Book Review: Not So Free to Choose Ranjit Vohra Bridgewater State College
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Bridgewater Review Volume 5 | Issue 1 Article 15 Jun-1987 Book Review: Not So Free to Choose Ranjit Vohra Bridgewater State College Recommended Citation Vohra, Ranjit (1987). Book Review: Not So Free to Choose. Bridgewater Review, 5(1), 30. Available at: http://vc.bridgew.edu/br_rev/vol5/iss1/15 This item is available as part of Virtual Commons, the open-access institutional repository of Bridgewater State University, Bridgewater, Massachusetts. Book Reviews Not So Free To Choose: The Political Economy of differences notwithstanding, Mr. Rayack contends that the overall socio Milton Friedman & Ronald Reagan economic stance ofthe President in the crucial subjective issues of (i) the eco by Elton Rayack nomic role of "big" government in a Praeger, 1987 modern capitalist economy, and (ii) the money supply policy ofthe Federal Reserve system, is certainly embodied in, ifindeed notplagiarized from, the po any ofthe social thinkers who cal men, who believe themselves to be lemical writings ofProfessor Friedman. have seen grand economic pat quite exempt from any intellectual influ It is to the dissection ofFriedman the Mterns in recent history are so ences, are usually' the slaves of some political economist that Mr. Rayack brilliant and controversial that their defunct economist." To be sure, Mr. ultimately turns. The point of depar theses continue to generate limitless Rayack quickly denies that Friedman is ture is Friedman's well-known claim amounts of both heat and light. Now defunct or that Reagan is his slave. This that the great Depression of the thir Professor Milton Friedman has staked denial appears in the two opening ties, which is generally regarded as a his claim to junior membership in this sentences of the very first page of Not watershed in capitalist reliance on lofty and illustrious group, which in So Free to Choose, leaving the rest ofthe Adam Smith's "Invisible Hand", was cludes the likes of Karl Marx, E.F book to prove precisely what is denied. actually caused by the bungling of Schumpeter and Walt Rostow. money supply by the Federal Reserve Mr. Friedman has been a prolific Bank, and that the elaborate post-war writer. Aside from professional structure of Keynes' macroeconomics often technical - articles aimed at Mr. Rayack .. .sets about the that is popularly construed to be the academic peers [forwhich he was awarded task of achieving two distinct fiscal bulwark against a recurrence of the Nobel Prize in Economics], Fried goals; demonstrating that such a depression is irrelevant. The man, the Political Economist, wrote Friedman prescription calls only for a regularly for Newsweek from the mid Friedman is indeed the chief "sensible" monetary policy by the sixties to 1980, and has authored Capital guru behind the policies of the Federal Reserve Bank, with cruel and ism and Freedom, [University ofChicago unusual economic malaise being the Press, 1962], Dollars and Deficits [Pren Reagan administration; and swift fate to befall the unbelievers. Mr. tice Hall, 1968], and co-authored showing the Friedman's bold Rayack records cynically that the with wife Rose Friedman - Tyranny of generalizations about the Federal Reserve Bank strictly followed the Status Quo[HarcourtBraceJovanovich, Friedman's principles from October 1984], and Free To Choose, [Avon, mechanism ofeconomic 1979 through 1982, by which time it 1981] forces are empty, unsupported became increasingly clear that this pro Professor EltonRayack critically exam gram was leading the country inexo ines some of Friedman's theses in his hypotheses. rably into deepening recession. carefully researched book, aptly titled Mr. Rayack also finds simplistic the Not So Free to Choose [Praeger, 1987], Friedman variation on the classical in which Friedman is also unambig A principal and compelling argu theme of the Smithian Invisible Hand, uously identified as the intellectual ment of Mr. Rayack is that Friedman, in regard to the complex and uniquely mentor of the Reagan economic in his loftiest generalizations about the modern socioeconomic issue ofchronic philosophy. laws of motion of economics, treats unemployment and the responsibility Mr. Rayack - himself a product of history as a hunting license: that in of the government to act on behalf of the "Chicago School" made famous by focusing selectively on circumstances the economically disadvantaged. Some Professor Friedman - sets about the and events that best fill out his hypo glaring inconsistencies in Friedman's task of achieving two distinct goals: theses, he perverts the record of"true" writings - as for instance his propen demonstrating that Friedman is indeed historical cause-and-effect. Unfortu sity to avoid any criticism ofthe Depart the chiefguru behind the policies ofthe nately, some of Elton Rayack's own ment of Defense, and his somewhat Reagan administration; and showing assertions rely on essentially the same cavalier treatment of historical facts, that Friedman's bold generalizations modus operandi. Thus his scrupulously are grist for Mr. Rayack's mill. Towards aboutthe mechanism ofeconomicforces researched parellels between official the end of his book, he finds Friedman are empty, unsupported hypotheses. policy statements such as the Econo - and by intellectual association, Mr. The implications ofMr. Rayack's asser mic Report ofthe President, and select Reagantoo- disconnectedfrom "reality". tions are mind-boggling. ed pieces of Friedman's writings, is Not So Free to Choose is the product of That most famous ofall macroecono itself an example of the culling that he carefulresearch andMr. Rayack's power mists, Lord Keynes, observed in his finds so repugnantin Friedman's histori ful assertions cannot be dismissed seminal General Theory of Employment, cal gymnastics. lightly. Itis "must" reading for anyone Interest, and Money that "[the] ideas Mr. Rayack observes that there have even vaguely interested in the eco of economists and political philoso been issues - for instance the Laffer nomics of Friedman or the politics of phers, both when they are right and curve underpinning of the vaunted Reagan. 0 when they are wrong, are more power Reagan tax-cut - on which Friedman ful than is commonly understood. Indeed differed sharply from the "supply Ranjit Vohra, Assistant Professor of the world is ruled by little else. Practi- side" componentofReaganomics. Such Economics 30.