came in and changed the bretton woods agreements and we switched from the caine's economics to milton friedman and nobody ever understood that. we never went back to discuss it. i was in the congress. congress didn't know what they were doing. most of the congress people are lawyers. we had an economist who was the chair of that international finance committee, royce. but he was intimidated by arthur burns and george shultz and paul volcker. watergate broke three weeks later and we never got back to discuss how we got from a stable global economy where everybody was growing at a 5% to 7%, some as much as 10%, to this roller coaster economy that we've had since the late 1970's. it seems like we went from a gold standard, which everybody agreed to, to an oil standard, which nobody fully understands who's pulling the strings, but there are some basic economic discussions that we need across generations and that we need, frankly, across national lines, because these are global issues now. tavis: when you say that -- you said a moment ago it concerns you that the members of congress today don't rea

out of local economists were bringing started up comedians in to discuss so it's a kind of a milton friedman meets kind of lenny bruce told the nation for the weekend of the eleventh twelfth thirteenth and fourteenth november all right well some would argue of course that ben bernanke and his presence around and were basically comedians dressed up as economists now these are economists now coming forward with some straight act comedy now i david of money to talk about the economy for a second you're right on your block who will invest in a country that being ireland with an obvious death the way how unwise ireland committing nation aside what we hollered at the moment mike said this morning large bond yields were almost one hundred basis points they're talking close to eight percent so in effect the game is over for the present strategy of the government for the start of the government was to. try to convince the markets that a small economy like garments was biking system is bust consumers vary from charging savings rates year has risen dramatically will be able to carry him. ormus a very i

one of the first character of focus on is milton friedman, the great economist, whose concept were influential, but paul volcker, the fed chairman quashed a lot of that carter- era inflation. he found the money supply was not working as an effective regulatory tool. so there are a lot of questions regarding interest rates, it is all complex, but the bottom line is, they are being kept as low as they are, partly by the government policy, partly because we conti "national journal." thank you for being here journal." thank you for being here journal."

's and they were more sanguine about it in this crisis because of bernanke he's believe that milton friedman's little theory that if you could expand the money supply during a deflationary contraction it would work so he came out they put two trillion dollars into the pot they spent they slashed and it did work now everybody is nervous everybody is nervous and i was sent away where the people who had a good point here and the reason it didn't work is the problem is not monetary deflation is not a it to me it's measured in monetary but the problem is fiscal tax policy regulatory policy clearly is what it is and you're right ben bernanke he's pushing on a string listen the fed does not have the tools to effect demand their tools only affect the money supply and this is going to ask mark a question how about just printing a lot of money that's one way to get rid of debt and is that what the united states may be contemplating and the money. is what i'm going to agree with at all and this is what i'm going to do with it all and i'm going to do their duty right so absolutely pushing on a piece of st

best known was milton friedman a deep analytical thinker also a conversational writer who reached millionsns through a series of public television called free to choose. >> look at this led pencil. there's not a single person in the world who could make this pencil. remarkable statement? not at all. >> you take a complex issue and reduce it to what the essence of it was and put that across. >> literally thousands of people cooperated to make this pencil. people who don't think the same language practice different religions who might hate one another if they ever met. >> can you image a little pencil could sell from a nickel the probably rubber came from indonesia the wood oregon and led south america and it only costs a nickel? >> how the government never got involved. >> that is why the operation of the free market is so essential. not only do promote productive efficiency but even more to foster harmony and peace among the people of the world. >> friedman is one of several school economists who would advise president nixon and find it a frustrating experience. >> i am ordering a freeze o

best known was milton friedman a deep analytical thinker also a conversational writer who reached millionsrough a series of public television called free to choose. >> look at this led pencil. there's not a single person in the world who could make this pencil. remarkable statement? not at all. >> you take a complex issue and reduce it to what the essence of it was and put that across. >> literally thousands of people cooperated to make this pencil. people who don't think the same language practice different religions who might hate one another if they ever met. >> can you image a little pencil could sell from a nickel the probably rubber came from indonesia the wood oregon and led south america and it only costs a nickel? >> how the government never got involved. >> that is why the operation of the free market is so essential. not only do promote productive efficiency but even more to foster harmony and peace among the people of the world. >> friedman is one of several school economists who would advise president nixon and find it a frustrating experience. >> i am ordering a freeze on all

