Sen. Bernie Sanders: The Failed Prophet (Milton Friedman)

[marmar]

from In These Times:



The Failed Prophet
As Wall Street collapses, so does Milton Friedman’s legacy.

By Sen. Bernie Sanders


The late Milton Friedman was a provocative teacher at my alma mater, the University of Chicago. He got his students involved with their studies. He was a gifted writer and communicator. And he received a Nobel Prize for his contributions to economics.

But Friedman was more than an academic. He was an advocate for, and popularizer of, a radical right-wing economic ideology.

In today’s political and social reality, the University of Chicago’s establishment of a $200 million Milton Friedman Institute (in the building that has long housed the renowned Chicago Theological Seminary) will not be perceived as simply a sign of appreciation for a prominent former faculty member. Instead, by founding such an institution, the university signals that it is aligning itself with a reactionary political program supported by the wealthiest, greediest and most powerful people and institutions in this country. Friedman’s ideology caused enormous damage to the American middle class and to working families here and around the world. It is not an ideology that a great institution like the University of Chicago should be seeking to advance.

Those who defend the Milton Friedman Institute will assure us that it will encourage a free and open exchange of ideas. That may very well be true. But if the goal of the institute is simply to do non-ideological research, there are a lot of names that one could come up with other than that of the most polemical and ideological economist of his time. ........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/4193/the_failed_prophet/

[malaise]

1. Just watched him tearing Blitzer a new one

on The Situation Room.

[marmar]

2. Wolf Blitzer is a shameless, talentless whore......

..... I can't stand him.

[Enthusiast]

10. Agree on Blitzer. nt

[patrice]

3. Tks for the tip! I'm goin' there.

:hi:

[Bjorn Against]

4. Read Naomi Klein's book "The Shock Doctrine" to see just how disgusting Friedman's is.

[tularetom]

5. My advice is never trust anyone named Friedman

Milton

Thomas

even Kinky.

[Octafish]

6. His economic program is nothing more than a wish list for the greediest, most-monied...

More from the original article, in which Sen. Sanders asks important questions, raises important issues and makes critical points...

...In the rush to bail out Wall Street, we saw President Bush, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, the people in U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable—folks who loved Friedman’s ideas and who, no doubt, would be prepared to financially support a Milton Friedman Institute—reverse their longstanding rhetorical opposition to government intervention.

Instead, they demanded that we come to the rescue of the financial firms that had lined up in front of Congress for their emergency welfare checks.

For years, all of these people, including the president of the United States, have been telling us that government should not be involved in ensuring healthcare for all Americans as a right of citizenship. (‘What a terrible idea!’)

They have been telling us that the government should not be involved in making quality education affordable to all people, that the government should not be empowered to ensure that we reverse greenhouse gas emissions, that government should not regulate pollution that contaminates our air and water and land, and that the government should not provide a strong safety net for our children, for our seniors or for the disabled.

CONTINUED...

http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/4193/the_failed_prophet

Thanks for the heads-up, marmar. In These Times is an excellent journal. Sen. Sanders is an excellent public servant -- outstanding, really.

[marmar]

7. I love In These Times......

Some great stuff in there.

[BlueJazz]

8. I Spit on Milton Friedman’s Grave.

Just another short-sighted Greedy Repug.

[Joe Chi Minh]

9. I don't think it's something that anyone other than those connected with the Chicago school

need worry about.

It's a bit like the Titanic receiving an award for pre-eminent sea-worthiness, before its demise, and having it trumpeted around the world. (Ironically, I believe it was supposed to be "unsinkable"!)

You know that the far-right live their lives as a permanent lie, so that when they are found out "in spades", they have to put their propaganda into overdrive, hoping attack will provide some defence. Aren't they casting Roosevelt's New Deal as a failure more vociferously than ever now.

[Hydra]

11. May the cult of Friedman be buried deep

Destroying the world for the benefit of the few- does this sound like a good idea to anyone?

[TacticalPeek]

12. "OPEC will fall of its own weight"

any minute now.