Archive for July 2009
What Milton Friedman Means Today
Today would have been Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman’s 97th birthday. The modern economic voice for capitalism and freedom, Friedman died in 2006. On his birthday today, it is an appropriate time to remember Friedman’s lessons as well as his guidance against government intrusion in the marketplace.
In 2002, Ben Bernanke, current chairman of the Federal Reserve, credited Friedman with correctly identifying the Federal Reserve as the leading cause of the Great Depression. Bernanke was referring to research Friedman did almost 40 years prior, pointing to the Fed as a major culprit in causing – and worsening – the Great Depression of the 1930s.
Milton Friedman was the first economist to write a different version of the events of the 1930s, shifting blame away from the “fallacies of the free market.” His book – cowritten with Ana Schwartz – A Monetary History of the United States, outlines the view that the Federal Reserve policies after the stock crash of 1929 negatively impacted the nation’s economy.
From 1929-1933, there was a massive deflation of the money supply – to the tune of 30%. The Federal Reserve was created to have prevented such a catastrophic collapse. With such a high demand for money, Friedman argues the Fed should have increased money supply, which could have helped slow the Depression from the start.
Influential Economists Poll
Palmettovore: Demand Already Exists, But Let’s Promote Anyway
The Department of Agriculture paid $50,000 to the advertising agency Chernoff Newman for these actors to dress as fruits and vegatables in promotion of South Carolina agriculture.
If, as SC Agriculture Commissioner Hugh Weather asserts, demand for South Carolina-grown produce is on the rise, then one has to question why South Carolina is putting scarce tax dollars into a program that promotes locally grown products.
Last month, the state agriculture department rolled out its “Palmettovore” campaign, the latest phase of its Certified SC Grown push. According to Weathers, a Palmettovore is a person who attempts to eat only farm products grown and processed in South Carolina. It’s supposedly healthier, better for the state’s economy and better for the environment, according to the campaign’s specious logic.
But beyond that, a least one publication is reporting that the Palmettovore campaign came about as a response to the increased demand for local produce and products.
“The rage of eating and buying local has sparked a new campaign by the state called Palmettovore,” according to The Myrtle Beach Sun News.
If that’s true, then demand for locally grown products was already in place before the state spent tens of thousands of tax dollars on the Palmettovore effort. In other words, consumers were already aware of the high quality of SC-grown products, meaning Palmettovore is redundant and wasteful.
And, of course, that doesn’t even address the question of whether it’s the purpose of government to spend tax dollars to promote a specific industry.
