Rating: 
Summary: Good introduction to the ideas of the free market
Review: Note: This book deserves a little less than 5 stars, but since there aren't such levels of fine-tuning, I am giving it 5 stars.Milton Friedman's FREE TO CHOOSE: A PERSONAL STATEMENT is the ultimate layman's synthesis of the ideas of economics developed at the University of Chicago in the past century. This system has had profound implications on our current model of the free market, as Friedman is just one of many in a line of Nobel-prize winning economists to come from that school. All the classical ideas of micro- and macroeconomics are presented in an accessible and effective fashion in this book. If you don't understand why the free market works, or are hesitant to undertake a more rigorous approach in learning about capitalism, FREE TO CHOOSE is definitely for you. Friedman assumes very little previous knowledge about economics. His arguments depend only on an ability and willingness to think rationally about economics and everyday decision-making processes. However, this rational approach is also a downfall to FREE TO CHOOSE. Chicago-style economists love to use purely rational appeals in their writing, and Milton Friedman is no different. Some of his empirical evidence is unconvincing; as such, a few of his policy statements go against more current, empirically developed economic theories. His shoddy treatment of externalities and failures in the market (he dismisses some of them without sufficient cause) would make it seem that unfettered capitalism is a perfect system when it is not. Especially for those of you who don't have the tools to judge the validity of economic theories, be forewarned about this aspect of FREE TO CHOOSE. Overall, an excellently written, widely accessible book that is definitely worth purchasing if you are unfamiliar with the ideas of capitalism. If you have a solid understanding of economics, then none of the ideas will be new (and you will probably notice some of the same problems I did).
Rating:
Summary: A defense on libertariansm
Review: One of the best book...I enjoyed it thoroughly. As an economics student, I believed that this book is even better than Adam Smith's Wealth of the Nation. It not only describes the danger that we faced today and how liberalism is the road to poverty. As an old Keyensian economist, I am now "cured" and Dr.Friedman's eloquence as well as his wirtting skill are truly inspiring. This book is not only for those boring economists(including me) who can never reach any conclusion on just about everything, but the book should be a required reading not just for college students, it should extneded to high school as well. Dr.Friedman's reputation as a first-rate economist should not be questioned.
Rating:
Summary: Vital Link of Political And Economic Freedom in Vivid Detail
Review: The book is exceptionally easy to read relative to all others in the field of economics' a great case study of how to write an easy to read book on a complex but vital subject. Designed to take a life's work and make it approachable to the average reader. As one of the leading Nobel prize winning economists of all time, this is required reading for any one intending to understand American society, its exceptionally powerful economy and some of its flaws. His exposition of how USA developed a vastly superior standard of living for the average and poorer citizen is very important to those that care about sustaining our prosperity in the long term. An important theme of the book is to understand why economic freedom can precede personal freedom in oppressive nations like China but then they have such grave difficulty controlling the populations desires for growing freedoms. He details how the first essential requirements in letting in rapid economic progress to a previously repressive society is the rule of law, respect for contracts and the free movement of capital. The book helps you understand why The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith ranks with the US constitution as a vital document of human progress. The book helps you understand how the invisible hand of the market place finds the better long term answers compared to the government. It does so faster and cheaper with an order of magnitude of greater personal freedom. One of the most powerful themes of the book is how the foul up of the US government in the 20th century created the illusion that the free market system was broken and the government had to intervene. In reality the government'Particularly the Federal Reserve was what was broken. As Milton Friedman explains, it was not a government conspiracy but worse yet profound ineptness in the government's understanding its own culpability. He helps us understand how the great depression muddled peoples thinking. It launched the political momentum in search of collective shared dreams of help from the government that has turned into night mares after horror stories. As with his other books, more on how the Federal Reserve was the leading cause of the global depression of the 1930's. Read carefully, the section on the 1907 to the Korean War focusing on how the Fed blatantly denies it culpability and Milton Friedman nails them on it. It may help you understand how in recent times the Federal Reserve pumped to much money into the economy and how excess credit leaked out into the stock market causing the bubble and then the correction of 2001. As the markets were so recklessly pumped up by the Federal Reserve one can not expect the excesses to be suddenly behind us. To understand the years ahead this book will help. Then read the Federal Reserves current pretentious statement on how the stock market correction makes their job more difficult. They fail to recognize that the dream