Milton Friedman RIP

Milton Friedman was a man of small size but great stature. His ideas underpin much of the common-sense economics that are part and parcel of the conservative movement. He understood that the best way to make an economy run for the greatest benefit of the most people was to simply leave it alone.

Justified by the ideas of John Maynard Keynes and such ivory tower intellectuals as John Kenneth Galbraith, national governments were taking a bigger and bigger role in attempting to engineer economies in the Post-WWII era. The bigger these engineering jobs became, the more likely they were to fail. It was the ideas espoused by Milton Friedman in his book and TV series called "Free to Choose" that helped to turn this around.

The idea that property rights are fundamental to individual freedom has been around at least since the mid-17th century when John Locke made the proposal in one of his treatises. But Milton Friedman was the man who brought the idea home in the modern era.

He will be sorely missed.