Friedman, Milton (frēd`mən), 1912–2006, American economist, b. New York City, Ph.D. Columbia, 1946. Friedman was influential in helping to revive the monetarist school of economic thought (see monetarism monetarism, economic theory that monetary policy, or control of the money supply, is the primary if not sole determinant of a nation's economy. Monetarists believe that management of the money supply to produce credit ease or restraint is the chief factor influencing
..... Click the link for more information. ). He was a staff member at the National Bureau of Economic Research (1937–46, 1948–81) and was an economics professor at the Univ. of Chicago (1946–82). Much of Friedman's early work is notable for its arguments against government economic controls. His writings dismissed Keynesian theories on consumption, price theory, inflation, distribution, and the money supply (see Keynes, John Maynard Keynes, John Maynard, Baron Keynes of Tilton (kānz)
..... Click the link for more information. ). His most famous empirical work is A Monetary History of the United States, 1867–1960, coauthored with Anna J. Schwartz (1963). The book charts the relationship between general price levels and economic cycles and the government's manipulation of the money supply. Friedman also predicted that the spending associated with government programs would interact with the "natural rate of unemployment" to result in the stagflation stagflation, in economics, a word coined in the 1970s to describe a combination of a stagnant economy and severe inflation . Previously, these two conditions had not existed at the same time because lowered demand, brought about by a recession (see depression ),
..... Click the link for more information. of the 1970s. He won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1976 and was an adviser to the Reagan administration in the 1980s. A prolific writer, Friedman also wrote Capitalism and Freedom (1964, rev. ed. 1981), Politics and Tyranny (1985), and Monetarist Economics (1991). With his wife, Rose, he wrote Free to Choose (1981), The Tyranny of the Status Quo (1984), and Two Lucky People: Memoirs (1998). He also was a columnist for Newsweek (1966–84) and a frequent television commentator.

Bibliography

See biography by A. Hirsch and N. De Marchi (1990).

Friedman, Milton

(born July 31, 1912, Brooklyn, N.Y., U.S.—died Nov. 16, 2006, San Francisco, Calif.) U.S. economist. Friedman studied at Rutgers and Columbia before joining the faculty of the University of Chicago in 1946. There he became the leading U.S. advocate of monetarism. He oversaw the economic transition in Chile after the overthrow of Salvador Allende. In the 1980s his ideas were taken up by Pres. Ronald Reagan and Britain's Margaret Thatcher. His many books include A Theory of the Consumption Function (1957) and Capitalism and Freedom (1962), both with his wife, Rose Friedman, and A Monetary History of the United States, 1867–1960 (1963) and Monetary Trends of the United States and the United Kingdom (1981), with economist Anna Schwartz. He received the Nobel Prize in 1976.

Friedman, Milton (1912– ) economist; born in New York City. He is one of the most publicly familiar U.S. economists through his economics column in Newsweek and his television series "Free to Choose." His intellectual achievements are highly esteemed, especially his analysis of inflation and the role of monetary policy, his permanent income theory of consumption, and the concept of a "natural rate of unemployment." He helped form "the Chicago School" of economic thought during his years at the University of Chicago (1948–79) and also served as an adviser to presidential candidate Barry Goldwater, President Richard Nixon, and the Reagan administration. He received the Nobel Prize in economics (1976).