…When you say ideas are not important, that change in attitudes would not have been possible if the groundwork had not been laid by the socialist intellectuals in the 1920s. It is interesting to note that every economic plank of the 1928 Socialist party platform has by now been either wholly or partly enacted…Financial System: You are fully aware of the weakness of our financial system. Is there any doubt that the weakness owes much to Washington? The savings and loan crisis was produced by government, first by accelerating inflation in the 1970s, which destroyed the net worth of many savings and loan institutions, then by poor regulation in the 1980s, by the increase in deposit insurance to $100,000, and more recently, by the heavy-handed handling of the crisis. You know the litany; I don’t have to spell it out.”, Nobel Laureate in Economics, Milton Friedman, Excerpt from “Why Government is the Problem”, Essays in Public Policy, no. 39, Stanford California: Hoover Institution Press, 1993

“The 2008 financial crisis is pretty much a repeat of the above…government again blaming the private sector (and those on the Left calling for the jailing of bankers) for a crisis caused mostly by government and the rise of socialism under Bernie/Warren…but we no longer have the brilliant Milton Friedman to say as much. P.S. By the way, the entire essay and especially the Q &A is a MUST READ (and is similar to Nobel Laureate in Economics F.A. Hayek’s views)…Mr. Friedman discusses at-length the government-created taxi monopolies (almost fore-telling Uber’s rise, nearly two decades later) and the healthcare crisis and government’s key role.”, Mike Perry, former Chairman and CEO, IndyMac Bank, July 26, 2017

Friedman, Milton. Why Government is the Problem.* Essays in Public Policy, no. 39. Stanford, California: Hoover Institution Press, 1993.