Naomi Klein's Disaster of an Anti-Milton Friedman Case

Matt Welch | February 7, 2008

Was Milton Friedman some kind of grave-dancing disaster capitalist, as the inexplicably popular Naomi Klein has been alleging? The L.A. Times' Paul Thornton takes a look at the longer context of Klein's favorite gotcha Friedman quote, and concludes: nu-uh.

Michael Moynihan puzzled at Klein's Friedman Derangement Syndrome last September, and took on her Friedman-was-a-Pinochite accusation two months later. I called Klein a burn-the-rich economic illiterate in a recent rant, and Julian Sanchez probed the vagaries of anti-consumerist capitalism back in 2003.

Speaking of my ex-colleagues' underappreciated Opinion L.A. blog, don't miss this tale of a Rambo charticle gone horribly wrong, plus Tim Cavanaugh's apt warning to his own colleagues: "People on the wrong end of the plummeting-circulation continuum should show some humility, and maybe even gratitude, toward the customers who are still showing up."