louiethegreater Says:

Nov 15, 2008 - Anyone who still believes unregulated free markets is in the U.S. interest; I have a bridge I want to sell them.

pinkgunman Says:

Nov 15, 2008 - Anyone who actually believes that the financial systems are free markets; I have a bridge I want to sell them

louiethegreater Says:

Nov 16, 2008 - Laissez-Faire exists in theory only, it has never been implemented anywhere in the world at any time at least not since nation states have existed. The only way laissez-faire trade could possibly exist is in the enviroment of the absence of nation states, and I don't think I want to go there. Do you support an all powerful,Global, European based Fed, because in light of the recent G20 meeting thats what we are about to get?

psugeog11 Says:

Nov 17, 2008 - His ideas are timeless because freedom is timeless. People who argue against free markets usually ultimately find themselves arguing against freedom in general.

scwallac Says:

Nov 21, 2008 - Best video I have ever seen on YouTube!!! Wish I could give it 100 stars!!!

brigo234 Says:

Nov 21, 2008 - Milton Friedman is brilliant! His concerns here about governmental intervention in the lives of its citizens are so timely. Thanks so much for posting this interview!

TimeWarp66 Says:

Nov 21, 2008 - Friedmans genius lay in his recognition that information is dispersed: central planning is a fantasy because no mechanism, organization, or structure can process all the information needed on a minute-by-minute basis to direct capital and human energy to satisfy human needs. Its the ever-changing mix of independent producers in a free market who try to survive by meeting the changing needs that drive improvements to the human condition.

brigo234 Says:

Nov 21, 2008 - Well said!

TimeWarp66 Says:

Nov 21, 2008 - tnx

chrisrdow Says:

Nov 22, 2008 - it seems television used to actually convey information. This guy is asking good questions and giving time for good answers.

chrisrdow Says:

Nov 22, 2008 - He saying things that are very relevant to today the exact same hypocracy exists today. The same lies about economy, regresssive taxation and freedom exhist today. Populists (what he calls "do gooders") knowingly lie and are co-opted by the people who are supposed to be informing us. The internet may save us.

1776Bob Says:

Nov 23, 2008 - Why do people vote for bad government programs? THEY DON'T SEE THE COSTS. The Federal Reserve is the best way to hide costs, because no one ever complains about the inflation tax. Instead everyone blames the war in Iraq for the high gasoline prices and lawyers or speculators for the rising costs of medicine and housing. Abolish the Fed and reinstitute hard currency and you will have destroyed a powerful practical means for creating poverty that people do not often identify with the government.

chrisrdow Says:

Nov 23, 2008 - what is hard currency? you should do some reading. The point is that taxation is tyrany, a kind of theft. and only accepted as a necessay but undemocartic necessity. There was an idiot in holliwood who said that he felt taxes were too low(the guy was running for something). People are so ingorant and bound by liberal dogma that they dont even think about what constitutes freedom.

Aleowiciuos Says:

Nov 28, 2008 - Great!, so lets employ everyone at below min. wage and increase the percentage of people living at poverty levels. What was this guy smoking?..... or not smoking?

mpwmat Says:

Nov 29, 2008 - Left unattended a free market will tend, via the process of mergers and acquisitions, to a monopoly. Allowing this to occur throughout the economy, results in a society in which economic decision making power is concentrated in the hands of a few very large corporations. So implementing the free market idea also leads in the end to huge bureaucracies - corporate rather than governmental. Unfortunately these corporations don't even have to pretend that they act in the public interest.

mpwmat Says:

Nov 29, 2008 - From about 1975, Friedman's free market ideas were implemented in the US and elsewhere, particularly in the financial markets. Don't recent events discredit this line of thought?

vertexsc Says:

Nov 29, 2008 - Well, I see behind this financial mess two government sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Doesn't this fact discredit your statement?

mpwmat Says:

Nov 29, 2008 - No. Fannie Mae was created as a publicly run concern in 1938 in response to the collapse of the housing market in the great depression. It was privatized in 1968 as a book-keeping measure to help finance the Vietnam war. It should never have been privatized. More recently, the deregulation of the financial markets -- a "free market" initiative -- permitted the market for derivative securities to grow out of all proportion. We are now witnessing the destabilizing effects of this on the system.

atrickpay11 Says:

Nov 29, 2008 - What deregulation?

patrikkorda Says:

Nov 30, 2008 - friedman is such a little sexpanther :D still not sure if him letting his ideals get the best of him is a good thing or a bad thing.

Bacchant33rd Says:

Nov 30, 2008 - If capital movements are free, tax on currencies are free, there's what economists call a VIRTUAL PARLIAMENT of investors & lenders who actually vote every minute, in fact. If they don't like what the government is doing, they ATTACK the currency. Hence, economic liberalisation is a usurpation of democracy by imposing a private TYRANNY of investors on the populace. "Free-market" policies are really imposing Social Darwinism on the people.

TimLoganKnows911633 Says:

Dec 2, 2008 - Good point.

youngeek Says:

Dec 2, 2008 - The populace are the investors in a free society. Where is your 401K. Or are you donating yours to the government?

zzxo Says:

Dec 2, 2008 - You're incorrect with your associations. They were not natural free market entities.

Bacchant33rd Says:

Dec 2, 2008 - youngeek, not everyone can afford to invest what they have. Many people live paycheck to paycheck. In the present society, there is an investment-class. By investment-class, I'm not talking about the average Joe with the 401K I'm talking about the wealthy whose investment interests tend to harm the populace, including the average Joe's 401K. Might I remind you that the US is undergoing a MASSIVE failure of what currently passes for the "free market?" I guess you'd call that an "adjustment"