Milton Friedman

Milton Friedman

Milton Friedman (1912 – 2006) was an American economist who received the 1976 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. His books have been recommended on Five Books many many times.

He was one of the most influential economists of the 20th century. He wrote on a wide variety of subjects and played a leading role—arguably the leading role—in overturning the Keynesian consensus that existed in the West from the end of the second world war to the 1960s.  His work on inflation and unemployment and his advocacy of privatisation underpinned the economic programmes of the Reagan administration in the United States and the Thatcher government in the UK.

“What Milton Friedman did, both in his academic work on economic theory and history, monetary policy and so forth, and as a policy advocate deeply engaged in policy debates, was to take things and make them very, very easy to understand. And he was able to convince people of his argument by making those arguments very logically.” Lars Christensen

Books by Milton Friedman

Interviews where books by Milton Friedman were recommended

The best books on Learning Economics, recommended by John Quiggin

We live in a society where it’s vital to have a good grasp of economics, but that doesn’t mean you need an economics degree to understand what it’s all about. Australian economist John Quiggin, author of Economics in Two Lessons, recommends books for learning about economics, all accessible to the general reader, and tries to dispel some of the myths about what it is professional economists do.

The Economics of Coronavirus: A Reading List, recommended by Ricardo Reis

As we deal with the economic fallout of coronavirus, what lessons can economic theory and economic history teach us as we navigate the months ahead? Ricardo Reis, professor of economics at the London School of Economics—and consultant to both the Bank of England and the Federal Reserve—recommends four books and one article to help us think through the economic challenges posed by Covid-19.

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