Danny Davis: “Mr. Speaker, on November 16 the world lost one of its preeminent and influential economists and thinkers of our time.…”

“Mr. Speaker, on November 16 the world lost one of its preeminent and influential economists and thinkers of our time. Dr. Milton Friedman is most commonly associated with his theories of monetarism, his devotion to the free market that sought to turn the Keynesian economic revolution on its head, and his visions of an international economic system that is free of pegged and fixed exchange rates. Friedman's top achievement, among many, was his Nobel Prize in Economics, which he was awarded in 1976. And while many of his achievements are well known, some of his lesser known accomplishments make him an intriguing figure. One of the abstractions Friedman developed in his famous work, 'Capitalism and Freedom,' was the concept of the negative income tax credit, or the modern-day earned income tax credit. This abstraction advances the idea that people who earn less than a certain amount of money should receive money from the government. Friedman also was a key member of the White House Commission on White House Fellows from 1971 to 1973. But most of all, Milton Friedman was devoted to the centrality of freedom in domestic and international affairs.”