Remembering Milton Friedman

The Free to Choose Network is commemorating the 100th birthday of Milton Friedman by releasing an update of his groundbreaking series Free to Choose.  The series titled Testing Milton Friedman will be a three part series of roundtable discussions on three major topics: "The Power of the Market," "Tyranny of Control," and "Created Equal."  The participants include original Free to Choose participant Walter Williams (George Mason University) and other famous economists such as J. Bradford DeLong (University of California - Berkeley), Kevin Murphy (University of Chicago), Bryan Caplan (George Mason University), Austan Goolsbee (University of Chicago), Dani Rodrik (Harvard University), Raghuram Rajan (University of Chicago), and others.




It is scheduled to begin airing May 1, 2012.  Check your local listings for exact date and time.  For those of you who would like to brush up, here is the original Free to Choose series from 1980.






















My Professor, Thomas Rustici, was taught by James Buchanan who was taught by Milton Friedman so I think that makes me Friedman's Great-Grandstudent.  One of the stories that Rustici told me about Buchanan's tenure at the University of Chicago is that Friedman arrived while he was in the middle of his doctorate.  He had already taken his graduate level microeconomics class with Frank Knight, who was chairman of the department.  Knight was apparently so impressed by Friedman's approach to micro that he forced every graduate student to retake their micro course with Friedman.  According to Rustici, Buchanan said that he never really understood Microeconomics until that class.

I recently found a copy of Friedman's Price Theory, which is actually the lecture notes of David Fand and Warren Gustus which were reviewed and enhanced by Friedman.  Friedman characterizes the notes as being part of his course on Price Theory, so I'm not sure if that is the same course that Buchanan told Rustici about (these are the perils of second-hand knowledge) but when I was reading through the book, it was basically what Rustici was teaching on the subject.  In any case, it is a terrific book and even though it is far from famous it is as good or better than anything I've ever read by Friedman or on the subject.

In one of the last conversations I had with my grandfather, Dr. Philip Raup, he mentioned that he once shared a two hour drive with Milton Friedman in the early 1950's.  Friedman was lecturing at Saint John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota.  My Grandfather rode with him from the airport in the Twin Cities to Collegeville.  I asked him what they talked about, or what he could recall of the conversation, and he only said that "He was very opinionated."  I think that is a gentleman's way of saying that they didn't agree very much.

Dr. Philip M. Raup 1914-2011

My Grandfather, Dr. Philip M. Raup, died last Thursday evening.  He lived to be 97 years old and was a notable man for the purposes of this blog.  He was a Professor of Applied Economics at the University of Minnesota and is one of the main reasons that I became interested in economics.



Gordon Raup, Sandra Raup, Joseph Ward, Marian Raup, Philip Raup (left to right)



Philip M. Raup was born in western Kansas on a family farm.  As with most people, his childhood defined his interests and in large part set his trajectory in life.  To pay for college, at the University of Kansas, he raised and sold turkeys rather than going into debt like myself and so many of my classmates.  He lived through the dust bowl, his family kept their farm, he met his wife and graduated university during the Great Depression.  He became a researcher at the Brookings Institution in Washington D.C. but enlisted in the Army after the Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor.

He served under General Lucius Clay and rose to the rank of Lieutenant.  He used his knowledge of agricultural economics to help kick start a late German crop in 1945 which helped save a starving Germany that year.  Post-war Germans are estimated to have been eating only 1,080 calories a day between 1946 and 1947.  This is largely due to agricultural production being reduced 65% during the war.  Because of this, Germans were slowly starving at the end of the war.  They likely would have eaten less than that and general starvation may have occurred if not for the fast action of Raup and the Office of Military Government to initiate agriculture production plans that summer.  Grandpa Phil always seemed most proud of this moment in his professional life.

Upon returning to the United States, he acquired a Ph.D from the University of Wisconsin and a tenured Professor position at the University of Minnesota.  He started his family which became Philip Jr., Martha, and Gordon (my step-father).  Professionally, he mentored Ph. D students and became a worldwide expert on land tenure.  He toured many countries in a professional and personal capacity including the Soviet Union, eventually becoming a U.S. expert on Soviet agriculture policies.  He wrote or co-wrote several books and was published in respected journals such as The Journal of Economic History (!), Land Economics, Journal  of Farm Economics, American Journal of Agricultural Economics, and American Economic Review (!).  He was also a fellow of Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.  His career was reflected upon by W. Burt Sundquist (University of Minnesota), Gene Wunderlich (U.S. Department of Agriculture), Alex McCalla (University of California - Davis), and himself in this paper which was published by the University of Minnesota.

I can still remember sitting beside him at the dinner table while we discussed the politics of the day.  This was my introduction to politics.  After a bit of debate, Phil would often get up to grab an article or a map that would cut through the rhetoric at the table.  He believed, as every good economist does, that the data guides analysis and not the other way around.  I miss those dinner parties with my Grandmother Marian's terrific food and great conversations, but it is not for us to hold time.  He has passed into history and memory.





Philip & Marian Raup

  

As my Grandfather grew increasingly ill during my semesters learning economics, I began thinking about how economists relate to one another.  At my school, I have a number of professors, but I learn just as much from economists that I've never met before as I do from my current professors.  I learn from them in books.  Whether it's J.R. Hicks, Value and Capital or Adam Smith's On the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, I have learned much from economists that I have never met and lived hundreds of years before my time.  Their works are still as vital as they would be if they spoke them personally.  They have become featured voices in my essays.  Economics is just one aspect of a large intellectual conversation that spans all generations.  My grandfather contributed to that conversation and his voice will echo in future citations for years to come.

I am sad to see my Grandfather pass, but I am happy with and inspired by the life he lived.





Glenn Gould - "The Goldberg Variations"