One of TIME magazine's All-TIME 100 Best Nonfiction Books
One of Times Literary Supplement's 100 Most Influential Books Since the War
One of National Review's 100 Best Nonfiction Books of the Century
​One of Intercollegiate Studies Institute's 50 Best Books of the 20th Century

How can we benefit from the promise of government while avoiding the threat it poses to individual freedom? In this classic book, Milton Friedman provides the definitive statement of an immensely influential economic philosophy--one in which competitive capitalism serves as both a device for achieving economic freedom and a necessary condition for political freedom.
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First published in 1962, Friedman's Capitalism and Freedom is one of the most significant works of economic theory ever written. Enduring in its eminence and esteem, it has sold nearly a million copies in English, has been translated into eighteen languages, and continues to inform economic thinking and policymaking around the world. This new edition includes prefaces written by Friedman for both the 1982 and 2002 reissues of the book, as well as a new foreword by Binyamin Appelbaum, lead economics writer for the New York Times editorial board.

INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER
A powerful and persuasive discussion about economics, freedom, and the relationship between the two, from today's brightest economist.
In this classic discussion, Milton and Rose Friedman explain how our freedom has been eroded and our affluence undermined through the explosion of laws, regulations, agencies, and spending in Washington. This important analysis reveals what has gone wrong in America in the past and what is necessary for our economic health to flourish.

What is the exact nature of the consumption function? Can this term be defined so that it will be consistent with empirical evidence and a valid instrument in the hands of future economic researchers and policy makers? In this volume a distinguished American economist presents a new theory of the consumption function, tests it against extensive statistical J material and suggests some of its significant implications.

Central to the new theory is its sharp distinction between two concepts of income, measured income, or that which is recorded for a particular period, and permanent income, a longer-period concept in terms of which consumers decide how much to spend and how much to save. Milton Friedman suggests that the total amount spent on consumption is on the average the same fraction of permanent income, regardless of the size of permanent income. The magnitude of the fraction depends on variables such as interest rate, degree of uncertainty relating to occupation, ratio of wealth to income, family size, and so on.

The hypothesis is shown to be consistent with budget studies and time series data, and some of its far-reaching implications are explored in the final chapter.

Friedman discusses a government system that is no longer controlled by we, the people. Instead of Lincoln's government of the people, by the people, and for the people, we now have a government of the people, by the bureaucrats, for the bureaucrats, including the elected representatives who have become bureaucrats.

Economics is sometimes divided into two parts: positive economics and normative economics. The former deals with how the economic problem is solved, while the latter deals with how the economic problem should be solved. The effects of price or rent control on the distribution of income are problems of positive economics. The desirability of these effects on income distribution is a problem of normative economics. Within economics, the major division is between monetary theory and price theory. Monetary theory deals with the level of prices in general, with cyclical and other fluctuations in total output, total employment, and the like. Price theory deals with the allocation of resources among different uses, the price of one item relative to another. Prices do three kinds of things. They transmit information, they provide an incentive to users of resources to be guided by this information, and they provide an incentive to owners of resources to follow this information. Milton Friedman's classic book provides the theoretical underpinning for and understanding of prices. Economics is not concerned solely with economic problems. It is a social science, and is therefore concerned primarily with those economic problems whose solutions involve the cooperation and interaction of different individuals. It is concerned with problems involving a single individual only insofar as the individual's behavior has implications for or effects upon other individuals. Price Theory is concerned not with economic problems in the abstract, but with how a particular society solves its economic problems.

A lively, enlightening introduction to monetary history...from monetarism's most articulate apostle.--Kirkus ReviewsThe Oliver Stone of economics (Chicago Tribune), Nobel Prize laureate Milton Friedman makes clear once and for all that no one, from the local corner merchant to the Wall Street banker to the president of the United States, is immune from monetary economics. In Money Mischief, Friedman discusses the creation of value: from stones to feathers to gold. He outlines the central role of monetary theory and shows how it can act to ignite or deepen inflation. Through colorful historical episodes, he demonstrates the mischief that can result from a misunderstanding of monetary economics -- how, for example, the work of two obscure Scottish chemists destroyed the presidential prospects of William Jennings Bryan and how Franklin D. Roosevelt's decision to appease a few senators from the American West helped communism triumph in China. And he explains, in plain English, what the present monetary system in the United States means for your paycheck and your savings as well as for the global economy.

Magisterial. . . . The direct and indirect influence of the Monetary History would be difficult to overstate.--Ben S. Bernanke, Nobel Prize-winning economist and former chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve

From Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman and his celebrated colleague Anna Jacobson Schwartz, one of the most important economics books of the twentieth century--the landmark work that rewrote the story of the Great Depression and the understanding of monetary policy

Milton Friedman and Anna Jacobson Schwartz's A Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960 is one of the most influential economics books of the twentieth century. A landmark achievement, it marshaled massive historical data and sharp analytics to argue that monetary policy--steady control of the money supply--matters profoundly in the management of the nation's economy, especially in navigating serious economic fluctuations.