of juicing up the economy and tolerating 2 to 3 percent inflation per year in consumer prices was completely ignoring the inflation they were causing in the stock market. The greatest disdain should be saved for the congressional committees that were to provide an oversight function but did more for inflaming the passion for hyper growth. Congress wasted a magic opportunity in not addressing inflation and the reckless stock market stimulation in the vain hopes that unemployment could driven down to unprecedented lows. Why would anyone believe any new commitment to controlling inflation on the part of the Federal Reserve. This means decades of high interest rates that allow investors in government bonds a full recovery of inflation and a real return to boot. Interest rates would now be sharply lower were it not for this blunder. Case after case of how government intervention has hurt the average citizen and the total economy. The book has an aggressively stated case for abandoning public schools to save the intercity the disadvantaged in general and change the focus of all school. Schools focus mostly on advancing the mediocre student. The idea of letting some schools focus on the bright kids would be incredibly exciting and vital to national creativity. Parents get involved in privates schools doing part of the work at schools and this is every bit as true in poor neighborhoods. What parent has not been pushed aside by rules and regulations in public schools or been turned off from lending a helping hand by the politicized environment that has been created. The day is coming when the minority races will develop large numbers scholars and it will be from private schools with very active parents. The public schools may well disintegrate and be sold off to parents that took their children to private schools in disgust. The schools are not much good for other purposes one way or the other parents are taking back the schools. Left to the free markets it won't take long. A little bit of voucher activity could make it accelerate with awesome speed. It may yet be Milton Friedman's greatest contribution to society.
Rating:
Summary: Persuasive, interesting defense of laissez-faire
Review: The cover of this book depicts Milton Friedman holding a pencil. Why a pencil? Because it represents the virtues of capitalism and free markets. The only thing I, as a consumer, know about pencils is how much they cost. I don't know anything about the cost of the graphite, rubber for the eraser, the wood, or the yellow paint. The manufacturer does know those things. But she doesn't know the prices of the chemicals that make up the paint, etc. In this way, the free market's system of prices allocates information in a way no central planner could ever hope to. The number of operations and transactions that must occur in order to produce that pencil is astronomical -- and the free market, through the price mechanism, manages to do just that every second. There is more in the book than just that point, of course, but it is very much worth the casual reader's while. In response to the previous reviewer -- I imagine Dr. Friedman would be surprised to hear that his arguments had been rebutted by Keynes and Galbraith, precisely because much of Friedman's work is a response to the work of those two. And while David Ricardo certainly updated the work of Adam Smith, there is no way Ricardo could be called anything but a laissez-faire classical liberal.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent but dated
Review: The ideas expressed are excellent and still aplicable, but
the examples feel dated, mostly written at the end of the 70's. An update would be good.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent but dated
Review: The ideas expressed are excellent and still applicable, but
the examples feel dated, mostly written at the end of the 70's. An update would be good.
Rating:
Summary: Definitive Economic-Political Opinion
Review: The marketplace explained. Why freedom of business continues to excel despite government's forced redistribution of wealth. A true classic.
Rating:
Summary: Republicanism
Review: The Nobel Prize winner's book is superb. He exlains economics in a truly refreshing way. Using Adam Smith's foundation Friedman builds on the importance of truly free, unihibited, unrestrained trade. When this is accomplished great things happen. Great book....=)
Rating:
Summary: Great ideas!
Review: This book is a SPLENDID introduction that has helped countless start thinking about why so many common policies are misguided and not in the public interest. His ideas do not go far enough, however. This is probably the result of a wise move that led more to people becoming interested in freedom than would be the case if he were to promote radical privatization all the way (in the form of moving towards anarchy), however more extreme ideas have made this book less revolutionary over time. I find this book to be as important as the works of Hayek, Mises, and Rothbard for allowing people to gradually start thinking independently about markets and their superiority in all realms over the State. The new, even more radical free market ideals might not have been read if Friedman didn't first open the gates and destroy an internal wall in the public's thought along with the aid his ideas gave to the demolition of the more visible Berlin Wall. May Friedman enjoy peace in the rest of his years in knowing that the world is better off for his ideas.
Rating:
Summary: Free to choose: A personal statement
Review: This book is sooooo cool, it provides me with all the information i need for a course I am doing at school. I would like to encourage anybody to read this book as it is sooo good.
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