Milton Friedman: Architect of Neoliberalism RIP

Some of the obituaries were glowing, some less so. Some mentioned his less savoury moments – his keenness to advise General Pinochet in Chile, at the height of his oppressive regime, for example – some didn’t. But few of them took much of a step back to examine his real global legacy.

Not that Milton can be blamed for all of this, of course. He just developed the ideas – others, from Reagan to Thatcher, via a clutch of unsavoury US-supported dictators (not including Tony Blair, though he’s one of Milton’s cronies too) actually put them into practice. But the model he helped to create – that of unfettered markets, corporate power and a one-size-fits-all economic model in which price trumps value every time – is now so dominant that it can seem unstoppable.

It is Milton’s model which is responsible for the...

To view the rest of this article - you must be a paying subscriber and Login