One of the book's most important chapters, The Great Contraction, 1929-33 addressed the central economic event of the twentieth century, the Great Depression. Friedman and Schwartz argued that the Federal Reserve could have stemmed the severity of the Depression, but failed to exercise its role of managing the monetary system and countering banking panics. The book served as a clarion call to the monetarist school of thought by emphasizing the importance of the money supply in the functioning of the economy--an idea that has come to shape the actions of central banks worldwide.

Price Theory comprises the full text of Friedman's legendary course on price theory taught at the University of Chicago. Friedman was originally a Keynesian supporter of the New Deal and advocate of government intervention in the economy. However, his 1950s reinterpretation of the Keynesian consumption function challenged the basic Keynesian model. At the University of Chicago, Friedman became the main advocate for opposing Keynesianism. During the 1960s he promoted an alternative macroeconomic policy known as monetarism. He theorized there existed a natural rate of unemployment and he argued the central government could not micromanage the economy because people would realize what the government was doing and change their behavior to neutralize such policies. Price Theory is the transcript of Friedman's legendary course on price theory taught at the University of Chicago.

2015 Reprint of 1957Edition. Full Facsimile of the original edition. Not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. In this book Friedman developed the permanent income hypothesis (PIH). As classical Keynesian consumption theory was unable to explain the constancy of savings rate in the face of rising real incomes in the United States, a number of new theories of consumer behavior emerged. In his book, Friedman posits a theory that encompasses many of the competing hypotheses at the time as special cases and presents statistical evidence in support of his theory. Friedman described Keynes's theory of a declining propensity to consume as 'very imaginative and thoughtful.' But in A Theory of the Consumption Function (1957), he demonstrated that while the hypothesis seemed to make psychological sense, it was empirically false. In relating income to propensity to consume, Keynes had erred in not distinguishing between 'transitory' and 'permanent' income. In fact, consumption does not decline as incomes generally rise. Economists across the political spectrum agreed with Friedman's refutation of Keynes....--James A. Nuechterlein, Commentary

In this book, Robert Leeson and Charles Palm have assembled an amazing collection of Milton Friedman's best works on freedom. Even more amazing is that the selection represents only 1 percent of the 1,500 works by Friedman that Leeson and Palm have put online in a user-friendly format--and an even smaller percentage if you include their archive of Friedman's audio and television recordings, correspondence, and other writings. This book and the larger online collection are sorely needed and very welcome. Milton Friedman deserves to be read in the original by generation after generation.

On his death in the autumn of 2006, Milton Friedman was lauded as the grandmaster of free-market economic theory in the postwar era by the New York Times and the most influential economist of the second half of the 20th century by the Economist. Winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1976, Friedman was both a highly respected economist and a prominent public intellectual, the leader of a revolution in economic and political thought that argued robustly in favor of virtues of free markets and laissez-faire policies.

Milton Friedman on Economics: Selected Papers collects a variety of Friedman's papers on topics in economics that were originally published in the Journal of Political Economy. Opening with Friedman's 1977 Nobel Lecture, the volume spans nearly the whole of his career, incorporating papers from as early as 1948 and as late as 1990. An excellent introduction to Friedman's economic thought, Milton Friedman will be essential for anyone tracing the course of twentieth-century economics and politics.

2011 Reprint of 1962 edition. Full facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. Price Theory comprises the full text of Friedman's legendary course on price theory taught at the University of Chicago. Friedman was originally a Keynesian supporter of the New Deal and advocate of government intervention in the economy. However, his 1950s reinterpretation of the Keynesian consumption function challenged the basic Keynesian model. At the University of Chicago, Friedman became the main advocate for opposing Keynesianism. During the 1960s he promoted an alternative macroeconomic policy known as monetarism. He theorized there existed a natural rate of unemployment and he argued the central government could not micromanage the economy because people would realize what the government was doing and change their behavior to neutralize such policies. Price Theory is the transcript of Friedman's legendary course on price theory taught at the University of Chicago.

The Nobel Prize winner writes here on current issues of prevailing concern to every American citizen and taxpayer, displaying the powers of analysis and expression that have made him one of the most widely respected economists in America. Edited and with an Introduction by William R. Allen.

In this book, Robert Leeson and Charles Palm have assembled an amazing collection of Milton Friedman's best works on freedom. Even more amazing is that the selection represents only 1 percent of the 1,500 works by Friedman that Leeson and Palm have put online in a user-friendly format--and an even smaller percentage if you include their archive of Friedman's audio and television recordings, correspondence, and other writings. This book and the larger online collection are sorely needed and very welcome. Milton Friedman deserves to be read in the original by generation after generation.

