FRIEDMAN OBIT ROUNDUP. Yesterday I noted that Milton Friedman had just died, joining John Kenneth Galbraith as the second towering figure of 20th-Century economics to die this year. Now the obituaries are out in most major publications (here's the New York Times). Berkeley economist and blogger Brad DeLong submitted his own to Salon. It's a sensitive, nuanced portrait of "an enlightened adversary" with whom left-of-center economists tangled at their "peril." While Friedman is best known for his ceaseless advocacy of free-market economics and extreme hostility to government (and even to public schools and parks), DeLong highlights his broader "pragmatic" libertarianism: his staunch opposition to the draft during Vietnam, his criticism of the War on Drugs, and his hatred of deficit spending. Love him or hate him, DeLong suggests, Friedman was no hack: he was dogged, articulate, and passionate in his views. If you're looking instead for a full-throated condemnation of Friedman, his economic philosophy, and his involvement with Chile's military junta, try Counterpunch or this Guardian op-ed. For uncritical hagiography, try NRO Online. Somewhere in the middle, where I am, is this surprisingly-balanced Wall Street Journal obituary.
--Blake Hounshell
