tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27644679.post2846602832738658425..comments2023-11-03T03:17:27.053-05:00Comments on NPR Check: Help!Mytwordshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04307620268159811668noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27644679.post-51249789024688950752006-11-19T14:37:00.000-06:002006-11-19T14:37:00.000-06:00I've read a lot of the encomiums about Friedman an...I've read a lot of the encomiums about Friedman and I'm frankly quite disappointed, though hardly surprised. In all of my reading Friedman (from his work in macro on the natural rate of unemployment, on lifecycle consumption functions and origins of the Great Depression) I have yet to come across anything that wasn't either 1) stunningly obvious; 2) true, but only the most circular sense; or 3) actually wrong once you delved into the empirical evidence more carefully (i.e. without any ideological axe-grinding in mind). And all this is even when one accepts his incredibly limited understanding of the term "freedom". And to me, his advising a butcher like Pinochet puts him beyond the pale. All this praise is not surprising, though, when one considers that he spent his whole career building a "scientific" basis for the established order, comforting the powerful and undermining the attempts of the many to buffer the shocks of unfettered capitalism. The kid glove treatment by NPR is to be expected, I'm afraid.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com