Reader Tips

Reader Tips 33 Comments

Johnnyonline, via email;

I was lucky enough to come across this collection of tv shows from 30 years ago with economist and libertarian Milton Friedman hosting. 10 parts – 10 hours. I believe they were originally aired (believe it or not) on PBS.
What makes it truly interesting is the formatting, where one half of each show is devoted to practical and historical examples of theory while the the other half is a moderated discussion with reps from government, academia, and business. It is something to see Thomas Sowell, Frances Fox Piven, and Donald Rumsfeld commenting from way back then. Could be yesterday.
I didn’t realize how much I miss Milton Friedman until I went through this series. Apparently, 2012 is the 100th anniversary of his birth.
I hope these links are new and prove useful and entertaining for you and your readers.

Free To Choose 1980 Vol. 1 – The Power of the Market
Your tips in the comments – links to the other videos are in the extended entry.


Free To Choose 1980 Vol. 2 – The Tyranny of Control
Free To Choose 1980 Vol. 3 – Anatomy of a Crisis
Free To Choose 1980 Vol. 4 – From Cradle to Grave
Free To Choose 1980 Vol. 5 – Created Equal
Free To Choose 1980 Vol. 6 – What’s Wrong with Our Schools
Free To Choose 1980 Vol. 7 – Who Protects the Consumer?
Free To Choose 1980 Vol. 8 – Who Protects the Worker
Free To Choose 1980 Vol. 9 – How to Cure Inflation
Free To Choose 1980 Vol. 10 – How to Stay Free

33 Replies to “Reader Tips”

  2. Posted by: Bull at July 21, 2012 11:36 PM
    Deb Matthews wants to see the equal distribution of misery for Ontario’s MDs…….Socialism 101.

  4. Once again,our beloved state broadcaster has shown their regard for ethics and their shrinking audience.
    They have gone the extra mile for Omar Khadr. We are all too familiar with the Grade 6 photo of sweet little Omar. The cbc must be getting a little tired of it also. They have jazzed it up. They have superimposed his face over a prison(?) background and added his signature. All it needs is a “Greetings from G-Bay” to be added and the cbc could sell it as a postcard.
    10 key issues in the Omar Khadr case
    http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2010/11/10/f-omar-khadr-returns-faq.html
    The article is actually not too bad,by cbc standards. However,they have played with the comments.
    I usually read the comments to an article along with the article. If you check out the comments,you will notice this about the 25 highest rated comments.
    Pro-Khadr > 13 comments
    Anti-terrorist > 1 comment
    Comments removed > 11
    These comments ,judging by the thumbs up/down, were not removed at the time of posting,but some months later. The cbc is,once again,acting as the mouthpiece of the left.
    FIRE.THEM.ALL.

  5. Re: Freedom. (Video 1)
    Great, but if you look at all the cars in the video, they were “Made in the USA” and not in China. And 1980 was when they started building Ford and GM engines in Mexico.
    That`s where we started screwing up big time!

  6. Looks like the moonbat in charge of the Ontario health ministry might be solving the doctor shortage in the interior of BC through her actions. While I like being in an environment where, whenever I want more money, all I have to do is work more hours there are times when I do want to have a break. Perhaps the exodus of Ontario doctors to this province will let me get one.
    Perhaps we should compare pension plans of politicians and doctors:
    Politicians – ridiculously cushy plans that kick in once they get kicked out.
    Doctors – no pension plan and most work until they’re too senile to keep on working as they are missing the concept of retirement.

  7. More from the cbc,a billion dollars doesn’t get you much these days.
    This article is another one that isn’t bad by cbc standards.
    Omar Khadr’s road to trial
    http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2009/11/12/f-omar-khadr-timeline.html
    However,they have proven again that they are not a news organization but the mouth of the left.
    The article gives a timeline of events from papa Khadr’s arrival in Canada up to sweet little Omar’s trial for murdering one of our allies.
    The cbc has removed all the stories prior to March 2008.IMHO,that was about the time that the opposition decided that they could use Omar as a political tool to bash the Conservatives. I don’t think it is a coincidence.
    Our tax dollars are funding an organization that is undermining our democracy. Goebbels would be proud.
    FIRE.THEM.ALL.

