Speaking of the great Milton Friedman, the world recently has had a natural experiment comparing his favored policies with those of another Nobel Prize winner from the opposite end of the political spectrum: Joseph Stiglitz.
Charles Lajoie wrote on X:
If you want to know the difference between Milton Friedman and Joseph Stiglitz, I present to you 4 countries with a GDP per capita of about $15,000 in 1998 (Poland being a bit poorer back then).
The first one, Estonia, reformed its way out of socialism through shock therapy. Mart Laar, the architect of the reforms, cited Free to Choose as his main inspiration.
The second, Poland, also reformed its way out of socialism, and it did so through even more radical shock therapy than Estonia. Leszek Balcerowicz, who’s widely seen as the main actor behind those reforms, has won the Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty in 2014, a reflection of his reforms’ adherence to Friedman’s (and tbf, Austrian school economists’) ideas.
The third one, Argentina, has followed the ideas of Néstor Kirchner since 2003, a man who was directly advised and praised by Joseph Stiglitz. As late as 2022, Stiglitz praised its economic policies.
The fourth, Venezuela, followed economic policies that were openly praised by Stiglitz as late as 2007, although he didn’t directly advise its leader.
And, there you go. That’s the difference between Milton Friedman and Joseph Stiglitz.
