More than 20 years after his death, we’re still living in the neoliberal world Milton Friedman made. The arc of neoliberalism begins in 1947, gathers steam in the 1970s, and reaches its zenith in the 1990s before breaking into a million pieces and forever out of the control of its progenitors. The story of Milton Friedman rises and falls along with it, and it’s a complicated one of ego, ambition and academic notoriety; a confluence of factors and foibles that came to define the modern economic age. This is the story of Milton Friedman, one of the principal architects of the modern world.

Resources

Subscribe to Current Affairs Magazine

Current Affairs: We’re Living In the World That Milton Friedman Made

Mises Institute: Friedrich A. Hayek

The New York Times: The Great Liberator

Ancestry: Jeno Saul Friedman

Johan Van Overtveldt: The Chicago School: How the University of Chicago Assembled the Thinkers Who Revolutionized Economics and Business

Britannica Money: Classical Economics

International Adam Smith Society: About Adam Smith

Britannica Money: David Ricardo

Wikipedia: Jeremy Bentham

Wikipedia: Cesare Beccaria

Wikipedia: Laissez-faire

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Karl Marx

Competition and Appropriation: Retrospectives: The Origins of Neoclassical Microeconomics

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: William Stanley Jevons

Econlib: Leon Walras

Econlib: Alfred Marshall

Harvard University: Raising Keynes: A Twenty-First-Century General Theory

Jacobin: Right-Wing Populism Did Not Kill Neoliberalism

C.J. Polychroniou: Economics and the Left: Interviews with Progressive Economists

Quinn Slobodian: Hayek’s Bastards: Race, Gold, Iq, and the Capitalism of the Far Right

The Mont Pelerin Society: About

The Atlantic: The Heritage Foundation

Current Affairs: Why Libertarians Oppose Civil Rights

ProMarket: Aaron Director’s Legacy: The Beginning of Doubt is the Beginning of Wisdom

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Karl Popper

Econlib: Ludwig von Mises

Chicago Booth: George J. Stigler

Free to Choose Network: The Power of Choice - Mont Pelerin Society

Investopedia: Permanent Income Hypothesis: Definition, Function, and Effects

Wikipedia: Natural rate of unemployment

Investopedia: Monetarism Explained: Theory, Formula, and Keynesian Comparison

Harris School of Public Policy: Permanent Income

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis: The Fed and the Dual Mandate

Bureau of Labor Statistics: The Employment Situation – September 2026

Milton Friedman, Anna Jacobson Schwartz: A Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960

Binyamin Appelbaum: The Economists’ Hour: False Prophets, Free Markets, and the Fracture of Society

Freien Universität Berlin: The Methodology of Positive Economics

Social Science Encyclopedia: Milton Friedman On Economic Methodology

Economic Reform Australia: The F-twist – realism, economic policy analysis and climate change

CATO Institute: Who Said TANSTAAFL First?

Milton Friedman: The Free Lunch Myth

Milton Friedman: Taxation, Inflation, and the Role of Government

Investopedia: Market Definition: Economics, Types, and Key Features

Bernard Harcourt: The Illusion of Free Markets: Punishment and the Myth of Natural Order

Current Affairs: Ralph Nader

History: Auto safety crusader Ralph Nader testifies before Congress

The New York Times: A Friedman doctrine‐- The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits

Scholarly Commons: Powell Memorandum: Attack On American Free Enterprise System

The Heritage Foundation

The Cato Institute

The Manhattan Institute 

The American Legislative Exchange Council

Brookings: What we learned from Reagan’s tax cuts

PBS News: Column: How Reaganomics, deregulation and bailouts led to the rise of Trump

Wikipedia: Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996

Free To Choose: The Original 1980 TV Series

EdChoice: Milton Friedman on the Phil Donahue Show in 1979

Investopedia: Stagflation Explained: What We Learned From the 1970s Crisis

Investopedia: Understanding the Phillips Curve: Inflation and Unemployment Dynamics

Investopedia: Demand-Pull Inflation: Understanding Causes and Differences from Cost-Push

npr: Conservative Advocate

U.S. News: Repeal of Glass-Steagall Caused the Financial Crisis

C-SPAN: User Clip: Clinton: ‘Big Government Is Over’

ProMarket: The Complicated Legacy of the “Chicago Boys” in Chile

Center for the History of Political Economy: Slaves or Mercenaries: Milton Friedman and the Institution of the All-Volunteer Military

C-SPAN’S American History TV: Milton Friedman debates government intervention

Amnesty International: Chile: 50 years since the coup d’état, exercising historical memory is vital for the country’s future

The Guardian: Guess what? Self-interest is bad for the economy

The New York Times: What Would Keynes Have Done?

