Whitonomics - Issue 1 Jan 2014 | Page 4

K EY E C ON O M IST M P.2 Bardeya Moradi ilton Friedman was born on the 31st of July, 1912 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He received his bachelor’s degree from Rutgers University in 1932 where he specialised in mathematics. He gained a scholarship to study economics at the University of Chicago where he then gained his MA in 1933. Finally, he was awarded his PhD from Columbia University in 1946. After ninety four years of life Friedman passed away on 16th of November 2006 in San Francisco, California. Friedman was a Nobel Prize winning economist and professor at the University of Chicago, a leader of the monetarist movement and a staunch opponent to the Keynesian School of Economics. Friedman’s reach was not confined just too theoretical economics as he worked to influence the political-economics of the 1980s, working with both President Reagan and Prime Minister Thatcher. Having been described by The Economist as, “the most influential economist of the second half of the 20th century... possibly of all of it”, therefore he is the first Economist to be covered in our maiden issue of Whitonomics. This theory stated that the money supply should be calculated using known financial and macroeconomic data, targeting a set inflation rate. This would then determine the fixed rate of interest which would increase year on year to meet cyclical needs and to counteract any inflationary pressure. It is the rate of unemployment where real wages have found their free market level, and where the aggregate supply of labour is in balance with the aggregate demand for labour. It is the difference between those who wish to take a job at the current market equilibrium and those able to do so. Friedman was a loyal Monetarist believing that there was a strong cor ɕ