Economist Milton Friedman, who was 94 when he died in 2006, was a major influence on Reaganomics, neoliberalism and trickle-down economics — and everyone from the Libertarian Party to Ronald Reagan’s administration has embraced his views on business and the economy. Friedman, however, has been widely criticized by liberals, progressives and proponents of New Deal and Great Society economics, and former GOP insider Bruce Bartlett lays out some reasons why Friedman’s influence on U.S. economic policy has been harmful in an article published in The New Republican this week.
Bartlett himself was a longtime Republican who worked under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush — but he broke with the part under the second Bush’s presidency. The GOP has long revered Friedman as a paragon of economic thought, but Bartlett argues this view is a mistake.
Friedman was known for what has been called “shareholder economics” or “the shareholder theory.” In essence, Friedman disagreed that corporations had an obligation to society on the whole — their only obligation, he argued, was to their shareholders. Continue reading.