Milton Friedman, dies at 94 Milton Friedman, free market economist, and Noble Price laureate, died on November 16 at the age of 94.

Whether we have heard of Milton Friedman or not, his thoughts and policies influenced by his thoughts have certainly had a major influence on the way we live our lives today. Milton Friedman was a free market economist building his career at a time when government intervention was the buzz-word and Milton Keynes was in vogue. The only intervention Mr Friedman would have allowed was the monetary kind. He believed that the government should stay out of managing the economic life of the citizens of the country, and the only thing the government should control is the money supply which could help in smoothening the impact of inflationery pressures.

His ideas were not immediately accepted in the post-Great Depression world. However, his forecast of stagflation in the 1970s and its subsequent occurence made many theorists and policy-makers sit up and take notice. Acceptance of his theories was gradual, but consistent and in the present world, his policies and ideas are almost universally followed.

While I have not read many of his books, I have been strongly influenced by one of his quotes. The following quote highlights his pre-eminence as an economist and as a social scientist:
“progress could be achieved only in an order in which government activity is limited primarily to establishing the framework with which individuals are free to pursue their own objectives.”. The quote is from his book "The Road to Serfdom" and puts his theory across more cogently than any 500 page book.  ¶ 11:00 AM 1 comments

  One glorious departure, one sad In the past few weeks we've seen two departures in sport. One has been a glorious one, a great achiever, a winner always, a fighter, a name sure to arouse passion wherever it is heard, one way or other. The other one was in a torrent of could-have-beens - a departure (albeit temporary) of a sportsman always billed to be the next great, someone destined for much greater things than the things that he actually achieved in a patchy 10 odd year career.

The first departure was of Michael Schumacher - as he retired from professional F1 racing after dominating the sport for almost half a decade. The second one was of Shoaib Akhtar, the Pakistani fast bowler banned for two years for taking a banned drug. At 31, the age when most (though not all) super fast bowlers either slow down or are put to pasture, the Rawalpindi Express' career is probably over.

The one thing both of them shared was flair and the ability to be completely unpredictable. Schumacher's brilliant race in Malaysia when he helped Eddie Irvine and the inglorious crash with Damon Hill and similarly, Shoaib's those two balls to Sachin, Dravid and his self destruction in the recent Indian tour of Pakistan exemplify the extent of that unpredictability. However, the difference was that while Schumacher's unpredictability was more often than not exciting and enthralling, Shoaib's was usually despairing and plain scary (What more is he gonna do now??).

Must admit, I've been a fan of Shoaib - him pounding down and hurling a 160 kmph thunderbolt at a mousy and scared batsman is quite a sight. And it is a sight which is rarer and rarer in cricket. He was one of the draws of the game for me. I've been an even bigger fan of Schumacher, who I believe has been born and raised to define the sport that he represents. He's got brilliant technique - but more importantly hes got a very sound temperament which puts him a cut above the rest in pressure situations. Unfortunately, that is one thing that Shoaib does not have in common with Schumacher.  ¶ 11:37 AM 0 comments