Ever since I was first exposed to economics in my high school social studies class, I have been an admirer of Milton Friedman who won the 1976 Nobel Prize for Economic Studies. Friedman abhorred government involvement in markets. Since the US economy has had more enough government interventions lately, I thought it may be interesting to look back some of his opinions on economics. Little did I know the wealth of video clips available on the Internet.



One video I found was of an exchange between Milton Friedman and Phil Donahue in 1979. In the You Tube video titled Milton Friedman - Greed, Friedman extols the merits of capitalism. According to Friedman, in a capitalist society the incentive of having the ability to follow your own self interest has led to extraordinary achievements. The interview ends with Donahue challenging free markets as manipulated and therefore lacking in virtue. I think Friedman does an excellent job in pointing out that the self interest of our elected officials can be anything but virtuous.