Milton Friedman Quotes About Economists

Quotes about: Economists

• I am favor of cutting taxes under any circumstances and for any excuse, for any reason, whenever it's possible.

  Milton Friedman

  Cutting, Liberty, Taxation

  "Conservatives Betrayed: How George W. Bush and Other Big Government Republicans Hijacked the Conservative Cause". Book by Richard A. Viguerie, 2006.

• If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there'd be a shortage of sand.

  Milton Friedman

  Government, Years, Political

• Keynes was a great economist. In every discipline, progress comes from people who make hypotheses, most of which turn out to be wrong, but all of which ultimately point to the right answer. Now Keynes, in 'The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money,' set forth a hypothesis which was a beautiful one, and it really altered the shape of economics. But it turned out that it was a wrong hypothesis. That doesn't mean that he wasn't a great man!

  Milton Friedman

  Beautiful, Mean, Men

  Opinion Journal, July 22, 2006.

• Every economist knows that minimum wages either do nothing or cause inflation and unemployment. That's not a statement, it's a definition.

  Milton Friedman

  Unemployment, Wages, Investing

• Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon.

  Milton Friedman

  Economics, Economist, Monetary Policy

  Milton Friedman, Rose Friedman (1990). “Free to Choose: A Personal Statement”, p.272, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

• We economists don't know much, but we do know how to create a shortage. If you want to create a shortage of tomatoes, for example, just pass a law that retailers can't sell tomatoes for more than two cents per pound. Instantly you'll have a tomato shortage. It's the same with oil or gas.

  Milton Friedman

  Oil, Law, Two

• I think almost every economist would agree that government gets itself in trouble when it tries to interfere with voluntary behavior.

  Milton Friedman

  Freedom, Thinking, Government

• I cannot disagree with you that having something like 500 economists is extremely unhealthy. As you say, it is not conducive to independent, objective research. You and I know there has been censorship of the material published. Equally important, the location of the economists in the Federal Reserve has had a significant influence on the kind of research they do, biasing that research toward noncontroversial technical papers on method as opposed to substantive papers on policy and results

  Milton Friedman

  Independent, Political, Important

• Thanks to economists, all of us, from the days of Adam Smith and before right down to the present, tariffs are perhaps one tenth of one percent lower than they otherwise would have been. And because of our efforts, we have earned our salaries ten-thousand fold.

  Milton Friedman

  Effort, Salary, Tariffs

  "Milton Friedman RIP" by Walter Block, mises.org. November 17, 2006.

• Economists may not know how to run the economy, but they know how to create shortages or gluts simply by regulating prices below the market, or artificially supporting them from above.

  Milton Friedman

  Running, May, Economy

• Economists may not know much. But we know one thing very well: how to produce surpluses and shortages. Do you want a surplus? Have the government legislate a minimum price that is above the price that would otherwise prevail. That is what we have done at one time or another to produce surpluses of wheat, of sugar, of butter, of many other commodities. Do you want a shortage? Have the government legislate a maximum price that is below the price that would otherwise prevail.

  Milton Friedman

  Government, May, Want

  Milton Friedman, Rose Friedman (1990). “Free to Choose: A Personal Statement”, p.237, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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