Milton Friedman on greed – Update: Video loaded

Earlier today, I think one of our commenters (Chris) requested audio of the Donahue interview with Milton Friedman played on the big radio show today. I’m not 100 percent certain if Chris was asking for this, but if he was, we’ll do one better and provide the video too!

I’m pretty certain that the clip is from 1979, but I do not have an exact date. Enjoy.

Oh heck, for some reason I am still unable to post video, click here to watch the clip (2:23).

Update (jim) Got it … enjoy again.

 

 

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Steve McGough

Steve's a part-time conservative blogger. Steve grew up in Connecticut and has lived in Washington, D.C. and the Bahamas. He resides in Connecticut, where he’s comfortable six months of the year.

8 Comments

  1. Ken Humphrey on November 27, 2008 at 6:35 am

    Milton Friedman as a Thanksgiving Day Treat? His obsession with total deregulation, unfettered 'free market', etc. is the cause of our present mess. You have to be the worst possible voice on WTIC. Rash Windbag is bad enough. What worse choice for thankfulness than the inspirer of so much human misery as Friedman. Your other theme of gungho war drumbeat is also a downer for a former great radio station.



  2. jvicevich on November 27, 2008 at 1:37 pm

    Thanks for your comments Ken. A few comments from me. You might be able to make a case that "lack of regulation" in the derivative market may have contributed. You may also be able to make the case that failure to hold Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to the same reserve requirements as banks greatly led to this problem. You could make the case that lenders were reckless (which the market corrects through bankruptcy). But deregulation had little to do with any of this and certainly deregulation did not cause the Big 3 and the UAW to sink their companies by rewarding inefficiency. If anything the cost of overregulation contributed greatly to their demise. At the same time the monetarists of the 80's laid the ground work for the longest peace time prosperity the Western World has ever known. By restricting the money supply Volker broke inflation and by cutting taxes business flourished. We have much to be grateful for today. Dr. Friedman is one of those.



  3. Steve on November 27, 2008 at 2:48 pm

    Happy Thanksgiving to you Ken.



  4. Erik on November 27, 2008 at 7:24 pm

    You might be able to make a case that “lack of regulation” in the derivative market may have contributed.

    Gee, you think? Obviously lack of regulation had a large impact on this crisis. And you ask about what specific deregulation played a part. Well the financial services modernization act of 1999 allowed for the consolidation of investment banks and retail banks. It allowed these companies to become "too big to fail." This is pretty significant.

    Free markets need ground rules to operate. Those ground rule NEED to specifically include regulation of the CDS market by either allowing ONLY bond holders to purchase CDSs and forcing banks (not necessarily hedge funds) to disclose their exposure to these derivative instruments. The ground rules also need to prevent monopolization.

    -Erik



  5. Dave in EH on November 27, 2008 at 8:40 pm

    Ken: "His (Milton Friedman's) obsession with total deregulation, unfettered ‘free market’, etc. is the cause of our present mess. "

    Actually, Ken, I think you will find that the deregulation was praised as the well-spring of the Clinton economic boom. Also, it was the Dems' intransigence to additional regulation of Freddie and Fannie that are the cause of our present mess. Their resistance, unsurprisingly, was not a matter of principle, but a desire to keep the FM twins around as political slush funds and places where out-going Democratic apparatchiks could be stored for a couple years and walk away with large green for small work.

    So… how was you turkey, Ken?



  6. Erik on November 28, 2008 at 7:23 am

    Dave, what does Clinton praise have to do with what Ken said? Dems and reps have nothing to do with it. Both parties have seriously flawed (and very similar) economic policy. There may be some specific differences but at a high level the policies to not have anything do do with democrats and republicans.



  7. Gary the socialist on November 29, 2008 at 11:00 am

    I have to say in Jims defense he is not the worse on WTIC a case could be made that Colins show is .I listen to both and at least you know what your getting with Mr. Vicevivce… Fox sound bits and right wing talking points…where Colins is like a miss mass of nothing in the hopes of sounding funny no offense. I would also offer those informacials about bowl movements at midnight or that other right winger on weekends who is so far out there that his sky is black as his heart or I would even offer that other daily right wing show Hannity as the worse. Just kidding Happy Thankgiving to all. Love it or leave the free market is hard at work here in America ,lets just hope that some us will survive it at its worse like it has been these last several years.We are all to blame for everything going on. We all played the 401 k profits over people and now the cows have come home to roost.



  8. Dave in EH on November 30, 2008 at 8:52 pm

    Erik: "Dave, what does Clinton praise have to do with what Ken said?"

    If one is going to complain about deregulation and its impact upon today, is it not meet and just to place that complaint at the appropriate feet?



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