Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

O essencial de Milton Friedman

Rate this book
Quando economistas são chamados de “influentes” significa que eles mudaram a forma como os outros pensam. Por esse padrão, Milton Friedman foi um dos economistas mais influentes de todos os tempos. Ele revolucionou a maneira como seus pares pensam sobre consumo, dinheiro, política de estabilização e desemprego. Friedman demonstrou o poder de se comprometer com algumas suposições simples sobre o comportamento humano e então perseguir implacavelmente suas implicações lógicas. Em mais de 60 anos de carreira, desenvolveu e ensinou novas maneiras de interpretar dados, testando suas teorias por meio de sua capacidade de explicar vários fenômenos díspares. Seriam necessários vários volumes para fazer justiça às contribuições extraordinárias de Friedman para a teoria, prática e política econômicas, mas este livro servirá como uma introdução e, também, uma síntese do trabalho desenvolvido pelo célebre economista. A influência de Milton Friedman se estendeu além dos economistas. Ele foi o principal defensor da liberdade econômica e pessoal. Por meio de seus escritos e aparições na mídia, educou milhões sobre como os mercados funcionam e como os governos frequentemente falham. Ele restaurou a respeitabilidade das noções liberais clássicas que haviam caído em desgraça, e não o fez mediante propaganda engenhosa, mas transmitindo uma compreensão profunda e duradoura das próprias ideias.

109 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2017

212 people are currently reading
178 people want to read

About the author

Steven E. Landsburg

21 books89 followers

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
85 (46%)
4 stars
67 (37%)
3 stars
22 (12%)
2 stars
3 (1%)
1 star
4 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
Profile Image for Maziyar Yf.
832 reviews666 followers
January 5, 2026
اندیشه های بنیادی میلتون فریدمن ، کتابی است از استیون ای. لندزبرگ ، نویسنده و اقتصاد دان آمریکایی . او در این کتاب به صورت فشرده ، کلیات و اصول اندیشه های فریدمن ، یکی از بزرگ‌ترین و اثرگذارترین اقتصاددانان قرن بیستم قرن گذشته را بررسی کرده .
از نگاه لندزبرگ ، میلتون فریدمن، باور داشت که تورم همیشه یک پدیده‌ی پولی است و کنترل عرضه‌ی پول کلید مهار آن به شمار می‌رود. او در نظریه‌ مشهور خود، فرضیه‌ی درآمد دائمی، نشان داد که مصرف افراد بیشتر بر پایه‌ی درآمد بلندمدت و پایدارشان شکل می‌گیرد تا درآمد لحظه‌ای؛ بنابراین سیاست‌های کوتاه‌مدت دولت کمتر از آنچه تصور می‌شود بر رفتار مصرف‌کننده اثر دارد. فریدمن در نقد سیاست‌های اقتصادی دولت تأکید می‌کرد که بانک مرکزی باید نقش اصلی در ثبات اقتصادی داشته باشد و دخالت‌های بیش از حد دولت معمولاً به بی‌ثباتی می‌انجامد. او در بررسی‌های تاریخی خود، به‌ویژه درباره‌ رکود بزرگ، نشان داد که عرضه‌ی پول و مدیریت نادرست آن چگونه می‌تواند بحران‌های اقتصادی را تشدید کند.
لندزبرگ همچنین به بحث بیکاری و تورم از نگاه فریدمن پرداخته است. فریدمن با به چالش کشیدن منحنی فیلیپس توضیح می‌دهد که رابطه‌ی پایدار میان این دو وجود ندارد؛ در بلندمدت، تلاش برای کاهش بیکاری از طریق افزایش تورم بی‌نتیجه خواهد بود. او همچنین بر نظریه‌ی قیمت شیکاگو تأکید داشت؛ یعنی باور به کارایی بازار آزاد و نقش قیمت‌ها در تخصیص منابع. در کتاب مشهورش، سرمایه‌داری و آزادی، فریدمن نشان داد که آزادی اقتصادی و آزادی سیاسی به‌طور جدایی‌ناپذیر به هم پیوند خورده‌اند و بازار آزاد نه‌تنها ابزار کارآمد اقتصادی، بلکه ضامن آزادی‌های فردی و اجتماعی است.
در نهایت، فریدمن به اهمیت گفت‌وگوی آزاد و مدنی در سیاست‌گذاری معتقد بود؛ او باور داشت که جامعه‌ای سالم نیازمند نقد آزاد، مشارکت عمومی و محدودیت قدرت دولت است .
فریدمن و لیبرالیسم :

