Here's what I thought you'd like to hear about today:

1. Back to the Future in Congress - What we can learn from Milton Friedman on the Danger of Good Intentions
2. Can We Win in Iraq? - How long will it take?

Today's podcast is a tribute to the late Milton Friedman, with clips from several audio interviews from 1975 thru 2006. You can also hear the anti-economists: a clip with moonbats Kennedy and Clinton from a Democratic rally in favor of raising the federal minimum wage. Do I hear Rosanne Barr? Plus hear General Abazaid at the Senate Armed Services Committee explain (again) why we can't just leave Iraq.

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Back to the Future in Congress

The nation mourns the death of Milton Friedman, Nobel Prize winning economist who's ideas of liberty, freedom, capitalism, and the dangers of big government have been so influential on the Conservative movement around the world. I'm going to play four clips of the master from several different times. The first is from a podcast at EconTalk produced by George Mason University economist Russell Roberts at the Library of Economics and Liberty. Dr. Roberts interviewed Dr. Friedman in September of this year in two podcasts. From EconTalk's description of the interview:

Russ Roberts talks to Milton Friedman about the radical ideas he put forward almost 50 years ago in Capitalism and Freedom. Listen to the most influential economist of the past 50 years discuss the principles of liberty, social responsibility of business, the inertia behind bad legislation and his career as economist and public intellectual.

The first is a discussion of Friedman's landmark book A Monetary History of the United States, 1870-1960.

Play clip on Breton Woods

Dr. Friedman showed that inflation was caused by increasing the money supply. Contrary to the Keynesian economists whose ideas prevailed at the time, he proved that when the central bankers did what politicians wanted, which was to print money to "boost the economy", all that extra money bid up the price of goods. Inflation resulted from too much cash chasing the same number of goods in the market. He frequently proposed replacing central bankers with computer programs to keep out the political influence on the money supply. Here's his clip that addresses that idea.

Play clip on Central Bankers

Friedman influence was broad and powerful. As the NY Times obituary describes it:

Mr. Friedman had a gift for communicating complicated ideas in simple and lucid ways, and it served him well as the author or co-author of more than a dozen books, as a columnist for Newsweek from 1966 to 1983 and even as the star of a public television series. He was a bridge between the academic and popular worlds, and his broader impact stemmed in large part from the fact that he was preaching a gospel of capitalism that fit neatly into American self-perceptions. He was pushing on an open door.

Here is a section of the EconTalk podcast in which Russ Roberts cites some of his positions taken in the 1950's that later came to fruition, and some that did not.

Play clip on Volunteer Army

Friedman's influence was especially powerful against the "good intentionists" on the left. Those who advocated positions because they were the "right thing to do", or "to help the children", or "to help the poor". They did so despite the disastrous unintended consequences of those programs. First among many was the minimum wage. Friedman pointed out to a skeptical public that raising the minimum wage lead to higher unemployment for the most poorly skilled workers in a population. Here he is from December 7, 1975 talking with Richard D. Heffner on "The Open Mind" TV show.

Play clip on Minimum Wage

So, how far have we come since 1975? Well, let's see. We do have the all volunteer army. We have a central bank that has successfully kept inflation in check for the last 30 years by keeping the money supply growth down. We have a check on the growth of the federal government. Well, maybe not so much since 1992. Perhaps that's one of the reasons the Democrats won so decisively: the Republicans deserted their idealistic roots of small government, freedom, liberty, and capitalism. But if you think the last few years left Friedman's ideals in the dust, wait for the next few. Here is a rally from Thursday in Washington, with Ted Kennedy and Hillary Clinton cheering on their troops asking for a raise in the federal minimum wage. First, Ted. Thanks to C-SPAN for the video.

Play clip on Kennedy

So we have the new chairman of the Senate Labor committee welcoming the AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, and Lennie "I'm right behind you Lennie" Jones from the Service Employees International Union to the podium to talk about raising the federal minimum wage. They advocate this position because it won't hurt members of unions to have lots of unemployed teenagers running around competing for their jobs.

But then up comes Hillary Clinton to the podium. Listen to her crazy rant on "good intentions". On the day the death of Milton Friedman was announced, we have the words of the presumptive Democratic nominee to be the next President of the United States spewing total moral nonsense front of a national TV audience. What a disgusting display. Listen and tell me you don't think she sounds like Roseanne Barr, as Ann Althouse said yesterday on her blog.

Play clip with Hillary

God help this country.

Can We Win in Iraq? - How long will it take?

General Abizaid, the head of Central Command, and the General in charge of all U.S. military activity in the Middle East and Asia, spoke at the Senate Armed Services Committee this week. Here he is talking about what's next in Iraq. Thanks to C-SPAN for the video.

Play clip with Abizaid

If the Democrats think they are going to get the military leaders to tell them that a fast withdrawal is a good idea, as Senator Levin and the rest of the "cut and run" team seem to be hoping, they have another thing coming.

That's it for now podcatchers. I'm Charlie Quidnunc reporting from Boise, Idaho today.