jlimoges

No rest not even from the University of Chicago However, more than 100 faculty members have signed a petition objecting to the Milton Friedman Institute. The group of dissenting professors calls itself the Committee for Open Research on Economy and Society (CORES). CORES will make its case against the MFI at a faculty senate, a rarely held assembly of the entire faculty to be held this fall. Yali Amit, a professor in the Departments of Statistics and Computer Science and one of the petition’s signers, cites several broad objections to the proposed institute. The most basic complaint involves the MFI’s name. According to Amit, Friedman, the Nobel laureate and accomplished technical economist, “cannot be disentangled from Milton Friedman, the right-wing ideologue.”

That's an odd obit to Friedman. The first thing that jumps out is how overtly political Friedman really was. I wonder why the author believes we should ignore his primary function as a political ideologue. The second surprise is the statement about Ford and Nixon who more or less rejected monetarism unlike Reagan. I remember reading one of his newly released books in the early 80s? after he won the Nobel Prize. One chapter was a scathing report on how labor unions artificially drove up prices and violated free market principles. So what was his supporting example that gave evidence and reasoning for Friedman to draw such conclusions? Why it was the American Medical Association of course. (I know I know, that's laughable, but it's true! And he won a Nobel Prize. Go figure.) In the 80s and 90s, Friedman was able to witness the failure of his theories as deficits rose to record levels while slashing the wealthy income tax levels some 20%. What did we do to recover some of this loss in revenue that was never supposed to occur according to Friedman. Well, we reinstated a capital gains tax on Wall Street, and payroll taxes on the working man went to an all time high. We spent the greater part of the 90s undoing this fiasco. We entered a new era of Friedman economics the last 8 years that again brought us into extraordinary deficits and landed the world on the brink of its worst calamity and depression in history. One has to imagine that Friedman will not rest peacefully for some time. His soul will stir with trepidation I am sure. 'Who will saaave his soul?'

My favorite George Crumb is his seminal string quartet Black Angel for electric violins. my favorite 20th century composition. The music was used in the 70s hit movie The Exorcist.

I love the Latin American Suite. It's my favorite Ellington recording.