Scholarly Comments on Academic Economics

Why Is There No Milton Friedman Today? A Symposium Prologue

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Abstract

Imagine that someone with all the endowments of a Milton Friedman were born in the 1960s or 1970s. Is it conceivable that such a person would develop into a Milton Friedman like we know the actual Milton Friedman to have been, including his academic eminence and his eloquent and influential advocacy of classical liberalism? If not, why not? This is a brief prologue to a symposium, co-sponsored by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, on the question: Why is there no Milton Friedman today? Links are provided to the twelve symposium contributions, written by John Blundell, David Colander, Tyler Cowen, Richard Epstein, James K. Galbraith, J. Daniel Hammond, David R. Henderson, Daniel Houser, Steven Medema, Sam Peltzman, Richard Posner, and Robert Solow.