Milton Friedman (1912-2006) was a highly influential American economist and statistician, known as a prominent advocate for free markets. He received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1976 for his work on consumption analysis, monetary history and theory, and the complexities of stabilization policy. Friedman was a leading figure in the Chicago School of Economics, which challenged Keynesian economics and emphasized monetarism.
Friedman's significant contributions include his work on the "permanent income hypothesis," which posited that people's spending habits are related to their expected long-term income rather than just their current income. He also advocated for policies promoting individual freedom and minimal government intervention, such as a volunteer army, freely floating exchange rates, school vouchers, and a negative income tax. After retiring from the University of Chicago in 1977, Friedman became a senior research fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University until 2006. He also advised political figures like Richard Nixon and was president of the American Economic Association in 1967.