milton friedman

[Red October]

theres another thread about him dieing, but i dont know much about him or his role in US history and economics. anyone care to inform me?

[RedCommieBear]

Milton Friedman was an economist who advocated free markets. He was a devout supporter of capitalism, and wrote many books on the "superiority of capitalism". Some of his more famous books include Free to Choose (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_to_Choose), and Capitalism and Freedom. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalism_and_Freedom) To put this man's influence in perspective, his free market beliefs had a deep influence on the economics of Reagan (and probably Thatcher). While not qutie an advocate of stateless capitalis, he did believe in minimizing the state and influenced many "anarcho"-capitalists. His son (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_D._Friedman), though, is an anarcho-capitalist.

More information on his theories:
Natural Rate of Unemployment (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_rate_of_unemployment) (I saw someone in the other thread mention it)
Quantity theory of money (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantity_theory_of_money)

Essentially, he's a clone of Murray Rothbard.