  11. Just read Capitalism and Freedom (for the first time). Great book, for the most part I totally agree with his analyses and proposals.
    Recommended!

  12. The Globe and Mail is in “CBC print-version” mode this weekend. Have a look at these columns:
    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/the-tories-are-doing-mulcairs-work-for-him/article4431208/
    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/commentary/defence-spending-is-a-blur-of-mismanagement/article4431739/
    The first is by Gerald Kaplan, the second by Jeffrey Simpson. While both of these columns contain their usual mendacity, I am struck by the actual lack of material that these gentlemen can point to to support their attacks on PMSH, and the improbabilty of the narrative they are seeking to stretch and strain out of the little they do have to offer, to wit:
    1. Both articles offer the usual rehash about Defence Department procurement, and the alleged mismanagment involved. Both are trying to claim that the Department’s lack of procurement (meaning no spending, other than small initial process start-up costs) on four files is evidence of some sort of process and financial incompetence on the part of the government. The more appropriate conclusion from the facts, IMO, would be that the government is not satisfied with what has been put in front of them and has decided to send it all back for more work. In other words, the Harper government is doing, er, what governments are supposed to do — set the policy and strategy environment, provide some operational guidelines and then make decisions on the process results. So I’m not getting the criticisms, and I don’t understand the on-going drooling obsession with the F-35 issue in particular: the Government of Canada is going to spend something like $9 trillion over the next 30 years (2012 constant dollars), with the F-35 accounting for about $30 billion of that (at the high end, including projected inflation), or something less than one-third of one percent of the total. The other three items cited would not amount to more than than about $6 billion, according to these gentlemen’s own figures.
    2. Mr. Kaplan has a more sordid argument on a second issue — the Northern Gateway. Like much of the media, he’s implying that high-profile recent pipeline ruptures (high-profile thanks to the media) are an argument against Conservative changes to Canada’s environmental protection regime. Do Mr. Kaplan and his leftist cronies really think we’re that stupid: the environmental protection regime that has been in place to date didn’t stop the spills — and the political responsibility for that rests with the Liberal/NDP types that created it, not Mr. Harper. To me, these inarguable facts are a reason in themselves for a re-think on this issue, and tend to justify Mr. Harper’s changes rather than undermine them. Quite beyond this twisted logic, Mr. Kaplan offers us the leap of faith that the pipeline spills are evidence of the rightness of Mr. Mulcair’s claim that the strategy of resource exploitation “deep into the twenty-first century” is wrong for Canada, what with all the “regional imbalances”, etc.
    And the socialist types still don’t get why they’re losing and why there’s no national political consensus in Canada: having a strong projective military capability (and not just a glorified coast guard operation for the outports of Atlantic Canada and B.C.) is a Canadian value, and so is resource development and export. Attacking Mr. Harper on Conservative strengths is dodgy at the best of times, and on these issues they aren’t going to help you until you get with the values thing.

  14. A really superb written version of the above videos, is Friedman’s book: Free To Choose.
    Same chapters, same focus. Really excellent. Filled with accurate insight, analysis, examples. A focus on the free market, the freedom of individuals, and the concomitant voluntary cooperation that naturally arises in such a market with a resultant benefit to many.

  15. EXCEPT:
    Friedman’s monetary policy underminded freedom.
    He believed in 100% fiat money.
    Global floating paper currencies.
    Disbelieved in the discipline of GOLD.
    He was an inflationist, i.e., believed in an automatic 3% increase in the money supply engineered by central planners like himself.
    Believed in school vouchers without understanding that these would be totally regulated by a central government. (Rothbard explained why vouchers wouldn’t work: why the abolitiion of state schooling was needed).
    YES: A eloquent spokesman for liberty but which is sadly undercut by this monetary views. A lovely, grand disaster was Friedman.
    Eschew the Friedmanite Chicago School. CHICAGO!!!
    Enroll in the Austrian School: Mises, Rothbard.
    The “Austrians” correctly forecast this enveloping financial implosion.
    ET: Here’s a fascinating factoid for you! Friedman invented income taxes being collected by mandatory deductions at source the single most powerful enabler of our monstrous Leviatan governments.

