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Matching entries from Houston's Clear Thinkers
The headline says it all
The fundamental problem with the American health care finance system is that reliance on tax-deductible, employer-based health insurance and government subsidized insurance (such as Medicaid, Medicare) created a culture since WWII in which consumers of health care at the...
Rationing and health care finance reform
The video below (H/T Professor Bainbridge) of a Milton Friedman lecture on the health care finance system is as timely now as it was in 1978 when he gave it at the Mayo Clinic. I was reminded of the...
The WSJ's Steve Moore channels Milton Friedman
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Greed in perspective
In market economies, people who create jobs and wealth often generate great wealth personally. During periods of market unrest, those wealthy folks are often demonized as being greedy. During a period of economic malaise in1979, the late Milton Friedman counsels...
Clear thinking to begin the week
In three and a half minutes, Richard St. John explains the keys to success. The late Milton Friedman explains the folly of the prohibition policy against drugs....
"In the Hamptons"
As economists such as Nouriel Roubini increasingly predict a recession and a hard landing for the U.S. economy, Merle Hazard channels Merle Haggard, Arthur Laffer, Milton Friedman, Mac Davis, Ben Bernanke and Elvis -- to name just a few --...
The Achilles Heel of Health Care Finance Reform
In an interview years ago, the late Milton Friedman summed up the basic problem with a nationalized system of health care finance: There are four ways in which you can spend money. You can spend your own money on yourself....
An enduring myth of regulation
The New York Times is shocked to discover that big, established businesses often attempt to manipulate governmental regulation to their advantage over entrepreneurial startups. This hidden cost of regulation is one that I noted awhile back in regard to the...
Milton Friedman's introduction to economics
James Hamilton passes along Stanford University Professor John Taylor's touching tribute to Milton Friedman, which includes this anecdote about Friedman's participation in an entry level economics class: [Professor Friedman] was always willing to be a guest lecturer in my Economics...
The Power of Choice
Greg Mankiw passes along that PBS has announced that it will broadcast The Power of Choice, a documentary about Milton Friedman, on January 29th. This promises to be a special show and one that should not be missed by anyone...
Divided over powerful government
The late Milton Friedman commented recently that he had concluded that the best political make-up for the federal government was one that had the greatest likelihood to develop gridlock because of the damaging policies that the government enacts when one...
More Friedman anecdotes
The fine remembrances of the late Milton Friedman continue unabated. In this post, Professor Friedman's son, David Friedman, explains how Time Magazine came to misquote Professor Friedman's comment that “We are all Keynesians now.” Then, in this WSJ ($) letter...
Giving thanks to Milton Friedman's bookie
One of the underappreciated contributions of the late Milton Friedman is the impact of his market theories on the explosive development of derivative financial markets, particularly after the Nixon Administration abandoned in 1971 the fixed exchange rates that the Allies...
Liberty and Justice for all?
The chronically overcrowded and abysmal condition of the Harris County Jail has been a frequent topic on this blog (most recently here), so this Bill Murphy/Houston Chronicle article from over the weekend caught my eye because it concerned the changing...
The Friedman influence
"138.888889" height="175" border="0" style="FLOAT: left" hspace="5" vspace="2" />Several clever recent posts reflect the tremendous influence that Milton Friedman has had on economics and politics. First, Larry Ribstein -- who doesn't touch on politics much but always provides keen insight when...
Milton Friedman, R.I.P.
I cannot improve on the brilliant simplicity of the lead sentence in the Wall Street Journal's article on the death earlier today of Milton Friedman: Nobel prize winner Milton Friedman, one of the most influential economists of the last century,...
A big hurdle to health care finance reform
Don Boudreaux, chairman of the economics department at George Mason University and the driver of Cafe Hayek, authored this Christian Science Monitor op-ed that addresses a fundamental problem with reforming the American health care finance system -- the expectation of...
Milton Friedman on limited government
Russell Roberts over at Cafe Hayek points us to a remarkable Open Mind video from over 30 years ago of Milton Friedman discussing principles of economics and limited government. The entire video is about a half hour, but if you...
Thomas Sowell is a wise man
Thomas Sowell (previous post here) is the Rose and Milton Friedman Senior Fellow of The Hoover Institution at Stanford University, where he has written yet another book, On Classical Economics (Yale 2006). Although Professor Sowell's preference for free markets and...
Two interesting interviews
Economist Milton Friedman (previous posts here, here and here) and former General Electric CEO Jack Welch are the subject of a couple of recent interviews and, as usual, both of them have interesting observations to pass along. First, Friedman: "The...
Robert Reich on the dangers of the political economy status quo
Robert B. Reich is University Professor and Maurice B. Hexter Professor of Social and Economic Policy at Brandeis University and at the Brandeis Heller School of Social Policy and Management. He has served in three national administrations, most recently as...
Milton Friedman interviewed
Milton Friedman is the most influential economist of the past half-century and, at the age of 92, is still as sharp as a tack (here are previous posts on Mr. Friedman). Craig Newmark passes along this recent interview of Mr....
The looming fiscal crisis over Medicaid
This Wall Street Journal ($) article is an excellent overview of how subsidizing Medicaid is overwhelming state budgets across the country. The article uses the state of Mississippi as an example, where federal and state funding of the program has...
Can the Republicans lead?
In this brilliant op-ed today, Wall Street Journal ($) editorial page editor Paul Gigot throws down the gauntlet and challenges the Republican Party to elevate substance over form and show that the party can lead America. In a stinging rebuke...
Milton Friedman on socialism and the course of free markets
When Milton Friedman writes about economic history, people listen. Writing in today's Wall Street Journal ($), Professor Friedman observes the following: To summarize: After World War II, opinion was socialist while practice was free market; currently, opinion is free market...
Milton Friedman interview
This Fox News interview with Milton Friedman provides the usual dose of Professor Friedman's provocative thoughts about economic freedom and the costs of governmental interference in markets, but also provides the following common sense analysis on why shifting health care...
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