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Milton Friedman

Milton Friedman Quotes

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Famous Milton Friedman Quotes

“Indeed, a major source of objection to a free economy is precisely that it... gives people what they want instead of what a particular group thinks they ought to want. Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself.”

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Book:Capitalism and Freedom: Fortieth Anniversary Edition
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“Central bankers always try to avoid their last big mistake. So every time there's the threat of a contraction in the economy, they'll over stimulate the economy, by printing too much money. The result will be a rising roller coaster of inflation, with each high and low being higher than the preceding one.”

TryingBigsLastsResultsMistakeEconomyToo MuchHigherLowsEconomicsThreatInvestingRisingInflationBankersPrintingRoller CoasterCoastersBig MistakeHighs And LowsContractions
Author:Milton Friedman
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“Significant changes in the growth rate of money supply, even small ones, impact the financial markets first. Then, they impact changes in the real economy, usually in six to nine months, but in a range of three to 18 months. Usually in about two years in the US, they correlate with changes in the rate of inflation or deflation." "The leads are long and variable, though the more inflation a society has experienced, history shows, the shorter the time lead will be between a change in money supply growth and the subsequent change in inflation.”

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Author:Milton Friedman
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“China has seen a great deal of economic progress. It's certainly rather of a miracle. The growing role of the market in the economy will force China to open up its political system over time and to move toward a more democratic society. So taken as a whole, the one real failure in this whole business has been Russia.”

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Author:Milton Friedman
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“A private enterprise system needs some measuring rod, it needs something, it needs money to make its transactions. You can't run a big complicated system through barter, through converting one commodity into another. You need a monetary system to operate. And the instability in that monetary system is devastating to the performance of the economy.”

NeedsBigsRunningEconomyPerformancesComplicatedEnterpriseCommodityMonetaryTransactionsMeasuringInstabilityConvertingPrivate EnterpriseMonetary SystemNeed Money
Author:Milton Friedman
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“Government has three primary functions. It should provide for military defense of the nation. It should enforce contracts between individuals. It should protect citizens from crimes against themselves or their property. When government-- in pursuit of good intentions tries to rearrange the economy, legislate morality, or help special interests, the cost come in inefficiency, lack of motivation, and loss of freedom. Government should be a referee, not an active player.”

ShouldTryingHelpingGovernmentMotivationThreeIndividualNationsInterestLossEconomyPlayerSpecialMilitaryCrimeCitizensMoralityCostProtectFunctionPropertyIntentionActiveDefensePursuitPrimariesContractsGood IntentionsSpecial InterestsRefereeInefficiency
Author:Milton Friedman
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“Nobody spends somebody else's money as carefully as he spends his own. Nobody uses somebody else's resources as carefully as he uses his own. So if you want efficiency and effectiveness, if you want knowledge to be properly utilized, you have to do it through the means of private property.”

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Author:Milton Friedman
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“Viewed as a means to the end of political freedom, economic arrangements are important because of their effect on the concentration or dispersion of power. The kind of economic organization that provides economic freedom directly, namely, competitive capitalism, also promotes political freedom because it separates economic power from political power and in this way enables the one to offset the other”

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Book:Capitalism and Freedom: Fortieth Anniversary Edition
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