one of my characters spend the first two chapters, milton friedman, the great economist who was concept was influential. but the guy who really sort of dropped monitorrism, which is control of the money supply is sort of the only way of regulating the economy was paul volcker, the fed chairman who squashed a lot of that carter-era inflation and was lotted for it. because he found that controlling the money supply wasn't really working as an effective regulatory tool. so there are a lot of factors involved in the question of where interest rates are. the bottom line, they are being kept as low as they are now partly because of the economic trough. >> host: author of "capitol offense." thank you for being with us. >> guest: thank you, libby. >> michael hirsch is "newsweek" correspondent. to find out more, search his name. >> host: professor dower, it's an honor to have you here. i've been an admirer of your work for two decades now. your latest book "cultures of war" it's so sweeping and impressive that i want to thank you for this opportunity to sit down and be able to have this conversa

best known was milton friedman a deep analytical thinker also a conversational writer who reached millionscans through a series of public television called free to choose. >> look at this led pencil. there's not a single person in the world who could make this pencil. remarkable statement? not at all. >> you take a complex issue and reduce it to what the essence of it was and put that across. >> literally thousands of people cooperated to make this pencil. people who don't think the same language practice different religions who might hate one another if they ever met. >> can you image a little pencil could sell from a nickel the probably rubber came from indonesia the wood oregon and led south america and it only costs a nickel? >> how the government never got involved. >> that is why the operation of the free market is so essential. not only do promote productive efficiency but even more to foster harmony and peace among the people of the world. >> friedman is one of several school economists who would advise president nixon and find it a frustrating experience. >> i am ordering a freeze

milton friedman said it in the 1965 december 31st issue of "time" magazine. friedman saying i am now a keynesian. that's as close as a republican came to saying, i am a socialist. john maynard keynes were not wrongly regarded as socialistic. when i was worki in the senate in 1993 trying to pass a large package of medicare cuts advocated by a democratic president and opposed by republicans i realized we're all socialists now. the enactment of social security in 1935 and medicare in 1965 were opposed by conservatives on the grounds that both were socialism. they were right. a government funded pension and welfare benefits for poverty stricken mothers was a european socialistic idea imported whole to the united states by president franklin roosevelt. but by 1935 enough members of congress in both parties regarded the cruelties of unbridled capitalism as too much to bear. capitalism was not to be overthrown but tempered at its harshest edges with doses of practical socialism. at that time, the elderly were the most poverty stricken among us and utterly helpless i

>> a few years ago, he said, milton friedman, you are right.d caused the depression, which is wrong. we don't do it again. he should say, the fed has been an engine of disaster with this money printing we've been doing. we're not going to do it. we're going to form a sound group. we're going to talk to the chinese and try to figure out a way to go back to something like the gold standard and he's going of the to admit his mistakes and the chinese, who are locked at the hip with us because we're running their money policy, can figure out a regime that doesn't cause these imbalances. >> so until we get back to an environment with -- it says if everybody wants money, it should get more expensive and if nobody wants it, it should get cheaper. the bridge would seem to need to necessitate major debt restructuring, cancellation, rewriting. i don't know whether it's china debt, housing debt, u.s. government debt, corporate debt, personal debt, you can't get to that new blue dollar currency environment you're references without major debt restructuring,

. >> friedman is the grandson of nobel prize winning economist milton friedman.ions free to make up their own rules. he calls it sea-steeding and believes it could teach america and other countries how to make their own governments better. >> the great thing about letting people go out and live in, you know, their own imagined utopia is that they get the benefit of living under the system that they want and we create data about whether it actually works, if the rest of the world can decide whether or not to change. >> they made their own floating communities in kevin costner's film water world. but friedman's vision isn't based in fiction. it's based in reality. in fact, ideas like sea-staeding have been around for decades. >> in the 1960s englishman roy bates decided he didn't just want to be from england anymore. he took an old world war ii platform in the north sea and made it the principality of sealand. he made himself the prince of his own self-styled micronation. sealand had mixed results. in fact it's now for sale if you want to buy it. today's sea steade

