A 2002 Tribute to Milton Friedman

Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld speaking at Tribute to Milton Friedman (transcript)
As Delivered by Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, White House, Washington, D.C., Thursday, May 09, 2002

"Mr. President (George W. Bush), Rose and Milton (Friedman), Minister of Defense of Italy (Antonio) Martino, a student of Milton’s, colleagues and friends, it’s good to see you all.

I am delighted to join in celebrating the life and work of a good friend, and a rare talent-indeed, a talent to be treasured.

Last year, I was disappointed to miss the birthday lunch that Ed Feulner hosts every year at some fish house on the road to Bohemian Grove in July. It’s nice of the President to bring us all together for an early celebration here in the EEOB (Eisenhower Executive Office Building).

And Milton, what an impact you have had. Precious few people live long enough to witness the rise and fall of empires. Even fewer can see that their work has had a profound effect on those truly momentous events.

Milton is the embodiment of the truth that "ideas have consequences."
Donald H. Rumsfeld

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Shocktherapy is Good! (II)

Shocktherapy is Good!

China’s New Leftist
NY Times October 15, 2006 "Co-editor of China’s leading intellectual journal, Dushu (Reading), and the author of a four-volume history of Chinese thought, Wang, still in his mid-40’s, has emerged as a central figure among a group of writers and academics known collectively as the New Left. New Left intellectuals advocate a “Chinese alternative” to the neoliberal market economy, one that will guarantee the welfare of the country’s 800 million peasants left behind by recent reforms."

"For Wang, the problems associated with China’s uneven development were first identified by the demonstrators in Tiananmen Square in 1989. Wang himself was one of the last protesters to leave the square on the morning of June 4, 1989, as the tanks of the People’s Liberation Army closed in. Normally rather brisk and matter-of-fact, he grew animated as he described in fluent, if occasionally idiosyncratic, English how a “broad social movement” began to grow out of the distress caused by the shock therapy of market reforms."

"When Deng Xiaoping sought to bury the ghosts of Tiananmen for good by calling for speedy market reforms in 1992, he may well have calculated that the prospect of personal wealth — and access to Western brand-name goods — would compensate many newly enriched people for the lack of political democracy."

"More than 150 million people survive on a dollar a day. About 200 million of the rural population are crowding the cities and towns in search of low-paying jobs. More than four million Chinese participated in the 87,000 protests recorded in 2005, and these statistics may not fully convey the rage and discontent of Chinese living with one of the world’s highest income inequalities and deteriorating health and education systems, as well as the arbitrary fees and taxes imposed by local party officials.

Much of this, Wang said, could be laid at the feet of the “right-wing radicals” or neoliberal economists who cite Milton Friedman and Friedrich Hayek (advocates of unregulated markets who inspired Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher in the 80’s) and who argue for China’s integration into the global economy without taking into account the social price of mass privatization. And it is they, Wang added, who have held favor with the ruling elite and have dominated the state-run media."


Gosh! That was the silliest thing I´ve ever heard!!

Milton Friedman is Good!

Today is Milton Friedman Day and that is something that should be declared an international holiday, for what would Pinochet, Reagan and Thatcher be without the sublime economical theories of the Nobel prize-winning economist Milton Friedman.

He had a profound influence on neoliberal politics globally and some of his recommendations can be seen in Sweden today;

"the General abolished the minimum wage, outlawed trade union bargaining rights, privatized the pension system, abolished all taxes on wealth and on business profits, slashed public employment, privatized 212 state industries and 66 banks and ran a fiscal surplus."

And Chile was then, just as China is today, great examples that dictatorship and neoliberal economics together can create fountains of wealth for corporations.