Free Trade and Milton Friedman: True Always

Following from the golden legacy of Adam Smith, who opined that free trade could exist to solve most of the economic crises of the world, it probably is Milton Friedman who ever did recognize the urgency that the system had to be embraced with. The Nobel laureate born in New York, gifted markets and economies, principles to swear by in times of crisis on modern conservative economic theory. It isn’t surprising today to discover the truth and veracity of his beliefs, in our modern economic systems.

“The most important single central fact about a free market is that no exchange takes place unless both parties benefit.”

It probably was the same infallible principle that Friedman had taken over from Smith, which helped him locate the advantage of a free trade economy.

Milton Friedman Announces Himself onto the World Scene

In his Income from Independent Professional Practice, co-authored with Simon Kuznets, Friedman stated the predicament of those in the medical profession, arguing that state licensing forced them to charge higher fees than what they actually would. In Capitalism and Freedom, Friedman ushered in a view for world economics that was to change it forever. He presented a case for free markets as the better alternative. Along this, he demanded of the governance, a volunteer army, abolition of the licensing for those in the medical practice, education vouchers, and negative income tax. Friedman was such an influence on young students that many were inspired to take up economics, which, hitherto had supposedly been a boring subject.

Milton Friedman’s Policies on Free Trade

Milton Friedman came to the world economics scene at a time that was seeing a desperate dearth of free market economists. At every juncture in his struggle against politico-economic autocracy, he spoke out in favor of the unrestricting nature of free trade. Speaking out against the meek Keynesian economics, Milton Friedman produced solid evidence to reiterate that the price level depends on the supply of money. Friedman’s brand of the monetarism that he espoused got the most leverage when he co-authored Monetary History of the United State. It held the Federal Reserve’s poorly thought finance policies as being the reason for the Great Depression. The result was a discontinuation of the policy of releasing excerpts from the meetings of the board to the public.

Today, the world could really benefit from a troikaof useful statements that Friedman propounded. The coming together of a right understanding of free trade and decentralist economy can do wonders for underdeveloped populations capitulating under an autocratic regime as in Africa, as stated by Bill Gates. According to a much recent view of Friedman, the looting of the working man to provide for the working man has to come to an end. It is only a careless fallacy that unemployment benefits in some or the other way. The money can be utilized by rewarding good decisions and productivity. An extension of the basic working principle of free markets, this necessitates that there is contest and reward instead of a slowpoke economy.

The coming of free trade to rescue any economy invariably means the opportunity for the average citizen to stand up and take centre stage. This would entail instant political decentralization. Milton Friedman’s involvement in the liberation of Chile from the clutches of an oppressive Augusto Pinochet economy has been the agent of a smooth transition from the former to a calm free society. Chile is not only prosperous, but a case for how free trade has let stagnancy diffuse for the coming of economic solidity.

Milton Friedman’s free trade policies stand true for the world even today, as peoples and economies grapple with Leftist bureaucracy, regressive policies, and the failed experiments of the collectivists.