My read of the week is John Cochrane superbly answering to this… well, “protest letter” (the latter being the reason why one of the labels for this post is “pathetic”). Probably only Milton Friedman himself could have done a better job than Cochrane here… I actually choose the following paragraphy as quote of the week:
Milton Friedman stood for freedom, social, political, and economic. He realized that they are inextricably linked. If the government controls your job or your business, dissent is impossible. He favored, among other things, legalizing drugs, school choice, and volunteer army. To call him or his political legacy “right wing” is simply ignorant, and I mean that also as a technically accurate description rather than an insult.
Via Tyler Cowen, on MR.
And here’s the website of the new Milton Friedman Institute (MFI), the object of controversy in the exchange above (you can also read the proposal to establish the MFI, signed by some of my idols within Economics)
