A Free-Market Energy Blog

Milton Friedman's 100th: Exploring His Wisdom for the Ages (Part III: Political Capitalism)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- August 3, 2012

[Ed. note: Milton Friedman’s views are also explored in Part I of this series (worldview) and in Part II (energy).]

“The two greatest enemies of free enterprise in the United States … have been, on the one hand, my fellow intellectuals and, on the other hand, the business corporations of this country.”

– Milton Friedman, “Which Way for Capitalism?” Reason, May 1977, p. 21.

The above quotation is striking, not so much for the ‘fellow intellectual’ part but for ‘business corporations.’ We often think of business in the same breath as ‘free enterprise,’ right?

But on closer inspection, and with the Bush/Obama bailouts, cronyism, or crony capitalism, is in focus. And Friedman’s above Reason quotation from 35 years ago is more understandable.

I have a whole website dedicated to the subject of political capitalism.…

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Milton Friedman's 100th: Exploring His Wisdom for the Ages (Part II: Energy)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- August 2, 2012

[Ed. note: Milton Friedman’s views are also explored in Part I of this series (worldview) and in Part III (political capitalism).]

“Economists may not know much. But we know one thing very well: how to produce surpluses and shortages. Do you want a surplus? Have the government legislate a minimum price that is above the price that would otherwise prevail…. Do you want a shortage? Have the government legislate a maximum price that is below the price that would otherwise prevail.”

– Milton and Rose Friedman, Free to Choose (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1979), pp. 219.

“It is a mark of how far we have gone on the road to serfdom that government allocation and rationing of oil is the automatic response to the oil crisis.”

– Milton Friedman, “Why Some Prices Should Rise,” Newsweek, November 19, 1973.

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Local Wind Subsidies: New York State's Money-Road to Nowhere

By Mary Kay Barton -- August 1, 2012

Special political favor at the local, state, and federal levels have created an artificial industry: industrial windpower. Massive turbines have resulted in negative ecological and economic effects. Rural towns and countryside across the USA have become the dumping grounds for massive infrastructure producing a paltry amount of remote, unreliable energy.

For many enjoying rural life, in particular, an invasion by industrial wind installations has turned environmentalism on its head.

New York State has more than its share of such malinvestment and damage. State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli recently reported that tax exemptions by NYS’s Industrial Development Agencies (IDAs) were not creating jobs and shifting tax burdens from mega-corporations to local residents.

As a result, we have the spectacle in Upstate New York of taxpayer-subsidized industrial wind installations driving people from their homes — while further endangering the populations of eagles, hawks, herons, cranes, bats, and all magnificent flying creatures.…

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Milton Friedman's 100th: Exploring His Wisdom for the Ages (Part I: Worldview)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- July 31, 2012
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PTC as Wildlife Terminator (environmental reasons to clean out tax code)

By -- July 30, 2012
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Debate: Bill McKibben vs. Alex Epstein on Fossil Fuels

By --
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2Q-2012 Activity Report: MasterResource

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- July 27, 2012
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Dear League of Conservation Voters: Even Joe Romm advises against the term 'denier'

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- July 26, 2012
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Edison to Enron (Bradley): Some Thoughts

By Lynne Kiesling -- July 25, 2012
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Big Green for Little Wind? Alec Baldwin Eyes $0.40/kWh Power

By Willem Post -- July 24, 2012
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