Bright Promises, Dismal Performance: An Economist's Protest

Rating:
Summary: Great material presented more efficiently in Free to Choose
Review: This is the third and final edition of a collection of Milton Friedman's Newsweek columns which ran from the mid 1960s through the early 1980s, along with a few other things such as Dr. Friedman's interview in Playboy, February 1973, and a few newspaper articles. The columns in this volume ran from 1975-1982. In addition, there are three particularly timeless columns from an earlier period (on the case for a monetary rule and on the negative income tax), as well as the Playboy interview. The contents covers Dr. Friedman's usual repertoire about monetary policy, fiscal policy and taxation, government regulation, and international economics.

Part of Dr. Friedman's brilliance is his ability to explain advanced economic concepts to general readers without "dumbing down" the substance. Still, the bulk of the material appears in slightly better organized fashion in the book Free to Choose, which Dr. Friedman wrote together with his wife Rose, and which appeared in 1980. You may first want to read Capitalism and Freedom and Free to Choose. If you want more Friedman at that point, this makes for a great collection, although much of it may sound repetitive after reading Free to Choose.