Your success as President in getting this economy going will be tied into following the directions that Milton Friedman gave to Ronald Reagan in the 1980’s and I wanted to share some of them with you in future letters but today I wanted to emphasis how important Friedman’s instructions are concerning FREEDOM and here are some very respected people below who give Milton Friedman a lot of credit in this area:

In fact, Ronald Reagan himself said concerning Milton Friedman:

In 1980, a friend of mine did something of rare importance that some historians might miss. Dr. Milton Friedman, a scientist, a careful thinker, and a great teacher first presented his TV series Free to Choose. His TV series was about choices, risks, freedom, equality, and making a better future for all of us.

In 1976, the 200th birth of our nation, Milton Friedman won the Nobel Peace Prize in economics. Two hundred years earlier, in the same year as the Declaration of Independence, Adam Smith, the Scotsman, published a book entitled The Wealth Of Nations. The United States was the first country to apply the ideas in Adam Smith’s book. Those ideas have led to our prosperity and given us our freedom. In Free to Choose, Milton Friedman shows us how those ideas can help us today.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, governor of California

With the passing of Milton Friedman, we have lost a great debater, a great thinker and a great American.  And I have lost a great friend.

Dr. Friedman believed a free market was essential to a free people.  He embraced personal freedom and personal responsibility.  But what truly set him apart was his work to restore our faith in the freedom of the individual to choose.

Dr. Friedman has been very important in my life and work, as well.  He was an intellectual hero of mine, and I was delighted when he agreed to serve on my Council of Economic Advisors.  But my admiration began long before that.

Years ago, Maria and I were in Palm Springs, and we were getting ready to go play a game of mixed doubles.  While I was waiting for her, I turned on the television, and what I saw hit me like a thunderbolt.  I was watching Dr. Friedman’s “Free to Choose,” and it had an amazing impact.

His words were so life-changing that I wanted to share them with everyone I knew.  I ended up giving copies of his books and videos to hundreds of my friends and acquaintances.

Government was very different in Austria where I grew up.  When I came to America, I wanted to learn as much as I could about American business and American capitalism.  Dr. Friedman’s writings and work were inspiring to me, and I always appreciated his sage advice, honest opinions and devoted friendship.

I hope everyone will join me in taking comfort in the knowledge that his life’s mission made us a freer, happier and more thoughtful people.  His legacy will live on wherever there is freedom or the hope of freedom.

How wonderful to have a legacy so linked to the idea of freedom.

May he rest in peace.

Arnold Schwarzenegger with airlight broom

Ben Stein, writer and actor

Milton Friedman was a household name in my home from the time I was an infant. Dr Friedman and his wife had gone to graduate school at the University of Chicago with my father, Herbert Stein, who became a well known economist, and my mother, Mildred Stein, who was also an economist.

Friedman was always discussed in tones of awe. Among a class of brilliant men and women, he stood out. He was gifted in analysis, fearless and in control in mathematics and statistics, able to assimilate massive amounts of data and make theories from them. Beyond that, far beyond that, he had a vision of what was important in the world, and that was freedom. Freedom of thought, freedom of action, free markets, free societies, free man and woman. Friedman had seen that freedom brought happiness and statism breought misery, mass killing, and humiliation. He preached from that good gospel all of his life.

His contributions to understanding that monetary policy disasters caused and prolonged the worst economic event in American history, The Great Depression, along with Anna Jacobson Schwartz, were revolutionary and lasting and utterly persuasive. His explanations of the links between the quantitiy of money and business cycles were persuasive but not as lasting and are now open to question.

I knew Friedman as a family friend and as a teacher ad as a friend and benefactor of mine. He was always helpful, always a gentleman.

Few men pursue a better idea with more vigor and more brain power than Friedman in pursuit of a free society and a free world.  We are all permanently in his debt.

Ben Stein vs. Richard Dawkins Interview

Peter Thiel, entrepreneur

Americans owe Milton Friedman much of their freedoms and their fortunes, and I’m no exception.  Like all American men under 50, the post-draft generation, the freedom I enjoyed on reaching adulthood was the gift of Milton Friedman.  Some friends enlisted; I did not – but the fact that we were each free to commit to our own paths fostered responsibility and confidence.

Later, I co-founded PayPal, and again found myself in the great man’s debt.  It would have been unthinkable to found a virtual bank, much less a borderless one that came with its own borderless currency, without the free markets and deregulation Friedman helped foster.  The freewheeling globalization of capital has also made hedge funds a big business, and helped make possible my own fund.

All of that was the product of Friedman’s singular moral insight: that choice is a right, not an indulgence.  Everything flowed from that.  It still does.

Imagining the Future, Innovation and God: N.T. Wright and Peter Thiel in San Francisco

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Thank you so much for your time. I know how valuable it is.

Sincerely,

Everette Hatcher III, 13900 Cottontail Lane, Alexander, AR 72002, ph 501-920-5733, everettehatcher@gmail.com