The July 2006 issue of Imprimis, a widely circulated monthly publication of Hillsdale College, contains an interview with Milton Friedman that took place on May 22, 2006, in connection with a seminar celebrating the 25th anniversary of Milton and Rose Friedman’s book Free to Choose. In responding to a question about whether “our government has learned its lesson about how to manage the money supply,” Friedman said, in part: “The fundamental problem is that you shouldn’t have an institution such as the Federal Reserve, which depends for its success on the abilities of its chairman. My first preference would be to abolish the Federal Reserve, but that’s not going to happen.”
So, even though Friedman continues to accept, as he has always accepted, seeming political realities, he now regards the Fed’s abolition as his “first preference.” So far, so good.
Source link: http://archive.mises.org/5363/old-dogs-new-tricks/
Old Dogs, New Tricks
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Friedman has been saying that for a long time. As far as I know every time they ask him this question, his answer is, Greenspan is very good, but the Fed is bad; if we must have the Fed, then Greenspan is the best man for the job.
“Friedman has been saying that for a long time.”
I have to agree. I dug up a couple of quotes from the late 1980′s:
July 1985:
“The Federal Reserve System puts a great deal of power in the hands of a few people and it is so constructed that it has been in their self-interest to pursue a policy which, I believe, has been very harmful for the public rather than helpful.”
1986 article with Anna Schwartz:
“Our own conclusion …is that leaving monetary and banking arrangements to the market would have produced a more satisfactory outcome than was actually achieved through government involvement.”
I read that too, great interview!
Very happy to see the new interview upon opening the WSJ yesterday.
I commented on it here:
http://amateureconblog.blogspot.com/2006/07/wsj-interview-with-milton-friedman.html
I believe Friedman also said money supply should be decided by a formula (based on population and economic activity) administered by a computer. It’s still inflationary, but less than what we have now. In any case, it definitely is not new tricks.
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