Milton Friedman

Milton Friedman (1912 – 2006) was an American economist most noted for his work at the Chicago School of Economics and later, served as an advisor to President Ronald Reagan. Originally a devotee of the teachings of David Keynes, Friedman ultimately rejected Keynesian Economics which called for high taxes and direct government intervention in favor of a new, consumption-based view of economics he called monetarism .

Monetarists believe that government intervention is not only largely ineffective, it is ultimately harmful to the overall efficiency of the markets and the economy in general. Monetarists believe that managing inflation by controlling the money supply is the primary means by which a government can create an economic environment that promotes sustainable growth. Economists favoring this approach often point out that Friedman accurately predicted that government policies would eventually lead to the period of stagflation that ravaged many of the world’s largest economies in the early 1970s.

Friedman was also instrumental in defining the curriculum and agenda for the Chicago School of Economics at the University of Chicago. In 1976, Friedman won the Nobel Prize in Economics Science and in 1988, received the National Medal of Science. He also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Ronald Reagan.