President George W. Bush on Thursday, May 9 at the White House honored Hoover Institution senior research fellow Milton Friedman for achievements over his lifetime. Friedman celebrates his 90th birthday on July 31.
Bush said: "Milton Friedman has shown us that when government attempts to substitute its own judgments for the judgments of free people, the results are usually disastrous. In contrast to the free market's invisible hand, which improves the lives of people, the government's invisible foot tramples on people's hopes and destroys their dreams."
He also commented, "Milton Friedman has done more than defend freedom as an abstract ideal. He has creatively applied the power of freedom the to the problems of our own country, and in the process, he has become an influential social reformer."
Also attending the ceremony were Friedman's wife, Rose, and Hoover senior fellow Gary S. Becker, Hoover research fellow Guity Nashat, and Distinguished Visiting Fellow Edwin Meese III.
Friedman was awarded the 1976 Nobel Memorial Prize for economic science. He has been a Hoover senior research fellow since 1977. In 1988, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and he received the National Medal of Science the same year.
Among his many well-known books are Two Lucky People (University of Chicago Press, 1998), Free to Choose (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1980), Capitalism and Freedom (University of Chicago Press, 1962), all written with Rose Friedman.
For the official news story, the President's remarks, and audio of the President's comments, see the White House website at www.whitehouse.gov.
The Hoover Institution, founded at Stanford University in 1919 by Herbert Hoover, who went on to become the 31st president of the United States, is an interdisciplinary research center for advanced study on domestic public policy and international affairs.
