Jim Rogers - Friedman's Wife Knows More Than Bernanke

[whaugen57]

When referring to Milton Friedman's wife as Anna I believe Jim Rogers is referring to Anna J. Schwartz, co-author with Milton Friedman of "A Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960" published in 1963. Milton Friedman's wife was named Rose.

[markand4503]

Starting 4:15 is absolutely glorious.

[hodoprime]

Friedman was a great mind but didn't completely believe in the free market. I'm surprised Rogers feels the same way. Any policy would have the same result regardless of date. The bubble shouldn't have been formed and intervention should not have occured to prolong the depressions. If you want an economic lesson, read up on austrian economics. 

[AndrewLLFrazier]

Friedman believed bank runs were a bad thing, that having 1/3 banks fail is a disaster - but having banks fail is the solution to the real problem of having too many banks.

[AndrewLLFrazier]

Friedman was an advocate for lender of last resort, he believed that it was the right thing to do to bail out banks which had good balance sheets. But the function of being a lender of last resort led to all sorts of moral hazards - and now we have a situation in which bank depositors no longer care what banks do with their money. Not to mention Friedman never defined what constituted a good balance sheet, and so the term is abitrary and allows the politician to decide whatever he wants to.

[sithjedi71]

This idiot interviewing Jim Rogers missed his whole point.

[AndrewLLFrazier]

@sithjedi71 4:28 The interviewer got it right, Jim Rogers was wrong to bring up Milton Friedman critique - Milton Friedmans critique was that the Fed was too tight, and allowed banks with good balance sheets to go under and the restriction in liquidity created a run on the banks. Friedman argued that the central banks should provide liquidity to the markets. That's exactly what the Fed did this time around.

[MikeKay1978]

@AndrewLLFrazier

You seem to know Friedman quite well, thats why i'm asking you. But i got the impression that Friedman would be against any bailout. So i'm confussed of what he meant when he supported the printing of money at the same time. maybe you can explain?

[AndrewLLFrazier]

@MikeKay1978 I thought he was against bailouts too, and maybe he is, but he's for liquidity measures, "to provide cash to meet the demands of depositors when runs arose." If you ask me that sounds an awful lot like bailouts to me.

I don't know Friedman that well, I just watched "Free to Choose". I think his position on bank runs is a complete contradiction to everything he stood for.

watch?v=NInlvbHgLfw

[MikeKay1978]

@AndrewLLFrazier

Yes I watched that too, but i'm still confused. I think he might have meant that when a country goes in to a recession for example the US in the late twenties the still had an increasing export at the sametime they had a declining import due to the recession. THis led to an accumulation of Gold and he thought that the FED should print more money to due to the increased amount of gold. But it still confussing regarding the bailout.

[SidneyBou]

Couldn't set date. Wish you would put date in headline.