One of the most significant figures of our time, Milton Friedman, passed away less than two weeks ago. He brought us economics as the world knows it today. He championed the free market with minimal government intervention and espoused mechanisms such as the school voucher about a half decade ago. In an earlier post I mentioned the fine interviews that Russell Roberts has available as podcasts - I found his interviews with Milton Friedman here and here where he demonstrates the proper role of the Fed in setting interest rates. Jim Cramer (not that he is an economist but rather as one of the greatest experts and practicioners in the stock market) regards the Fed's over manipulation of the interest rates to be a prime factor in the stock market crash in the early 2000's producing an economic recession. I have read many pieces since his passing the more memorable are here and here with a nice summary of his views here.
Recently Senator John Edwards was seen in a witch hunt against Wal-Mart which is a fearful thing when you consider that harming Wal-Mart will ultimately harm the most economically vulnerable classes in our society today. Perhaps Senator Edwards should have read this article.
Perhaps the successor to Milton Friedman will be Hernando de Soto who in his work "The Mystery of Capital" describes the forgotten secret of capitalism which is the fair legal framework underpinning a society which permits individuals to unleash the potential of their investments (primarily their homes). He demonstrates that poverty around the world is misunderstood and that tremendous capital is held by the poor but they are unable to tap into it.
In Mystery of Capital, de Soto also shows how guilds working with government hampered freedom and harmed society. It is easy to see this in action today as the Democratic Party and big Labor have long worked against the interests of the citizen. When one hears candidates speak about increasing protectionism (remember Kerry in 2004?) you can almost see the special deals being cut - even Mr. Straight Talk Express did a flip flop on ethanol in order to garner support of a new found special interest... Our American ethic long despised hand outs especially when they would benefit us - let's hope we remember this ethic.
Like Friedman, de Soto points a way to relieve suffering and hopefully we have the intelligence to adopt it.
I hope you had a wonderful weekend. I wanted to say hello to everyone on my blogroll, and wish them well, because this was Thanksgiving weekend, and I am grateful for my Internet friends!
Posted by: Marti | November 27, 2006 at 12:33 PM