedman is best known for attracting attention to the supply of money. Monetarism is a set of views associated with a quantitative theory. His traces can be found in the 16th century. Together with Anna Schwartz, Friedman wrote a book entitled "The Monetary History of the United States of America, 1867-1960 (1963)". Several regression analyzes confirmed the primacy of the money supply before investing and government spending. Natural unemployment is inevitable, so it does not make sense to fight it. The government does not need to direct the economy through fiscal policy.

Developments in the field of statistics

A sequential analysis was developed by Milton Friedman. The main ideas came to him during his service in the military research unit in Colombia. Then, a consistent statistical analysis turned into a standard method of evaluation. Like many other Friedman discoveries, today it seems unusually simple. But this is the index of genius, who managed to penetrate into the very essence of phenomena. Today, consistent statistical analysis is a key tool for modern economists.

Milton Friedman: Capitalism and Freedom

The concept of monetarism began with a refutation of the Keynesian theory. Later, Milton Friedman would call many of her positions naive. In the 1950s, he made his interpretation of the function of consumption. Capitalism and freedom are two concepts that Milton Friedman reintroduced into the scientific revolution. Monetarism uses "Keynesian language and methodological apparatus", but it rejects the initial assumptions of the theory of state regulation of the economy. Friedman does not believe in the possibility of full capacity utilization. In his understanding, there is always a natural level of unemployment, which it is senseless to struggle with. The economist argued that in the long run the Phillips curve looks like a vertical straight line, and predicted the possibility of such a phenomenon as stagflation. Therefore, the only effective policy of the state is a gradual increase in the supply of money.