Muere el arquitecto del neoliberalismo
Los Chicago Boys han perdido a su infalible dios
Economist Friedman dies aged 94
Nobel prize-winning US economist Milton Friedman has died at the age of 94.
Mr Friedman died in San Francisco, a spokesman for his family said. The cause of death is not yet known.
Mr Friedman, who coined the phrase “there’s no such thing as a free lunch”, was awarded the Nobel Prize for economics in 1976.
Known as the high priest of monetarism, his ideas gained popularity in the 1980s when they influenced the policies of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan.
The leaders were won over by Mr Friedman’s idea that the supply of money was the key factor in determining economic growth and the rate of inflation.
‘Visionary’
Throughout his more than 30 years as Professor of Economics at Chicago University, Mr Friedman was a champion of the free market.
He was also viewed as an accomplished and fluent speaker who, it was said, had never lost an argument.
“America has lost a true visionary and advocate for human freedom. And I have lost a great friend,” said Gordon St Angelo, president of the Friedman Foundation.
Mr St Angelo added that Mr Friedman had been a highly influential figure who had “transformed the minds of US Presidents, world leaders, entrepreneurs and freshmen economic majors alike”.
Todavía no se sabe exactamente de lo que murió Friedman pero les aseguro esto: no murió del corazón ya que no se puede morir de algo que nunca tuvo. En fin, aunque si tuvo muchas contribuciones positivas en las áreas del monetarismo y la econometría (y que lo hicieron digno merecedor de un Premio Nobel), mi único consuelo es que murió sabiendo que los países más prósperos de la actualidad son aquellos que persiguieron las políticas que tanto deploraba (la socialdemocracia y el estado de bienestar). Y mientras tanto sus dogmas de libre mercado desmesurado e irresponsable cada vez quedan más en evidencia de que fueron, son y serán un completo fracaso.
