Paul at Truck and Barter has done heroic work in putting so many links together.
OpinionJournal has a sampling of Friedman's many pieces written for the Wall Street Journal. Thomas Sowell has a tribute piece as well.
Lawrence Summers shows his class in his NY Times op-ed.
UPDATE: Robert Frank suggests a way to expand the earned income tax credit to be more like what Friedman envisioned while also getting the incentives right. Not an easy assignment, but worth discussing.
Larry Summers says:
"Today we take it as given that free financial markets shape finance. The dollar fluctuates unhindered against other currencies and there is an entire industry of trading futures and options on interest rates and currencies."
Is this statement accurate ? Are the financial markets free or are they being controlled and or minipulated by the chinese, japanese, other Asians, sheiks, CRB's, and, now, the US treasury.
Is financial market theory being stood on it's head ? A popular diagnosis is that the Fed will engineer a "soft landing" to the bursting housing bubble. The idea of the Fed engineering the economy goes against the free market idea as does the housing bubble in the first place.
Financial and economic theory is at odd's with today's reality and definately appears at odd's with Milton Friedman's prescriptions. The term "free market" is being redefined. Yes, you are free to lose money if you bet against the stock bubble because one or several governments are pumping liquidity into the system to prevent a market drop before the election.
The FX value of the dollar won't drop because the Asian pegging operations are keeping it suspended.
"Hedge funds, or even government can't possibly manipulate the price of crude oil because of the "free market" size and diversity" was commonly spouted (with appropriate sniffing) by foggy bottom economists prior to the Goldman Sachs demonstration.
Ditto natural gas, with parking validated by the nations's foremost regulatory joke, the CFTC before it was revealed that Amaranth and several other hedge funds had cornered the natural gas market.
When will the economic's profession speak out. A year ago, James Hamilton applied his considerable analytical skills demonstrating that the oil and gas markets were not being manipulated. I haven't heard much lately but hope he re-analyzes the data in light of current revelations.