Reason: Is Ben Bernanke a follower of John Maynard Keynes or Milton Friedman?

[emazur]

http://www.reason.com/news/show/135804.html

Paul, a libertarian like Schwartz and Friedman, worries that the Federal Reserve is bringing the pair's monetarist model into reality. In a phone interview, he noted, "In essence, Bernanke is following Friedman's advice. He's a Friedmanite when it comes to massively inflating. Bernanke was able to justify [his policies] by using Friedman."

Asked if Friedman's enthusiasm for inflation flouts libertarianism, Paul answered: "Absolutely. The monetarists said that you could overcome a natural market correction of a collapsing system by inflation—print money faster! Which contradicts Friedman's whole thesis. He wanted a steady, managed increase in the supply of money of about 3 percent." Here Paul is alluding to Money Mischief, Friedman's 1991 book in which he called on the Federal Reserve to grow the money supply at 3 percent annually, presumably forever. "Yet, at the same time, Friedman said the Depression could've been prevented by massively inflating."

Paul has kind words for Friedman, whom he praises as a staunch defender of economic liberty, but his final summation is damning: "Friedman's very, very libertarian—except on monetary issues."

 

[Objectivist]

http://www.reason.com/news/show/135804.html

Friedman made his suggestions when the dollar was still backed by Gold. If you know that the volume of currency was down by a 1/3 and the economy tanked then increasing the amount of money would have prevented the crash.... while we were still backing it with Gold.

 

[hugolp]

"We are all keynesians now!" Milton Friedman

 

[PureCommonSense]

Ummm...I think Richard Nixon said that, not Milton Friedman.

 

[iddo]

"People are saving, not spending. In order to revive this economy..." she paused, hesitating on the thought, "the government will have to resume spending. By spending, the government will require that the current inventory will be depleted and have to be replenished. And that will bring on additional production and jobs."

How borrowing money from abroad and running a trade deficit so that consumers will spend the borrowed money on foreign products is supposed to deplete the inventory and create production and jobs?

 

[hugolp]

Ummm...I think Richard Nixon said that, not Milton Friedman.

No, Milton Friedman said that too.

 

[TGGRV]

Dude, Friedman said something COMPLETELY different than what Bernanke is doing. He was criticizing the Fed for not printing money in the depression because they had bigger gold stocks than the paper supply which choked the economy. It was more complex than this, but I'm lazy to explain it.

 

[bill50]

Freidman supported centralized banking in Capitalism and Freedom. He is not a libertarian, not is he a supporter of the free market.

 

[Objectivist]

"We are all keynesians now!" Milton Friedman

We are all Keynesians now
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"We are all Keynesians now" is a now-famous phrase coined by Milton Friedman and attributed to U.S. president Richard Nixon. It is popularly associated with the reluctant embrace in a time of financial crisis of Keynesian economics by individuals such as Nixon who had formerly favored free market capitalism.
[edit]History of the phrase

The phrase was first attributed to Milton Friedman in the December 31, 1965 edition of Time magazine.[1] In the February 4, 1966 edition, Friedman wrote a letter clarifying that his original statement had been "In one sense, we are all Keynesians now; in another, nobody is any longer a Keynesian."[2]
In 1971, after taking the United States off the gold standard,[3] Nixon was quoted as saying "I am now a Keynesian in economics",[4] which became popularly associated with Friedman's phrase.
The phrase gained new life in the midst of the global financial crisis of 2008, when some economists and pundits called for massive investment in infrastructure and job creation as a means of economic stimulation.[5][6]

 

[Objectivist]

Freidman supported centralized banking in Capitalism and Freedom. He is not a libertarian, not is he a supporter of the free market.

What? I'm sick of people going on about Milton when they take remarks made out of context. Much of what I've read about Milton and by Milton has been him commenting on the system the way it is set up. He realized that it would most likely not change with the current political parties and addressed it as such. I've already posted elsewhere that he thought differently of the Fed.

Read "Free to CHoose" or watch the videos at YT.

 

[TGGRV]

Freidman supported centralized banking in Capitalism and Freedom. He is not a libertarian, not is he a supporter of the free market.

You should youtube Friedman and watch some of his stuff. Or actually read him. The government controlling the money supply isn't free market either.

 

[randolphfuller]

Bernanke is a monetarist and follower of Milton Friedman of the Chicago School. These writers are generally considered libertarians, but not Austrians. Speaking of the gold standard Milton Friedman said "you might as well use pork bellies".

 

[Objectivist]

Bernanke is a monetarist and follower of Milton Friedman of the Chicago School. These writers are generally considered libertarians, but not Austrians. Speaking of the gold standard Milton Friedman said "you might as well use pork bellies".

Do you have a link to that quote?

 

[Thrashertm]

http://www.reason.com/news/show/135804.html

Option C - he's a follower of Satan