It is a short and sweet piece addressing the Pinochet regime, the Chicago boys, and Naomi Klein’s “Shock Doctrine” myth. Stephens suggests that the implementation of Friedman’s economic ideas in Chile led to better building codes and fewer fatalities than January’s 7.0 Haitian earthquake:

In “The Shock Doctrine,” Ms. Klein titles one of her sub-chapters “The Myth of the Chilean Miracle.” In her reading, the only thing Friedman and the Chicago Boys accomplished was to “hoover wealth up to the top and shock much of the middle class out of existence.” Actual Chileans of all classes—living in the aftermath of an actual shock—may take a different view of Friedman, who helped give them the wherewithal first to survive the quake, and now to build their lives anew.

An excerpt from Carden:

There is an implicit contract between an author and a reader. An author who makes strong, controversial claims must get the facts straight and tie those facts together with a clear, convincing theoretical framework. Sadly, Klein does not live up to her end of the bargain. Where her claims demand evidence she offers impressionistic associations. Where her claims need critical evaluation of theories of economic development we are treated to moralistic crusading which seem to assume that the “best” model of a virtuous, prosperous society is self-evident and that the only thing standing in the way is a group of blinkered ideologues and evil people shouting quotes from Capitalism and Freedom to one another rather than listening to those who are blessed with Truth. Where her thesis needs plausible, detailed analysis whereby Klein’s claims are established, we get the assertion that Margaret Thatcher started the Falklands War so she could crush British unions, one of what Tyler Cowen (2007) called “a series of fabricated claims.”

And what happened? Did the Republican administration summon up the spirit of Milton Friedman and cut government spending? Did it deregulate and privatise?

No.

It did what governments actually do in a crisis – it seized new powers over the economy.

Obama’s plan to do the same thing, his shiny new stimulus plan, was discussed by University of Chicago economists last month . The video is available here.  It’s a fascinating and occasionally humorous look at the real economics of the stimulus plan, and in particular our audience may be interested in Robert Lucas’s mentions of Milton Friedman at approx. 33:00 and 37:30.

“Since I was an impeccable liar and rarely got caught,” Naomi recalled, “our fights were less about actual transgressions ….

The casual reader’s eye may slip past this statement. However, to those aware of her lack of journalistic integrity, it rings a bell.  Now I understand from where her skill derives, why and how she learned to capitalize on it.  As she entered the journalistic profession, she no doubt realized that this skill would pay off enormously – as have yellow journalists before her.  It’s only too bad that few are listening to the voices attempting to set the record straight.  We encourage our readers to investigate history and economics for themselves, and read the counterpoints mentioned above, before buying Klein’s Doctrine.

(and if you need a cheatsheet, check this out (PDF))

Violent autocrats of the free-market persuasion, though there have been many, have not soiled Friedman’s name in the way that Stalin soiled Marx; somehow, the misdeeds of a Pinochet or a Suharto or a Yeltsin are attributed to these men as individuals—to their lust for power, their greed, their drinking. But Klein holds capitalism guilty of all their sins. Friedman’s followers must no longer get away with shaking their heads when their advisees start killing people, she believes. They should feel themselves dupes, fellow-travellers, accessories: they should acknowledge their willed ignorance and complicity, as her grandparents and the Communists of their generation were forced to do.

The article continues:

The left has been held accountable for the crimes committed in the name of its extreme ideologies, and I believe that’s been a very healthy process. . . . When you start issuing policy prescriptions, when you start advising heads of state, you no longer have the luxury of only being judged on how you think your ideas will affect the world. You begin having to contend with how they actually affect the world, even when that reality contradicts all of your utopian theories.”

I’m sorry, but I don’t blame Karl Marx for the millions of deaths carried out in the name of communism and national socialism–I blame Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Lenin, Khrushchev, et al. And don’t tell me that Marx didn’t intend for his Manifesto to be read by policy-makers and, hopefully, implemented into law. Why else would he have written a number of policy prescriptions for achieving communism?

Were we to traipse down that path we might blame Plato, Aristotle and Confucius for the failure of their ideas as applied in society and politics throughout human history!

Contrary to Klein, free market or laissez-faire capitalism is the only socio-economic system based on the recognition of property rights, in which the only function of government is to protect individual rights. One cannot implement a system of free market capitalism by turning their back on its primary tenet: That government is there only to protect a person from the use of force by another.

Thus, the actions of people like Pinochet, Deng, Yeltsin, et al. were in no conceivable way completed in the spirit of the principles of free market capitalism. Nor is free market capitalism a utopian theory–take a glance at my earlier riff on that claim here.

[Klein says that] because Milton Friedman advised governments about free markets and individual freedom, and because some of those governments later instituted policies that violated human rights and individual freedom, Milton Friedman is to blame for the latter, even though he spoke out eloquently for human rights his entire career, and had nothing to do with those policies.

Read the full post here.

No one has time to fact check everything they read. Therefore, we have created a flyer correcting several of Klein’s more egregious misstatements (PDF).  During Klein’s talk at the University of Chicago, she discussed the importance of living in the real world instead of an ivory tower. However, it seems that when confronted with reality Klein’s own arguments simply… dissolve.

Of course, one flyer cannot do an intellectual debate justice.  Please refer to Johan Norberg’s report (PDF), the primary reference for this flyer, for more information.

But now you can download the article as a PDF file to distribute far and wide at your next pro- or anti-Friedman event!

Defaming Friedman handout (PDF)

We were outright rejected.  We were told that it was too late to add additional speakers, although the event had only recently been announced.  It is clear that the organizers did not go out of their way to bring in opposing views to the University prior to our contact with them.  Their group did not reach out to any opposing groups on campus for suggestions.  They did not contact journalists of Klein’s stature who oppose her views.   Instead, by their own admission they only contacted several faculty members at the University of Chicago, those primarily involved with the Friedman Institute, and used these individuals’ reasonable demurrals to imply that everyone is afraid of the formidable Klein.  Although this was likely not premeditated, it illustrates their lack of interest in a real debate.

We here at FriedmanFacts.com are interested in facts, not distortions.  And even though a response was not permitted at the Klein engagement itself, we hope to present facts the here.  Please contact us if you would like to help.