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Delong's admiration for Friedman makes him very suspect in my eyes. Friedman has been generally wrong--k% rule, stable velocity, flexible exchange rates, etc.--or banal (eg. permanent income) or dangerously misleading (eg. NAIRU). Friedman was also quite prone to make up stuff during debates--Kaldor was a victim. In this he was not very different from Reagan! Yet, Brad seems to hold up Friedman as someone who would somehow repudiate today's crazy RBC. This is like democrats asserting that Reagan would not be welcome in today's Republican party. Friedman was the original crazy, wily crazy.
Freedom to Choose is not a book about economic but politics, It is propaganda for Friedman's view of economic liberalism and a market state as a basis for policy.
I can see also requiring something that puts forward a contrasting view, like John Kenneth Galbraith's The Good Society, which advocates for a welfare state, as a basis for discussion.
Free to Choose (1980) is a book and a ten-part television series broadcast on public television by economists Milton and Rose D. Friedman that advocates free market principles. It was primarily a response to an earlier landmark book and television series: The Age of Uncertainty, by the noted economist John Kenneth Galbraith.Wikipedia
BTW, Friedman and Galbraith were public intellectuals as much as economists. Friedman was more theoretical than Galbraith, who had hands-on experience during WWII in the OPA. JKG subsequently served in various positions in Democratic administrations, including a stint as Ambassador to India.
Comparing and contrasting Friedman and Galbraith would be interesting in today's political climate — and informative. When teaching at the intro level, interest is more important than information. Without interest, the information doesn't get through, or if it does, it is forgotten quickly after the test.
4 comments:
I thought Berkeley was lefty?? They have Bernanke and Friedman ???
Who are the others maybe this is a comparitive course?
Delong's admiration for Friedman makes him very suspect in my eyes. Friedman has been generally wrong--k% rule, stable velocity, flexible exchange rates, etc.--or banal (eg. permanent income) or dangerously misleading (eg. NAIRU). Friedman was also quite prone to make up stuff during debates--Kaldor was a victim. In this he was not very different from Reagan! Yet, Brad seems to hold up Friedman as someone who would somehow repudiate today's crazy RBC. This is like democrats asserting that Reagan would not be welcome in today's Republican party. Friedman was the original crazy, wily crazy.
Srini
What Friedman showed is the art of persuasion - a load of stories that people wanted to believe are true. Like Catherine the Great and the stallion.
He was the Trump of economics.
Freedom to Choose is not a book about economic but politics, It is propaganda for Friedman's view of economic liberalism and a market state as a basis for policy.
I can see also requiring something that puts forward a contrasting view, like John Kenneth Galbraith's The Good Society, which advocates for a welfare state, as a basis for discussion.
Free to Choose (1980) is a book and a ten-part television series broadcast on public television by economists Milton and Rose D. Friedman that advocates free market principles. It was primarily a response to an earlier landmark book and television series: The Age of Uncertainty, by the noted economist John Kenneth Galbraith. Wikipedia
BTW, Friedman and Galbraith were public intellectuals as much as economists. Friedman was more theoretical than Galbraith, who had hands-on experience during WWII in the OPA. JKG subsequently served in various positions in Democratic administrations, including a stint as Ambassador to India.
Comparing and contrasting Friedman and Galbraith would be interesting in today's political climate — and informative. When teaching at the intro level, interest is more important than information. Without interest, the information doesn't get through, or if it does, it is forgotten quickly after the test.
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