  18. Generator running, charging phone and running a laptop and sharing it w/ the neighbour.
    Phone is acting as a wireless hot-spot with the cell network as the gateway and feeding the laptop via wireless.
    I have ‘net!

  19. ” in the spring a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love”
    But,don’t get caught by the Egyptian police.
    The man and woman were caught groping in a car on a country road. One year in jail for the man,6 months for the woman. When they get out ,they will be second-class citizens forever. The woman may not last 6 months.The guards do not ignore women convicted of moral offenses.
    Isn’t islam wonderful?
    http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2012/07/21/egypt-lawmaker-jail.html

  24. me no dhimmi – I don’t see the problem with school vouchers; it permits the parent to enroll their child where they want.
    Friedman also said that he had, earlier, agreed with compulsory attendance but in this book, retracted that opinion and criticized the compulsory attendance laws. He agrees that a democratic society requires a basic degree of literacy and knowledge but, says that ‘compulsory attendance at schools is not necessary’ to achieve this. [See the book above, p 162 and on).
    I presume state or municipal govts would deal with vouchers; no-one is advocating the abolishment of govt.
    His account of the great depression, as originating in the US, came, he said, ‘from the movement of gold’. I’m not an economist but his analysis how how “a system of fixed exchange rates transmits deflationary (or inflationary) pressure from one country to another’ (p 87) seems reasonable to me, and he outlines his rejection of a gold standard.
    As well, his focus on tax reform is important. And he wasn’t a central planner, but was instead following the Constitution which gives the federal govt the duty and authority to deal with currency.
    I don’t see where you conclude that he was an ‘inflationist’. He has a whole chapter against it.
    So, you and I have completely different opinions on Friedman; I think his analysis in his book is excellent, and, strangely, it doesn’t support your view of him.

  25. Very interesting interview of Benjamin Netanyahu on Fox this morning. Chris Wallace hosted the Israeli leader, who uses language like a scalpel.

  26. More on the shootings in Aurora, Colorado.
    Perhaps a second suspect?
    “Sources tell Justin Joseph someone made either a call or a text from the person of interest’s phone threatening violence if James Egan Holmes was not released from jail. That call prompted police to issue an alert to find and detain him.
    The associate’s Facebook page shows he has a master’s degree in bio-medical science.
    Anshutz Medical Center confirms he is in their doctorate program, the same program from which Holmes withdrew several months ago.”
    http://kdvr.com/2012/07/21/police-looking-for-second-person-of-interest-in-theater-shooting/

  27. David Southam, the July 7th edition of ‘The Economist’ had a column that said that Canadians are tiring of Stephen Harper (“Time to Flip”). It listed a litany of complaints, one after the other, and extolled the virtues of Jack Layton and Thomas Mulcair, calling the NDP “centre-left.” Only at the end did the writer admit that Canadians still consider Harper a more credible leader than his opposition rivals. “Time to FLIP,” eh? What bunk.

  28. Me No Dhimmi – Friedman was one of the few economists that recognized that feeding government necessarily meant a decrease in the liberty of the people, and he saw this 60 years ago. Wasn’t that prophetic!

  32. Posted by: small c conservative at July 22, 2012 4:00 PM
    TRUE, small c.
    All I meant was that there’s a big disconnect between his laudatory views on big government and liberty and his approach to monetary policy which undermines these views. The Austrian approach to monetary matters and the boom/bust business cycle created solely by the central banks is better aligned with LIBERTY. That’s all I meant. I don’t have much more respect for the Friedmanite Chicago school than I do for the Keynesians.
    Don’t get me wrong: I like and respect him enormously and he was a brilliant advocate of limited government, free markets and LIBERTY. But he was dead wrong on money and if you get money wrong you’re screwed, notwithstanding your pretty paeans to liberty.

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