فریدمن را باید یکی از مدافعان لیبرالیسم دانست ، او اندیشه‌های خود را بر اساس لیبرالیسم بنا کرد و همواره بر پیوند ناگسستنی میان آزادی اقتصادی و آزادی سیاسی و اجتماعی تأکید داشت . فریدمن معتقد بود که بدون وجود بازار آزاد، آزادی‌های فردی نیز در معرض تهدید قرار می‌گیرند.
یکی از اصول بنیادین لیبرالیسم کلاسیک، کاهش دخالت دولت در اقتصاد و زندگی فردی است. فریدمن هم بر این باور بود که دولت باید صرفاً وظایف ضروری همچون حفظ قانون، تأمین امنیت و تضمین ثبات پولی را بر عهده داشته باشد. او ، بازار آزاد را کارآمدترین سازوکار برای تخصیص منابع و افزایش رفاه اجتماعی و آزادی اقتصادی را زیربنای سایر آزادی‌ها می دانست. از نگاه فریدمن، اگر فرد نتواند آزادانه کاریا سرمایه گذاری کند، یا انتخاب‌های اقتصادی داشته باشد، آزادی سیاسی نیز بی‌معنا خواهد شد.

فریدمن و طبقه متوسط :

فریدمن بر این باور بود که سیاست‌های اقتصادی باید به‌گونه‌ای طراحی شوند که بیشترین حمایت را از این قشر فراهم آورند. او معتقد بود تورم بیشترین آسیب را به طبقه‌ی متوسط و اقشار کم‌درآمد وارد می‌کند، زیرا قدرت خرید آنان سریع‌تر کاهش می‌یابد. از این رو، کنترل تورم و حفظ ثبات پولی را کلید اصلی افزایش رفاه این طبقه می‌دانست.
فریدمن هشدار می‌داد که دخالت بیش از حد دولت معمولاً به نفع گروه‌های خاص یا ثروتمندان نزدیک به قدرت تمام می‌شود، در حالی که بازار آزاد فرصت‌های بیشتری برای رشد و شکوفایی طبقه‌ی متوسط فراهم می‌آورد. همچنین رقابت آزاد را عاملی برای کاهش قیمت‌ها و ارتقای کیفیت کالاها می دانست ، موضوعی که به‌طور مستقیم به سود مصرف‌کنندگان طبقه‌ی متوسط تمام خواهد شد .

فریدمن و مفهوم از شر پول خلاص شدن :

لندزبرگ از جمله از شر پول خلاص شدن زیاد استفاده کرده ، چرا که فریدمن بر این نکته تأکید داشته که پول فی‌نفسه ارزش ذاتی ندارد؛ ارزش آن تنها در کارکرد و استفاده‌ آن است. بنابراین خلاص شدن از شر پول ، شاید مقصود تبدیل پول به کالا، خدمات یا سرمایه‌گذاری باشد ؛ یعنی پول باید به جریان اقتصادی واقعی وارد شود تا معنا پیدا کند.
از منظر رفتار مصرف‌کننده، این عبارت به تفاوت میان مصرف و پس‌انداز اشاره می کند. افراد معمولاً پول را برای همیشه ذخیره نمی‌کنند، بلکه دیر یا زود آن را خرج می‌کنند تا نیازها یا خواسته‌های خود را برطرف سازند.
لندزبرگ این عبارت را مدام تکرار می‌کند تا یادآوری کند که پول صرفاً ابزاری گذرا است و ارزش واقعی در آن چیزی است که با پول به دست می‌آید؛ چه کالا، خدمات یا فرصت‌های سرمایه‌گذاری.
در پایان ، اندیشه های بنیادی میلتون فریدمن را می توان کتابی مختصر و مفید در باب اندیشه های فریدمن دانست ، کتاب با زبانی ساده ، مهم‌ترین اصول فکری فریدمن را مرور کرده و نشان می‌دهد که چرا اندیشه‌های فریدمن همچنان در مباحث اقتصادی و سیاسی معاصر نقش اساسی دارند .
Profile Image for T.
238 reviews1 follower
January 29, 2023
Milton's face depicts how I felt after finishing this shoddy propaganda piece...
Profile Image for Mercedé Khodadadi.
254 reviews18 followers
October 3, 2021
I translated this book into Persian. It will be published soon.

