Chicago Business

Issue date: 11/25/02 Section: GSB News

The week of November 8, the Department of Economics of the University of Chicago was host to many of the world's preeminent economists (some even traveling from as far as Social Sciences and Rosenwald) who gathered together to honor Milton Friedman on his ninetieth birthday. University President Don Randel called it a "celebration of an extraordinary man, and an extraordinary department."

It is widely held that Milton Friedman, a long-time leader of the "Chicago School", is one of history's greatest economists. In the July 1st issue of BusinessWeek, GSB professor Gary Becker writes, "Friedman is increasingly recognized as the most influential economist in a 20th century that witnessed towering contributions from John Maynard Keynes, Paul A. Samuelson, and others."

The idea for a conference emerged in May when Dr. Becker spoke at a White House event held in Friedman's honor. Becker notes, "It was there that I started thinking that The University of Chicago, of all places, should have its own celebration. When I got back I met with Lars Hansen, James Heckman, and others and we started talking about different ideas."

Dr. Hansen added, "Given the intensity of the environment here at Chicago, and Milton's contribution to it, a conference seemed like the most appropriate way to honor him. I contacted Milton and when he said he was interested in the idea, Jim Heckman, Robert Lucas, Gary Becker and I started thinking about speakers with recent research in his areas of expertise."

A veritable Who's Who of the economics elite attended, including: Nobel laureates Gary Becker (1992), Robert Fogel (1993), Robert Lucas (1995), Myron Scholes (1997), and James Heckman (2000), in addition to former GSB Dean and U.S. Treasury Secretary George Schultz, and A Monetary History of the United States co-author Anna J. Schwartz. The events kicked off on Thursday night with a private cocktail reception where Dr. Friedman, his wife Rose, and many old friends and colleagues gathered for personal reminiscences about old times.

On Friday, the serious business began as a distinguished panel of economists, from both government and academia, gathered in conference at Ida Noyes Hall. Economics professor Lars Hansen, providing purpose for the day's proceedings, said, "We honor his 90th birthday in the spirit of his contributions with insightful presentations and debate in the myriad of areas in which he contributed." The well-attended conference devoted each of four sessions to Friedman's most important works in economic science, including monetarism, economic incentives and public policy, the Permanent Income Hypothesis, and monetary history through the Depression.


Not forgotten was praise for Milton Friedman as a teacher Dr. Becker reflected on this aspect of Friedman's contributions to the University. "He was an absolutely outstanding teacher- the best I ever had...He treated economics as a real field, with real solvable problems that could have an impact... I was very excited about attending every single class." GSB Dean Ted Snyder commented, "When he encountered a idea that he opposed, he attacked it with vigor, but never the person.  Throughout his life he has won people over by teaching, demanding that ideas be tested, and then more teaching."

Even though Dr. Friedman now spends most of his time in San Francisco, he is inextricably linked to the University of Chicago. In Two Lucky People, coauthored by long-time intellectual and marital partner Dr. Rose Friedman, Milton writes: "The University of Chicago is famous for its intense and stimulating intellectual atmosphere. Concentration on ideas; intellectual discourse among equals judged by scholarly activity, not status; tolerance for unconventional ideas; interaction among scholars in different fields-- these are the hallmarks of what we continue to regard as our university."

It was clear from the day's events that, just as Dr. Friedman values the University of Chicago, the University takes great pride in him. Though he did not speak formally as a member of a panel, a quick silence would engulf the hall whenever he offered words of wisdom and commentary on the presentations. Milton and Rose spent each intermission graciously signing autographs, posing for pictures, and greeting the students that filled the aisles of the Max Palevsky Cinema waiting patiently for an opportunity to meet their hero. Eduardo Veiga, co-chair of the GSB's own Milton Friedman Student Group, said, "The grad students around him were as happy as children around Santa. And I was one of them."

Dr. Friedman began his long-time association with Chicago in 1933 as a graduate student. It was also in 1933, in what could be considered fate, that Milton first met his lifelong partner Rose. Professor Jacob Viner, one of the brightest economists of his generation, and one of the toughest teachers in the economics department at the time, had a strict alphabetical seating policy for his students. As Don Randel noted, "Fortunately there were no Edwards or Epsteins that year," thus placing Rose Director and Milton Friedman right next to each other for the very first time.

After earning an A.M. in economics from Chicago, Dr. Friedman left for Columbia where he continued his studies on fellowship. Just a year later however, he returned to Chicago as a research assistant under Henry Schultz. It was then that Dr. Friedman first met long-time friends George Stigler, former GSB professor and 1982 Nobel laureate in economics; and W. Allen Wallis, former dean of the Graduate School of Business.

Dr. Friedman went on to service in Washington, and at the Universities of Wisconsin, Columbia, and Minnesota, before returning to Chicago in 1946 as a professor in the Department of Economics. He remained at the University for thirty years before retiring and relocating to California where he now serves as a senior research fellow at the Hoover Institution.

During this thirty-year period Milton Friedman garnered virtually every honor that could possibly be bestowed upon an economist. In 1951 he was awarded the John Bates Clark Medal from the American Economic Association, and in 1976 was awarded the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. He also served as president of the American Economic Association and the Mont Pelerin Society (an exclusive group of market liberals formed in the wake of communist expansion in 1947), and was granted membership to the National Academy of Arts & Sciences. Later, in 1988 he was awarded both the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the National Medal of Science.

For the non-academic, the conference served as the single-sitting immersion into Friedman's work that is required to fully appreciate the breadth of his influence. Though wide in its scope, his research is connected by common ideas. Whether boldly critiquing Keynesian interventions, faulty central bank policy, or misguided regulation, a central theme is pervasive-- the principle that freedom and individual choice, in the absence of government coercion, are the key ingredients to prosperity.

Friedman has long argued that that protecting economic freedom is no less important than protecting personal freedom. For such determination, Jim Powell, author of Triumph of Liberty (a collection of biographical sketches of history's greatest freedom fighters), goes so far as to name Milton Friedman the greatest champion of liberty in the 20th Century. In Capitalism and Freedom, Friedman writes, "underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself"--a clear lesson that vigilance is a necessary prerequisite for each.

Dr. Friedman, who has celebrated each of his sixtieth, seventy-fifth, and now ninetieth birthday with friends at this, his university, closed the celebration promising to return once again in fifteen years for his one-hundred and fifth. Future generations of the GSB truly have something to look forward to.

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