The New Yorker: Covert Operations

The Progressive: The Politics of Racial Resentment

Current Affairs: A Trillion Dollars Isn’t Worth It If You Have to Be Elon Musk

UNFTR Resources

Video: Why We’re Still Living in Milton Friedman’s Neoliberal World.

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More than 20 years after his death, we&rsquo;re still living in the neoliberal world Milton Friedman made. The arc of neoliberalism begins in 1947, gathers steam in the 1970s, and reaches its zenith in the 1990s before breaking into a million pieces and forever out of the control of its progenitors. The story of Milton Friedman rises and falls along with it, and it&rsquo;s a complicated one of ego, ambition and academic notoriety; a confluence of factors and foibles that came to define the modern economic age. This is the story of Milton Friedman, one of the principal architects of the modern world.
Resources
<a href="http://www.currentaffairs.org/unftr">Subscribe to Current Affairs Magazine</a>
Current Affairs:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/were-living-in-the-world-that-milton-friedman-made">We&rsquo;re Living In the World That Milton Friedman Made</a>
Mises Institute: <a href="https://mises.org/profile/friedrich-hayek">Friedrich A. Hayek</a>
The New York Times: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/19/opinion/19summers.html">The Great Liberator</a>
Ancestry: <a href="https://www.ancestry.com/genealogy/records/jeno-saul-friedman-24-ch6nds">Jeno Saul Friedman</a>
Johan Van Overtveldt: <a href="https://bookshop.org/a/23377/9781932841190">The Chicago School: How the University of Chicago Assembled the Thinkers Who Revolutionized Economics and Business</a>
Britannica Money: <a href="https://www.britannica.com/money/classical-economics">Classical Economics</a>
International Adam Smith Society: <a href="https://smithsociety.org/about/">About Adam Smith</a>
Britannica Money: <a href="https://www.britannica.com/money/David-Ricardo">David Ricardo</a>
Wikipedia: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Bentham">Jeremy Bentham</a>
Wikipedia: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cesare_Beccaria">Cesare Beccaria</a>
Wikipedia: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laissez-faire">Laissez-faire</a>
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/marx/">Karl Marx</a>
Competition and Appropriation: <a href="https://competitionandappropriation.econ.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/95/2020/12/EkelundOnDupuit.pdf">Retrospectives: The Origins of Neoclassical Microeconomics</a>
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/william-jevons/">William Stanley Jevons</a>
Econlib: <a href="https://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/bios/Walras.html">Leon Walras</a>
Econlib: <a href="https://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/bios/Marshall.html">Alfred Marshall</a>
Harvard University: <a href="https://marglin.scholars.harvard.edu/raising-keynes-twenty-first-century-general-theory">Raising Keynes: A Twenty-First-Century General Theory</a>
Jacobin: <a href="https://jacobin.com/2026/07/neoliberalism-state-markets-populism-democracy">Right-Wing Populism Did Not Kill Neoliberalism</a>
C.J. Polychroniou: <a href="https://bookshop.org/a/23377/9781839763793">Economics and the Left: Interviews with Progressive Economists</a>
Quinn Slobodian: <a href="https://bookshop.org/a/23377/9781945861437">Hayek&rsquo;s Bastards: Race, Gold, Iq, and the Capitalism of the Far Right</a>
The Mont Pelerin Society: <a href="https://montpelerin.org/about/">About</a>
The Atlantic: <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/tag/organization/the-heritage-foundation/">The Heritage Foundation</a>
Current Affairs: <a href="https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/2020/07/why-libertarians-oppose-civil-rights">Why Libertarians Oppose Civil Rights</a>
ProMarket: <a href="https://www.promarket.org/2019/09/10/aaron-director-legacy-origins-of-the-chicago-school/">Aaron Director&rsquo;s Legacy: The Beginning of Doubt is the Beginning of Wisdom</a>
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/popper/">Karl Popper</a>
