Island Life by David Slack

So, he's gone. Is that the sound of weeping from Roger Douglas's house?
How long before the hagiographic biography from one of Americas finest writers, that Bill O'Reilly is a pretty good writer isn' t he?
I wonder what sort of party there will be in whatever afterlife Friedman goes to, there'll probably not be a free bar.

Love your tribute! Can I send it on? (copyright and all that)

Thank you Wendy. Consider yourself granted full and unfettered rights to deal with it as you wish.

My favourite tribute so far is from Harry Hutton

If Keynes was he Ying
Friedman was the Yang

Isn't balance great.
Friedman thought Keynes was a great theorist with a wrong Hypothesis

Milton and Rose Friedman: Wall St journal
BY TUNKU VARADARAJAN
Saturday, July 22, 2006 12:01

Had Keynes lived long enough to read Friedman's work in the fifties I am sure he would agee that his was a great contribution to the subject. We will never know what he considered it right or wrong.
I suspect histrory will judge that they were both right for their time but like all theorists they cannot be right all the time. The answer lies somewhere between the extremes.

What band did Milt play in again?

I can honestly say I never expected a poetic eulogy to Milton Friedman to be something I'd find on the internet.

I guess it really is more than just porn and cat pictures.

I guess it really is more than just porn and cat pictures.

Sometimes, Andre, you can find them both on one page.

BTW, this is ok to view at work.

BTW, this is ok to view at work.

Hmmm... now that I think about it some more, it might just be a bit marginal for work viewing, but only if your boss or organisation is quite sensitive.

From Milton Friedman's death to gay kitty porn in just seven easy steps.

Gotta love that interwab.

Now hopefully jared (or jarrod, or whatever you are calling yourself these days, you false accuser you) stumbles across this thread, clicks on the link Deborah has so helpfully provided, and goes blind as a result. That'll learn him for accusing me of kitty porn!

this is pedantry (sorry). And I know that it was onlya poem.

But Freidman was not a 'Supply Sider' he was a Monetarist.

I'm glad you had that link to the CNN story. Some of my friends thought your poem was a cheap shot - and they didn't like it.

Just in case people missed it http://money.cnn.com/2006/11/16/news/newsmakers/friedman/index.htm?cnn=yes

"Overseas, Friedman's work helped shape policies used in Chile in the 1970s. His influence raised eyebrows among critics because of the repressive political situation in the country in that period." which points out the links with Pinochet, Thatcher & Regan.

I do think that the other linkage was between conservatism and monetarism.

I also think Friedman was a great man as economics is not an easy area at all and humour is one of the ways that prople deal with all of the conflicting feelings around both the unintended consequences of such theories and the positives as well.

Even Friedman noted that there had been mistakes.

"In 2003, Milton Friedman renounced many of the policies from the 1980s that were based on quantity targets. In doing so he basically conceded that the demand for money is not so easily predicted. He stood, however, by his central formulations." (from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monetarism)

I also think Friedman was a monetarist - which is different from supply side / so that is a a mistake but links to Regan, Thatcher and Pinochet are all there.

And I think that it still a tribute / which recognises the bitter sweet nature of real world politics.

Hmmm... now that I think about it some more, it might just be a bit marginal for work viewing, but only if your boss or organisation is quite sensitive.

Any orginisation that wouldn't let me view gay cat porn on company time is not an organisation I'd want to work for.

Last article I read by Freidman showed he was also a "flat taxer". Even Donald Regan (Reagan's Secretary of Treasury/Chief of Staff) thought flat tax was a ridiculous idea.

As an aside, Regan's description of the final years of the Reagan presidency are mind boggling.

I'll stand corrected on the supply-sider question. My somewhat woolly justification is that you're to some extent judged by the company you keep, which was more or less what I was implying in the Thribb piece.

And I think that it still a tribute / which recognises the bitter sweet nature of real world politics.

Thanks, Jason. There was no malice intended.

I understand I've been criticised elsewhere as a smart-arse lefty. Unfortunately Abraham Lincoln was right: at 40, you generally have the face you deserve.