Thursday, November 16th, 2006
Remembering Milton Friedman
Milton Friedman Dies at 94
by Alejandro A. Chafuen
This morning, as soon as I arrived to my office, on this day of Atlas’s Freedom Dinner – at which we celebrate the victories of freedom over totalitarianism – I told my staff: “How nice would it be if Fidel Castro would depart from earth today?” What a surprise I had moments after, when news came that it was not the aging Cuban tyrant, but our wonderful friend and mentor Milton Friedman who would be leaving us. Although I have been taught not to judge on these matters, I am pretty sure that Castro will not end in the same place as Friedman. Not in history, and not in heaven.
Unless my memory fails, I met Milton Friedman for the first time in 1980 during the Mont Pèlerin Society Meeting at Stanford University. I knew about Friedman’s academic contributions as his works were required reading at my university, but my first glimpse into his personality and my exposure to his talent as an educator was through the TV screen. I was so attracted by the clarity with which he explained the ideas of liberty that I organized the purchase in 1981 of the Spanish rights for his famous Free to Choose TV educational series.
During my first years as member of the Mont Pèlerin Society, I used to gather groups of young members and guests, and ask Milton for a private meeting with them. He was always very generous and a superb teacher. We all cherished those conversations and will carry them in our memories.
Milton lived in the same apartment building as Antony Fisher at the time when Fisher was founding the Atlas Economic Research Foundation. When I moved to San Francisco in 1985, Milton was one of the first persons that I visited to seek advice. I joined Atlas a few weeks after that meeting. When I became much more aware of how valuable his time was, I was hesitant to ask him for more favors. Nevertheless, whenever I asked, he responded favorably. He volunteered his time and sent us wonderful notes endorsing Atlas’s efforts to disseminate the principles of the free society around the world. The entire Atlas family was extremely honored to have him join Atlas’s 20th and 25th anniversary celebrations in San Francisco.
He left us with a wonderful biography, Two Lucky People, written (as was Free to Choose ) with Rose, his wife, colleague and friend. In that book, they do not get too much into the reasons and thinking behind the next, generous step they took: the founding of the Milton and Rose Friedman Foundation. I know that they contemplated devoting the foundation to several different, important philanthropic efforts (including orphanages), before settling on the goal to help improve human life by expanding freedom of choice in education. Several close friends of Atlas joined as founders or leaders of his foundation, including Gordon St. Angelo, Michael Walker, Sam Husbands, and former Atlas trustee Chuck Brunie.
To speak about Milton Friedman is to speak about ideas of freedom, so I want to finish this short tribute with one of the last lessons he was sharing with us. After playing a key role in helping increase monetary understanding, for a while, Milton stressed that developing countries needed to do three things to become prosperous: privatize, privatize, privatize. During these last years -- as a result of Milton’s continued learning and studying of empirical data -- he had switched the message, saying that developing countries need three things: rule of law, rule of law, and rule of law.
I know that Atlas has been taken his advice and will continue to carry on his legacy.
p.s. The producer of the Free to Choose series, our good friend Bob Chitester ( http://www.freetochoosemedia.org/ ) has continued to disseminate Milton Friedman life and legacy in film and video. Thanks to Friedman and Chitester, later in January 2007 (unless PBS decides now to move it forward), television viewers all over the nation will be able to see The Power of Choice: The Life and Ideas of Milton Friedman. Stay tuned – and also stay focused on promoting liberty.
In the days to come, we will post tributes and memorials to Friedman’s historic contributions to economics and his pivotal role in rekindling free-market ideas worldwide.
Obituaries from Major News outlets
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ABC in Spain, and this one by Carlos Rodríguez Braun
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Diario Exterior; Spain written by José Piñera (Spanish)
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The Economic Times ; India written by Parth J. Shah of the Centre for Civil Society, (see below for think tank link)
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New York Times ( version with correction appended ) and this one by Lawrence Summers, this one about Friedman's social welfare program and check the collection of NYT articles about Milton Friedman
- The Independant (London)
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The NewYork Sun and their special on Friedman
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Townhall by Mark M. Alexander and this one by Linda Chavez
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El Universal; Venezuela (Spanish) by José Luis Cordeiro
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Wall Street Journal ; also in the Opinion Journal, this one by Thomas Sowell and this one by Henry G. Manne
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Washington Post check also this one by Steven Pearlstein, this one by Robert J. Samuelson and this one by David S. Broader
Obituaries from Magazines
- The Business London, UK
- The Economist
- Forbes magazine by Tim Ferguson
- Latin Business Chronicle piece on how "Milton Friedman Influenced Latin America" and their Q & A : Milton Friedman and Latin America with Latin American experts.
- National Review Online written by William Buckley Jr.
- Newsweek
- Reason magazine Friedman Special
Obituaries from Think Tanks
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Adriatic Institute, Croatia (Croatian)
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CEDICE ; Venezuela (Spanish)
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Center for Civil Society ; India
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The Free Market Foundation of Southern Africa
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The Independant Institute ; this one by Alexander Tabarrok and this one by Alvaro Vargas Llosa ( Spanish here )
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Instituto Libertad y Progreso ; Colombia (Spanish)
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Instituto de libre Empresa ; Peru (Spanish)
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Institute for Free Enterprise ; Germany
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The Liberalism.ro Association; Romania ( Romanian )
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Maxim Institute Canada
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Pacific Research Institute - a tribute by Sally Pipes
Obituaries from Universities
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Francisco Marroquín University (Spanish)
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University of Chicago, tribute to Milton Friedman with Gary Becker, Bob Lucas, Gene Fama, and Sam Peltzman. Thanks to Freakonomics for the pointer
Obituaries from Bloggers
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Claudio Tellez (Portuguese)
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Johan Norberg and his comment on the reaction of Sweedish media to Milton Friedman death
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Daniel W. Drezner and this piece
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Instapundit and his comment on Milton Friedman fondness for Sci-Fi
Other Resources on Milton Friedman
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Free to Choose website features Bob Chitester's Personal Reflections on Milton Friedman
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Atlas Investor Report from Winter 2002 that features a piece by Alex Chafuen conmemorating Milton Friedman, Sir John Templeton and Lovett Peters 90th birthday.
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El Iberoamericano written by Carlos Ball
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Idea Channel TV is airing "Free to Choose" for Free on it's 1980's and 1990's version
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Tech Central Daily on Friedman passion for tennis ; Milton Friedman's Case ; Milton Friedman's Gentle Persuasion ; How his ideas had Consequences and Milton's inner fire.
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Econ Talk Milton Friedman Podcast's
