A concise guide to the ideas and influence of the free-market economist

By Eamonn Butler

“One of the most important economic thinkers of all time”
– Paul Krugman

Milton Friedman changed the world. From free markets in China to the flat taxes of Eastern Europe, from the debate on drugs to interest rate policy, Friedman’s skill for vivid argument and ideas led to robust and often successful challenges to a dizzying amount of received wisdom.

Relying on big-picture economic analysis and an insistent faith in human freedom, he took on the economic and political orthodoxies of his day – and if he didn’t always win, he never failed to change the terms of the debate.

Rarely an uncontroversial figure, with his disciples and detractors to this day, this is neither a credulous nor a critical look at the Nobel laureate. A brand new guide, it simply sets out to explain his economic and public policy thinking in a straightforward and accessible way for the general reader and student.

Find out:

– how Friedman undermined Keynesianism and the prevailing wisdom of large-scale economic intervention
– how he demonstrated the true cause of the Great Depression and identified its real culprits (they weren’t the ones jumping out of the windows)
– what Friedman believed really destroys the value of the money in your pocket and how it can be stopped
– his arguments for why regulations and minimum- wage laws actually achieve lower standards and greater poverty
– his reasons for why big corporations prefer markets that aren’t free, and how high taxation harms the wealthy less than anyone else.

With more, too, on democracy, equality, global trade, education, public services and financial crises, this is a concise but comprehensive guide to the influence of a key 20th century thinker.

It is a must-read for anyone who wants to know more about the economist whose work changed everything.

Dr Eamonn Butler is director of the Adam Smith Institute, a London-based think tank dealing in market economic policy. He has an MA in Economics and Psychology from the University of St Andrews, and a PhD in Philosophy from St Andrews.

Dr Butler's most recent books include Friedrich Hayek (Harriman House, 2012), The Best Book on the Market (Capstone, 2008), Milton Friedman (Harriman House, 2011), Adam Smith: A Primer (Institute of Economic Affairs, 2007) and Rotten State of Britain (Gibson Square, 2009).

Earlier books include Ludwig von Mises: Fountainhead Of The Modern Microeconomics Revolution (Gower, 1988) and Forty Centuries of Wage and Price Controls (co-authored with Robert L. Schuettinger, Green Hill Publishers, 1979). With Dr Madsen Pirie, he is also author of a number of popular books on IQ published by Pan. Since 1979 he has co-authored and edited a number of publications on economic and policy issues for the Adam Smith Institute.

Dr Butler writes regularly on economics for leading newspapers. In 2012 he received an Honorary D.Litt from Heriot-Watt University.