Milton Friedman Archives - Public Seminar

Economy

Goldbugs

An excerpt from Hayek’s Bastards: Race, Gold, IQ, and the Capitalism of the Far Right

November 17, 2025 • by Quinn Slobodian

People make bad money, and that money makes bad people.— Peter Boehringer Monetary issues have long divided neoliberals. Can you trust a central bank to manage currency? Can the growth of the money supply be made automatic? Should fixed or floating rates reign in global currency markets? Must money be backed ...

Activism

Economists Should Take a Page From Student Activism

Metrics help us explain the world—and ignore our own accountability

October 22, 2024 • by Govind Srivastav

I have always loved spring in Chicago. The Loop buzzes with music and awe-struck architecture fans, while the lake fills up with swimmers braving the sun-soaked but icy water. In the evening, the air is just crisp enough for a jacket. But spring nights in 2024 were special. There was ...

Economists Should Take a Page From Student Activism

Labor

I, Face Mask

A reconsideration of the classic essay, “I, Pencil”

May 27, 2020 • by Fred Block

“I, Pencil” uses a genealogy of an ordinary lead pencil to explain that nobody knows how to make one. It is, rather, the genius of the market system that coordinates the efforts of people around the world to manufacture the final product. They include loggers in Northern California, graphite miners ...

Feature

On Theorizing Neoliberalism

The Problems and Politics of a Critique

April 20, 2017 • by Bryant William Sculos

In a recent piece for Public Seminar, Jeffery Goldfarb explores the problems of the term and concept of neoliberalism, specifically its inconsistent application by those on the left. He claims that neoliberalism is used to describe a wide range of policy positions from public-private ventures up to the complete deregulation of ...