What I like about the essential series by Fraser Institute is you don't need to have deep academic knowledge of economics. You can read the book, enjoy it, understand it and get to know the essential character the book is talking about.

Mercedé Khodadadi
24 July 2021
(2 Mordad 1400)
Profile Image for Pete.
1,122 reviews79 followers
November 7, 2021
The Essential Milton Friedman (2019) by Steven Landsburg is a short summation of Friedman’s life and work. It’s more than a wikipedia page but far less than even most books at 54 pages. Landsburg is a professor of economics at the University of Rochester. He’s a big fan of Friedman and also knew him. This book also seems to be free or very cheap most of the time. It’s part of a series by the Fraser Institute on pro-market economists.

This book is worth a read for anyone looking to get a handle on Friedman’s ideas and his contributions. Friedman’s book “Capitalism and Freedom” and “Free to Choose” are also both very readable but are longer.

There are chapters on Monetary Policy, Friedman’s emphasis on price theory and on Friedman’s work as a popular intellectual. Friedman’s contributions and ideas about drug decriminalization, the volunteer army, education vouchers, central banks targeting a low level of inflation and other topics are well covered for such a short book.

It was really interesting to see that Friedman very much emphasized thinking about economics in terms of questions about how people and firms react rather than referring to older economic theory the way that economics was taught by others at the time.

The Essential Milton Friedman is well worth a read for anyone looking for an overview of Friedman’s ideas.
Profile Image for KaytElisabet.
39 reviews
January 10, 2026
It was interesting to listen to the economic expertise of one of the most influential economist of the Korean war/Vietnam war era. However, I do not agree with some of his views especially those on capitalism. I think that a lot of them are outdated especially capitalism. However, when this was written capitalism was newer and they didn’t know how it would affect those in the future. Even though I do believe they should have known that capitalism was bad because capitalism created the stock market crash in 1929, but I digress
Profile Image for Andry Costa.
5 reviews
August 14, 2023
Livro ultra resumido das ideias de Milton Friedman, um excelente inicio para entender a sociedade moderna e as bases da economia. Bem básico mesmo.
Profile Image for Mike Cheng.
472 reviews9 followers
February 25, 2026
Like the other books in this series, what’s presented here is a very basic summary of Milton Friedman’s contributions to economic theory plus a primer on his 1962 best seller Capitalism and Freedom. Friedman may very well be the most famous economist of the 20th Century (at least for proponents of free markets). He is probably known best for his views on inflation, and the well known quote "Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon, in the sense that it is and can be produced only by a more rapid increase in the quantity of money than in output".
Friedman was also among the first to challenge certain notions that were formerly generally accepted as true, such as the so called “Keynesian multiplier” a former cornerstone of policy which, simplistically stated, posits that if you want people to spend more then the government should provide that additional money through fiat. Friedman responded to this by pointing out that people spend based on their perceptions about the permanence of such increase. Another concept that Friedman challenged, commonly known as the “Phillips curve”, which is still often assumed today, is that inflation and unemployment are so tightly correlated, such that the rise in one causes the other to fall. Friedman’s response to this is that (pardon me for butchering it) inflation isn’t actually felt until after the commensurate increase in wages first appeals to workers.
This book underscores several other points about Friedman and his work, as discussed in the aforesaid Capitalism and Freedom, his weekly columns in Newsweek, and the book / television series Free to Choose (5/5 stars) that he co-authored with his wife Rose. One such point is that economic freedom is a prerequisite for personal and political freedom. However, the former does not guarantee the latter. (For example, the United Arab Emirates is the ninth most economically free country but ranks 149 of 159 in personal freedom.) The primary reason why capitalist societies have a chance at political freedom is that in capitalist societies, economic power is dispersed. Moreover, capitalist societies are inherently hostile towards racism and religious discrimination because refusing to do business with a person based on skin color, gender, creed, etc. is inefficient, unproductive, and ultimately unprofitable.
Another point is how mandatory licensing requirements (e.g., from lawyers to barbers) presents an artificial limit on supply, thus increasing the cost to the consumer. The argument in favor of licensing requirements is that they ostensibly ensure a certain baseline for quality of the services provided. Friedman counters this by admitting that a certificate or license could have value in that it shows consumers those who have had a certain modicum of training, but that the provision of such services should not be precluded simply due to the absence of such certificate or license. In other words, let everyone be barbers and let those with certificates proudly put them on display, but ultimately let the consumer choose which barber to use. Of course, barbers don’t perform the same function as doctors, and in response to this Friedman argues that most medical tasks do not require 6 years of training; there is sliding scale of the tasks that doctors perform.
A final point that Friedman is famous for involves vouchers and school choice. The government should not have a monopoly on education, and parents should not face the difficult binary choice of a bad public school versus an expensive private one. Vouchers, which can be redeemed for a portion of tuition costs, force public and private schools alike to compete for students by way of the market.
Author 15 books80 followers
October 25, 2020
I enjoyed this summary of the work of Milton Friedman, one of my favorite economists, written by another of my favorite economists, Steven Landsburg. It walks you through an excellent, easily understandable analysis of Friedman’s academic work, which led him to be awarded a Nobel prize. Landsburg devotes a chapter to each: permanent income hypothesis, money, prices and inflation, monetary policy, unemployment, price theory, occupational licenses. His activism included writing a Newsweek column, public lectures, his Free to Choose TV series, appearances on TV, etc. His ideas had a profound impact on public policy and resonate to this day: the negative income tax (UBI), school vouchers, over extended regulation, ending the military draft, and occupational licensure, even in the medical profession Friedman’s idea that a doctor wasn’t the only one that had to provide medical services—witness the growth of physician assistants, urgent care centers, etc. If you’re new to Friedman’s work, this is an excellent overview and if you are a student of Friedman, this is an excellent reminder of the power of his ideas and theories.

