I recall a long time ago posting something about the intellectual divide among statist-progressive bloggers & their usual audience.  Well, here’s another example:

As you know by now, Milton Friedman recently passed away at the age of 94.  While I had my quibbles with his methods*, he did at least get a foot in the door for embrace of a market order.  Kevin Drum of Washington Monthly, a well-known progressive blog, had this to say about a famous statement of his — “inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon”:

Is it? I was influenced a few years ago by David Hackett Fischer’s The Great Wave to suspect that Friedman was wrong about that, but I haven’t read any further on the subject and I don’t have the economic chops to draw any conclusions on my own. What’s more, as with all interesting economic questions, I suppose the correct answer is “opinions differ.”

Still, since that sentence is one of — if not the — most famous thing Friedman said, surely it deserves a bit of discussion upon his death? Or is it too old hat to merit any further interest? DeLong? Mankiw? Sawicky? Cowen? Thoma? What do you say?

He has his view on it, and though oppositional he invites reasoned discussion on it.  His audience, well…

I say that Milton Friedman didn’t know shit because he lived in a dream world where he thought everything should be for sale. […] I consider Friedman to be a discredited quack, like Leo Strauss, whose selfish, greed-based philosophies have been shown to be abject failures.
-”the Conservative Deflator”

High priest of the Cult of the Invisible Hand dies.
Film at 11.
(I can’t wait until this religion starts generating Suicide Bombers - if it hasn’t already)
-”Extradite Rumsfeld”

I thought Milton’s other famous quote was something about how efficient armies would be if they were privatized.  What a damaging idiot he was.
-”craigie”

On the bright side, some people further down tried to steer the discussion at least somewhat into being about ideas instead of insults.  But then some trolls jumped in & started calling everyone commies…ugh.

(* - Two things in particular: his involvement in Chile [if I were him I would’ve refused, seeing it as lending legitimacy to the US’ meddling], and his conclusion on central banking that didn’t begin & end with “abolish it”.  I sorta see Friedman morally the same way I see someone like Thomas Jefferson, who had such elequent words on liberty yet pursued it lopsidedly while holding slaves — the best part is that they left behind something to build on, even if we now disagree on how they themselves followed their rhetoric.)