What would Milton Friedman say?

Stephen Moore, senior economics writer at the span style=”font-style:italic;”WSJ,/span speculates about Friedman’s response to the current economic crisis in his new book, a href=”http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1594034648?ie=UTF8tag=wwwviolentkicomlinkCode=as2camp=1789creative=9325creativeASIN=1594034648″span style=”font-style:italic;”How Barack Obama is Bankrupting the U.S. Economy:/span/aimg src=”http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wwwviolentkicoml=as2o=1a=1594034648″ width=”1″ height=”1″ border=”0″ alt=”” style=”border:none !important; margin:0px !important;” /br /blockquoteAt times like this, I become more nostalgic for the indispensable missing voice in this debate: Milton Friedman’s. No one could slice and dice the sophistry of the left’s government-market interventions better than Friedman. Imagine what he would have to say about the arrogance of the U.S. government of owning and operating the car companies or managing the $2 trillion health-care industry. “Why not?” I can almost hear him ask. “After all, they’ve done such a wonderful job of delivering the mail…”br /br /”I’ve been thinking a lot lately about one of my last conversations with Friedman, when he warned that “even though socialism is a discredited economic model and capitalism is raising standards to new heights, the left intellectuals continue to push for bigger government everywhere I look.” He predicted that people would be seduced by collectivist ideas again. He was right.br //blockquotebr /As Friedman said in his book, a href=”http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0226264211?ie=UTF8tag=wwwviolentkicomlinkCode=as2camp=1789creative=9325creativeASIN=0226264211″Capitalism and Freedom, /aimg src=”http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wwwviolentkicoml=as2o=1a=0226264211″ width=”1″ height=”1″ border=”0″ alt=”” style=”border:none !important; margin:0px !important;” / “freedom is a rare and delicate plant.” br /br /Yes, it is.