Did Milton Friedman Improve With Age?: Another North Beach Restaurant Report

Charles Goyette emails:

A couple of friends and I took Milton Friedman to dinner at the North Beach Restaurant for his birthday in July, 2001.  We talked about Mises, Rothbard, Rand, the Mideast, monetarism, government, freedom…  late into the evening.

I don’t remember the food or the bill, but it was very clear to me by the end of the night that Friedman had become much more libertarian by that point in his life.

I looked it up for a debate I  participated in at the Goldwater Institute a few years ago:  Friedman was on record for wanting to shut down at least 8 cabinet departments.  That’s pretty good.  In the 2012 campaign Ron Paul specified five that he would close.

(Speaking of the 2012 campaign, Rick Perry wanted to close a couple of departments, too, but neither he nor anybody else can remember which ones!)