One answer is that Milton Friedman possessed a rare combination of attributes that enabled him to communicate as easily with a mass audience as with his professional peers. He also emerged on the public stage at a time when his message of limited government had unusual resonance. Developments in...

This essay responds to the question, “Why is there no Milton Friedman today?” In doing so, it briefly examines several aspects of Friedman’s professional life that contributed to his success in the academic, policy, and public realms as well as the influence of the social and political...

Why is there no Milton Friedman today? The new structure of things—or lack of structure—makes it hard for someone to emerge as a focal representative of classical liberalism. But every day, innumerable souls breathe new vitality into the cogent perspective that Friedman and others gave to...

The presence of iconic superstars declines in many fields of endeavor, and economics is no exception to those principles. As for political orientation, those raised up to relative prominence today fit the spirit of the times.

Milton Friedman combined the roles of economic analyst, advocate of specific public policies, and passionate public intellectual advocating classic liberalism, though largely on moral and political rather than economic grounds. Immensely influential in his lifetime, his star has faded in recent...

Imagine that someone with all the endowments of a Milton Friedman were born in the 1960s or 1970s. Is it conceivable that such a person would develop into a Milton Friedman like we know the actual Milton Friedman to have been, including his academic eminence and his eloquent and influential...

I suggest that the historical Milton Friedman arose as the rare conjunction of a special person and a very favorable environment. So a successor is unlikely. This is a good thing. The dominance of a Milton Friedman type, right or left, is bad for economics and for society. It attracts resources...

The extraordinary influence of Milton Friedman is largely attributable to the passion and clarity he brought to the defense of competitive markets during the New Deal period when the public entrenchment of monopolies and cartels were standard government policy. Friedman wrote at a time when the...