An Economic Prophecy by Milton Friedman..

J.D. · Jan 28, 2009

...who said this in 1971:

[as quoted by Gary North in "Christian Economics"] We have been driven into a widespread system of arbitrary and tyrannical control over our economic life, not because “eco- nomic laws are not working the way they used to,” not because the classical medicine cannot, if properly applied, halt inflation, but because the public at large has been led to expect standards of performance that as economists we do not know how to achieve. Perhaps, as our knowledge advances, we can come closer to specifying policies that would achieve these high stand- ards. Perhaps, the random perturbations inherent in the eco- nomic system make it impossible to achieve such standards. And perhaps, even if there are policies that would attain them, considerations of political economy will make it impossible for these policies to be adopted. But whatever the future may hold in these respects, I believe that we economists in recent years have done vast harm—to society at large and to our profession in particular—by claiming more than we can deliver. We have thereby encouraged politicians to make extravagant promises, inculcate unrealistic expectations in the public at large, and promote discontent with reasonably satisfactory results because they fall short of the economists’ promised land.
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Very prophetic of today's politics and economic policy?

An Economic Prophecy by Milton Friedman..

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