So I direct you to this excellent debunking of Klein’s things-resembling-arguments. Read and enjoy.
Oh, and this comment is precious. And the snark is entirely justified, of course; Will Wilkinson noted that “for Klein not a sparrow falls without [Milton] Friedman’s having somehow strangled it.” As far as I am concerned, it is just as fair to take equally tendentious connections between Klein and Some Bad Thing and blame the occurrence of Some Bad Thing on Klein.
And to do it to her as insistently as she tries to do it to Friedman, who will be fondly remembered long after the ignoble Klein is mercifully forgotten.
Klien vs. Friedman
McKinley Wednesday, October 15th at 1:41AM EDT (link)She came to speak at the University of Chicago a few weeks ago, ostensibly to rail against the University’s plan to invest 200 million dollars in an economics think tank after its most famous practioner Milton Friedman. Over one hundred faculty here have objected to the project, and Klein waived her usual speaking fee in hopes of engaging in a debate over the topic. I find the tepid response from the Chicago Economics Department illuminating:
“I just didn’t think it would be an interesting thing to do,” said economics professor Robert E. Lucas, Jr. “I didn’t want to read the book. I didn’t hear anything that favorable about it and there are a lot of books out there.”
He was not impressed by Klein’s credentials.
“In the case of Naomi Klein, I don’t know anything about her,” he said. “She’s written a book critical of Milton Friedman—so have dozens of other people. I don’t see why I have to spend a day of my life doing that.”
GSB Professor and Institute committee member John Cochrane also declined. He said that if the event was aimed to debate whether or not the University should have a Milton Friedman Insitute, “I don’t see why a journalist brought in from the outside who has written a very contentious book about Milton Friedman” would be helpful to the discussion.
“I would be delighted to debate Milton Friedman’s contribution to economics,” he added. “But somehow I don’t seem to think that’s what she was going to talk about.”
More here: http://www.chicagomaroon.com/2008/10/4/naomi-klein-lambasts-friedman-institute-plans
In surprising news . . .
Pejman Yousefzadeh Wednesday, October 15th at 2:36AM EDT (link)Nobel Prizewinners have better things to do than to waste time responding to stupid people like Naomi Klein. They also have better things to do than to respond to a ridiculously small percentage of the faculty objecting to the establishment of the Milton Friedman Institute . . . in large part because the establishment of MFI would likely strike a blow against their long-desired creation of the Che Guevara Institute. Check out the link to the post and you will see that the Nobel Prizewinners made the right choice. Their response was less “tepid” and more “bored.” And with reason.
“At times one remains faithful to a cause only because its opponents do not cease to be insipid.” –Friedrich Nietzsche
Why does the Left hate Friedman?
Alberta Wednesday, October 15th at 11:39AM EDT (link)Im just too naive to understand how someone could read Friedmans ideas and come away with “he hates people.”
Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God’s side, for God is always right.
Abraham Lincoln