===================== HES POSTING =================== 
 
In response to Tony Brewer's comments: 
 
One has to admit, however, that Milton Friedman is part of a group of 
economists who are particularly frustrating (to me at least) because 
they consistently, disingenuously, conflate private goals and 
preferences with economic theory.  Friedman has written some brilliant 
papers on economic theory; he has also presented his own views on social 
goals as if they were the inevitable conclusion of any sound economic 
theory -- leaving a lay audience unable to distinguish between where the 
profession ends and Milton Friedman begins. 
 
If he is going to publicly present his own personal viewpoints as 
representative of the profession of economics (which he does:  witness 
his PBS specials on economics), then he should be subject to open 
criticism within the profession as to where those viewpoints have led in 
the real world.   
 
I have had to explain to more than one non-economist that Friedman won 
his Nobel Prize for economic scholarship, not for his political views. 
.... I think. 
 
Mary Schweitzer, Assoc. Prof., Dept. of History, Villanova University 
(on leave since January 1995) 
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