[applause] >> i think milton friedman was once introduced similarly, and he said, he's the kind of person -- he's the kind of person who gets applause before he speaks and silence afterwards. [laughter] but, in fact, just to say a word or so about this panel, one of the big issues in organizing a panel like this is to decide the order in which people speak. and when we arrived here today, it was unclear on what reason one could apply to the difficult task of figuring out which order be would speaking. but it was also pretty much settled, like jonathan said, we're going to use danny werfel's performance measure, which is that this panel will succeed at its and at least half the audience is still awake. [laughter] whereupon, my good friend barry anderson seated here said, in that case, let's have marvin go first because if we get through that, success is assured. [laughter] >> marvin wasn't here when we pick the order. [laughter] >> not true, not true. actually, i like the other, i like the formal title for this panel better, looking back in order to move forward. because i actually have so

milton friedman, who i interviewed for several television shows, said that they are partners, he called them our cooperators. obviously, when you have billions of people and you want to improve living standards, you bring them to work at the lowest value added and start to work upward. winston churchill, who i like to quote, often refer to the super-refund policies. he was a free trader, and that is what america has done but we have done it successfully since the beginning of time. otherwise, we would be a a nation of farmers. we must continue to move up the for ourd letteatter people and prosperity. what does that come down to? education. that is for publicly-elected leaders to improve. to me, that is one of the most important issues of all. it is true from primary and the terreri -- and secondary school to the highest universities, and we must make sure we are training and work force to be able to compete. we know what the statistics are. i think that is the key long- term issue that faces our nation. i just had one other comment -- we also are a nation of immigrants. my parents were

[applause] i think milton friedman was once introduced similarly and he said he's the kind of person -- he's the kind of person who gets applause before he speaks and silence afterwards. [laughter] but in fact, just to say a word or so about this panel, one of the big issues and organizing a panel like this is to decide the order in which people speak. and when we arrived here today, it was unclear on what kind of reason could one apply to the difficult task of figuring out which order we would speak and. when it was all settled, pretty much settled when jonathan said well, we are going to use dna werfel's performance measure, which is this panel will succeed at its end, at least half the audience is still awake. whereupon, my good friend, barry andersen seeded here, said in that case, let's have marvin go first. because of bigotry that, success is assured. [laughter] >> actually marvin wasn't here when we picked the order. >> not true, not true. actually, i like the other -- i like a formal title for this panel better, "looking back to move forward." because i actually had some trou

buckley and milton friedman and robert knox was a little earlier and one of my favorites building on this small core of intellectuals, expanding into a series of -- now become this popular thing where something like gallup has 42% of americans identify as conservatives compared to 20% of americans describe themselves liberal. when you get a market that big you are going to have voices that speak only to that market and don't speak all that well to the average person outside of that market. it is one of these great games that both sides play where if they find people who are saying the things to their own side and say isn't that terrible? that is not what we normal americans believe. there is some merit to the idea that the ghettoization of conservatism which was necessary 30 years ago is less necessary now because conservatism is more mainstream than liberalism. some of the cheerleading stuff sometimes goes overboard. hi am very ecumenical about this stuff. symphony analogy i used earlier is the right one. in a good symphony you need to ballplayers and professionals and strings and a

i think milton friedman was once introduced similarly. and he said he's the kind of person -- >> microphone. >> -- he's the kind of person that gets applause before he speaks and silence afterwards. [laughter] >> but, in fact, just to say a word or so about this panel, one the big issues in organizing a panel like this is to decide the order in which people speak. when we arrived here today, it is unclear on what kind of reason could one apply to the difficult task of figuring out which order we would speak in. but it was all settled, pretty much settled when jonathan said, well, we are going to use danny's performance measure. which is this panel will succeed if at it's end, at least half of the audience is still awake. [laughter] >> whereupon my good friend barry anderson said let's have marvin go first. if we get through that, success is assured. [laughter] >> it's actually marvin wasn't here when we picked the order. >> not true. not true. >> actually, i like the other -- i like the formal title for this panel. looking back in order t