U of C Professor Emeritus Milton Friedman Dies

By Scott Smith in News on Nov 16, 2006 9:55PM

Lauded as one of the great economic minds of the late 20th Century, Milton Friedman died today in San Francisco.

Friedman’s greatest contribution to economic thinking was his advocacy of monetarism, the idea that changes in the supply of money precede changes in economic conditions, not the other way around. He trumpeted free market principles, deregulation and privatization. Both President Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher gave him a listening ear.

His chief economic rival was John Maynard Keynes, who argued that governments have a responsibility to ensure low inflation and economic stability.

Friedman’s free market approach to economics would later become known as the “Chicago School” thanks to his time as a professor at the University of Chicago. He is also rumored to have never lost an argument, a skill we are so jealous of that it makes our hair hurt. Friedman won the Nobel Prize for economics in 1976.

The cause of his death is currently unknown, but we’re pretty sure it has nothing to do with this.

As usual, in the matter of obituaries, the New York Times has it all over the rest.