Another important topic: Friedman said he knew of no example of a society that had offered substantial political freedom without also offering substantial economic freedom. Landsburg writes: “Friedman observed, and the Fraser Institute data confirm, that economic freedom is no guarantee of personal freedom. United Arab Emirates is the 9th most economically free country in the world, but ranks a bleak 149th out of 159 in personal freedom…understand why and how political freedom is always and everywhere undermined by socialism.” This made me think of present day China.
Profile Image for Nathan.
13 reviews
October 31, 2024
I find it very tough to comprehend economic concepts, and fell asleep more than once while getting through this difficult subject matter. Nonetheless, Milton Friedman is recognized as one of the greatest economists, so I pushed through. I found Friedman’s words rather presumptuous and bordering on propaganda. How can one view the whole word through one economic lens and decide everything? This must surely be incorrect. One must draw from numerous disciplines in order to implement proper monetary policy. Though I disagree with him even more than with Friedman, I found Peter Kropotkin’s work to be vastly more entertaining, albeit equally presumptuous.
Profile Image for Tomáš Kreuzinger.
13 reviews
October 19, 2020
A respectable summary which gives peculiar insights into the change in governmental policy based on the Chicago school shift in the 1970s and the subsequent deregulation era lasting roughly from 1982-2008. Bits and pieces of the review had felt way simplistic and a bit too biased against the past thinkers such as Keynes but apart from that, it is definitely a worthy read if you're trying to get into the basics of economy and economic thinking.
28 reviews
October 5, 2020
Great refresher

I bought this because I hadn’t read Prof Friedman in years and it seemed a good way to refresh my comprehension of his work. In fact, it extended my knowledge of his work.
9 reviews
February 22, 2025
Good short understanding of Friedman

Author does a strong job of explaining Friedman's position. Worth reading as a refresher on economic knowledge. Enjoyable quick read.
17 reviews1 follower
July 20, 2021
A short but insightful overview of Milton Friedmans work and intellectual legacy by one of the most prolific contemporary economics writer.
Profile Image for Adrian Hunt.
70 reviews
February 24, 2025
Straight forward introduction to the thinking of Milton Friedman, laying out the main strands of his thought in a clear and coherent manner.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews