Milton Friedman

Selected by the Times Literary Supplement as one of the "hundred most influential books since the war"How can we benefit from the promise of government while avoiding the threat it poses to individual freedom? In this classic book, Milton Friedman provides the definitive statement of his immensely influential economic philosophy—one in which competitive capitalism serves as both a device for achieving economic freedom and a necessary condition for political freedom. The result is an accessible text that has sold well over half a million copies in English, has been translated into eighteen languages, and shows every sign of becoming more and more influential as time goes on.

In this powerful and persuasive book two distinguished economists, Milton Friedman and his wife, Rose, unravel the mysteries of economics for the man or woman in the street (Wall Street or Main Street). They show us how our freedom has been eroded and our prosperity undermined through the explosion of laws, regulations, agencies, and spending in Washington, how good intentions often produce deplorable results when government is the middleman. And then they tell us what to do if we want to expand our freedom and promote prosperity. If you have ever wondered why you are paying someone else's old-age pension instead of saving for your own old age, why the Federal Reserve doesn't control inflation and recessions as it was set up to do, why some industries and some workers get a better shake than the rest of us, whether equal opportunity for all also has to mean that everyone gets the same income regardless of productivity, this book is for you. Milton and Rose Friedman assert our free society is in danger. Their analysis of what went wrong and how to correct it, so forcefully and clearly expressed in this book, is vital to America's future economic health. - Jacket flap.

Two Lucky People is Milton and Rose Friedman's memorable and lively account of their lives, the people they knew, and the work they shared. For the first time they set the record straight regarding their involvement with world leaders and many of this century's most important public policy issues. Included here are previously unpublished documents of significant interest, such as a letter Milton Friedman wrote to General Pinochet in 1975 on his return from Chile, along with Pinochet's reply; a memo from Friedman prepared in 1988 for Zhao Zi Yang, the general secretary for the Communist party in China, on economic reform in China; and the transcript of Friedman's subsequent lengthy meeting with Zhao.