Econlib: <a href="https://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/bios/Mises.html">Ludwig von Mises</a>
Chicago Booth: <a href="https://www.chicagobooth.edu/faculty/nobel-laureates/george-stigler">George J. Stigler</a>
Free to Choose Network: <a href="https://youtu.be/dzffyfhBsVk">The Power of Choice - Mont Pelerin Society</a>
Investopedia: <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/permanent-income-hypothesis.asp">Permanent Income Hypothesis: Definition, Function, and Effects</a>
Wikipedia: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_rate_of_unemployment">Natural rate of unemployment</a>
Investopedia: <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/monetarism.asp">Monetarism Explained: Theory, Formula, and Keynesian Comparison</a>
Harris School of Public Policy: <a href="https://harris.uchicago.edu/files/permanentincome_1.pdf">Permanent Income</a>
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis: <a href="https://www.stlouisfed.org/in-plain-english/the-fed-and-the-dual-mandate">The Fed and the Dual Mandate</a>
Bureau of Labor Statistics: <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf">The Employment Situation &ndash; September 2026</a>
Milton Friedman, Anna Jacobson Schwartz: <a href="https://bookshop.org/a/23377/9780691003542">A Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960</a>
Binyamin Appelbaum: <a href="https://bookshop.org/a/23377/9780316512343">The Economists&rsquo; Hour: False Prophets, Free Markets, and the Fracture of Society</a>
Freien Universit&auml;t Berlin: <a href="https://www.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/fachbereich/bwl/pruefungs-steuerlehre/loeffler/Lehre/bachelor/investition/Friedman_the_methology_of_positive_economics.pdf">The Methodology of Positive Economics</a>
Social Science Encyclopedia: <a href="https://www.socialscience.international/friedmans-philosophy-of-economics">Milton Friedman On Economic Methodology</a>
Economic Reform Australia: <a href="https://era.org.au/the-f-twist-realism-economic-policy-analysis-and-climate-change-part-2/">The F-twist &ndash; realism, economic policy analysis and climate change</a>
CATO Institute: <a href="https://www.cato.org/blog/who-said-tanstaafl-first">Who Said TANSTAAFL First?</a>
Milton Friedman: <a href="https://youtu.be/YmqoCHR14n8">The Free Lunch Myth</a>
Milton Friedman: <a href="https://miltonfriedman.hoover.org/internal/media/dispatcher/214489/full">Taxation, Inflation, and the Role of Government</a>
Investopedia: <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/market.asp">Market Definition: Economics, Types, and Key Features</a>
Bernard Harcourt: <a href="https://bookshop.org/a/23377/9780674066168">The Illusion of Free Markets: Punishment and the Myth of Natural Order</a>
Current Affairs: <a href="https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/author/ralph-nader">Ralph Nader</a>
History: <a href="https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/february-10/auto-safety-crusader-ralph-nader-testifies-before-congress">Auto safety crusader Ralph Nader testifies before Congress</a>
The New York Times: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1970/09/13/archives/a-friedman-doctrine-the-social-responsibility-of-business-is-to.html">A Friedman doctrine‐- The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits</a>
Scholarly Commons: Powell Memorandum: <a href="https://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/powellmemo/">Attack On American Free Enterprise System</a>
<a href="https://www.heritage.org/">The Heritage Foundation</a>
<a href="https://www.cato.org/">The Cato Institute</a>
<a href="https://manhattan.institute/">The Manhattan Institute </a>
<a href="https://alec.org/">The American Legislative Exchange Council</a>
Brookings: <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/what-we-learned-from-reagans-tax-cuts/">What we learned from Reagan&rsquo;s tax cuts</a>
PBS News: <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/column-how-reaganomics-deregulation-and-bailouts-led-to-the-rise-of-trump">Column: How Reaganomics, deregulation and bailouts led to the rise of Trump</a>
Wikipedia: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_Responsibility_and_Work_Opportunity_Reconciliation_Act_of_1996">Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996</a>