Stimulating, provocative, often infuriating, but well worth reading.-Peter Newman, Economica

His critical blast blows like a north wind against the more pretentious erections of modern economics. It is however a healthy and invigorating blast, without malice and with a sincere regard for scientific objectivity.-K.E. Boulding, Political Science Quarterly

Certainly one of the most engrossing volumes that has appeared recently in economic theory.-William J. Baumol, Review of Economics and Statistics

The leading and most persuasive explanation of the worst economic disaster in American history, the onset of the Great Depression.--Ben S. Bernanke, Nobel Prize-winning economist and former chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve

Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman and his celebrated colleague Anna Jacobson Schwartz's landmark reinterpretation of the Great Depression

Milton Friedman and Anna Jacobson Schwartz's A Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960 is one of the most influential economics books of the twentieth century. A landmark achievement, it marshaled massive historical data and sharp analytics to argue that monetary policy--steady control of the money supply--matters profoundly in the management of the nation's economy, especially in navigating serious economic fluctuations. Perhaps no other chapter of this monumental book had a greater impact than The Great Contraction, 1929-33, which offered a fundamental reinterpretation of the central economic event of the twentieth century--the Great Depression. The Great Contraction, 1929-1933 presents that chapter, which runs to more than 200 pages, as a stand-alone book, in an edition that also features a new preface by Anna Jacobson Schwartz and a new introduction by the economist Peter Bernstein, both of which place the work and its lasting impact in context. In addition, the book includes a speech by Nobel Prize-winning economist and former chair of the Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke, in which he reflects on the continuing importance of Friedman and Schwartz's work.

What is the exact nature of the consumption function? Can this term be defined so that it will be consistent with empirical evidence and a valid instrument in the hands of future economic researchers and policy makers? In this volume a distinguished American economist presents a new theory of the consumption function, tests it against extensive statistical J material and suggests some of its significant implications.

Central to the new theory is its sharp distinction between two concepts of income, measured income, or that which is recorded for a particular period, and permanent income, a longer-period concept in terms of which consumers decide how much to spend and how much to save. Milton Friedman suggests that the total amount spent on consumption is on the average the same fraction of permanent income, regardless of the size of permanent income. The magnitude of the fraction depends on variables such as interest rate, degree of uncertainty relating to occupation, ratio of wealth to income, family size, and so on.

The hypothesis is shown to be consistent with budget studies and time series data, and some of its far-reaching implications are explored in the final chapter.

Economics is sometimes divided into two parts: positive economics and normative economics. The former deals with how the economic problem is solved, while the latter deals with how the economic problem should be solved. The effects of price or rent control on the distribution of income are problems of positive economics. The desirability of these effects on income distribution is a problem of normative economics.

Within economics, the major division is between monetary theory and price theory. Monetary theory deals with the level of prices in general, with cyclical and other fluctuations in total output, total employment, and the like. Price theory deals with the allocation of resources among different uses, the price of one item relative to another.

Prices do three kinds of things. They transmit information, they provide an incentive to users of resources to be guided by this information, and they provide an incentive to owners of resources to follow this information. Milton Friedman's classic book provides the theoretical underpinning for and understanding of prices.

Economics is not concerned solely with economic problems. It is a social science, and is therefore concerned primarily with those economic problems whose solutions involve the cooperation and interaction of different individuals. It is concerned with problems involving a single individual only insofar as the individual's behavior has implications for or effects upon other individuals. Price Theory is concerned not with economic problems in the abstract, but with how a particular society solves its economic problems.

2014 Reprint of 1959 Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. The organization of the book is simple and logical, the style extremely lucid and readable. In proposing measures of reform, the author e examines the current money and credit structure to see how it works, examines the role that government should play, and what criteria should guide the use of powers granted the monetary authorities. An essay and a powerful theoretical statement from an economist who would go on to dominate his field for the next thirty years.

In this groundbreaking work, a Nobel Prize-winning economist addresses the consumption behavior of individuals and how it can be defined in a way that is supported by empirical evidence and useful for research and planning. Milton Friedman introduced a distinction between measured income, what an individual earns in a specific period, and permanent income, a view that takes into account a longer period in an active economic life. He was thus able to suggest that consumption tends to be, on average, the same fraction of permanent income regardless of the income's extent and that the magnitude of the fraction depends on many variables, including interest rates and family size.
Dr. Friedman was among the most prominent American economists of the twentieth century, a powerful advocate of free market capitalism, and one of the founders of the well-known Chicago School of Economics. The concepts he introduced in this thought-provoking book achieved broad acceptance, stimulating further study and developing far-reaching effects on economic theory.