Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Murray Rothbard on Milton Friedman

4 comments:

  1. I find it interesting that Rothbard's critique of Friedman is largely political. He doesn't argue that steady expansion of the money supply is bad economics but only that government will abuse the power once you hand it that power.

    This is somewhat the situation we see the ECB today. Will it seek to by-pass the institutional restraints on its power and try to rescue the euro thorough inflation? Or will it remain loyal to its specific mandate?

    But I would also be interested in the Austrian critique of Friedman's view from a purely economic perspective. If you could somehow prevent abuse of the system, would the Friedmanite solution to economic cylces work effectively?

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    Replies
    1. Taken totally out of context. Friedman did not want to end the Fed to stop money printing. He wanted a monetary rule to by which money printing would continue.

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  2. re: "If you could somehow prevent abuse of the system, would the Friedmanite solution to economic cylces work effectively?"

    If pig had wings, would they fly?

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  3. Publishing these snippets with Rothbard was an excellent idea -- 2 - 4 minute bites of brilliance.

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