Free To Choose: <a href="https://www.freetochoosenetwork.org/programs/free_to_choose/index_80.php">The Original 1980 TV Series</a>
EdChoice: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EwaLys3Zak">Milton Friedman on the Phil Donahue Show in 1979</a>
Investopedia: <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/articles/economics/08/1970-stagflation.asp">Stagflation Explained: What We Learned From the 1970s Crisis</a>
Investopedia: <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/phillipscurve.asp">Understanding the Phillips Curve: Inflation and Unemployment Dynamics</a>
Investopedia: <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/demandpullinflation.asp">Demand-Pull Inflation: Understanding Causes and Differences from Cost-Push</a>
npr: <a href="https://www.npr.org/2001/05/25/1123439/conservative-advocate">Conservative Advocate</a>
U.S. News: <a href="https://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/economic-intelligence/2012/08/27/repeal-of-glass-steagall-caused-the-financial-crisis">Repeal of Glass-Steagall Caused the Financial Crisis</a>
C-SPAN: <a href="https://www.c-span.org/clip/joint-session-of-congress/user-clip-clinton-big-government-is-over/4358086">User Clip: Clinton: &lsquo;Big Government Is Over&rsquo;</a>
ProMarket: <a href="https://www.promarket.org/2021/09/12/chicago-boys-chile-friedman-neoliberalism/">The Complicated Legacy of the &ldquo;Chicago Boys&rdquo; in Chile</a>
Center for the History of Political Economy: <a href="https://hope.econ.duke.edu/sites/hope.econ.duke.edu/files/Slaves%20or%20Mercenaries.pdf">Slaves or Mercenaries: Milton Friedman and the Institution of the All-Volunteer Military</a>
C-SPAN&rsquo;S American History TV: <a href="https://youtu.be/AW041Ge2rJY">Milton Friedman debates government intervention</a>
Amnesty International: Chile: <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/09/chile-50-years-coup-historical-memory/">50 years since the coup d&rsquo;&eacute;tat, exercising historical memory is vital for the country&rsquo;s future</a>
The Guardian: <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2008/nov/16/simon-caulkin-management-economics">Guess what? Self-interest is bad for the economy</a>
The New York Times: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/30/business/economy/30view.html">What Would Keynes Have Done?</a>
The New Yorker: <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/08/30/covert-operations">Covert Operations</a>
The Progressive: <a href="https://progressive.org/magazine/politics-of-racial-resentment-stockwell-190801/">The Politics of Racial Resentment</a>
Current Affairs: <a href="https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/a-trillion-dollars-isnt-worth-it-if-you-have-to-be-elon-musk">A Trillion Dollars Isn&rsquo;t Worth It If You Have to Be Elon Musk</a>
UNFTR Resources
Video: <a href="https://youtu.be/eyWsh0F3ldg">Why We&rsquo;re Still Living in Milton Friedman&rsquo;s Neoliberal World</a>.
--
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Unf*cking The Republic® (UNFTR) is dedicated to progressive politics, leftist economic theories, and social justice in the United States. Join us for deep dives into socialism, labor rights, climate justice, and the fight against inequality. Whether you're curious about Marxist ideas, modern social movements, or progressive policies, UNFTR delivers thoroughly sourced critiques, analyses, and interviews with the historical context mainstream media won't provide. Subscribe for informative and unabashedly progressive coverage of the leftist political and economic landscape.

Unf*cking The Republic&reg; (UNFTR) is dedicated to progressive politics, leftist economic theories, and social justice in the United States. Join us for deep dives into socialism, labor rights, climate justice, and the fight against inequality. Whether you're curious about Marxist ideas, modern social movements, or progressive policies, UNFTR delivers thoroughly sourced critiques, analyses, and interviews with the historical context mainstream media won't provide. Subscribe for informative and unabashedly progressive coverage of the leftist political and economic landscape.