We received the sad news this morning that economist, author, and philanthropist Rose Friedman died yesterday at the age of 97. The beloved wife of Nobel Prize– and Presidential Medal of Freedom–winning economist Milton Friedman was, in the words of President George W. Bush, the only person ever to have won an argument against her husband.
Thus passes the second half of the economic power-couple of the 20th century. Without Milton and Rose Friedman, there would have been no Ronald Reagan and no rebirth of interest in human freedom in America, however brief it may have been. Her insight into political ideology was arguably even greater than her husband’s, and I suspect she played an important role in his transformation from Neo-Keynesianism to the Keynesian heresy known as monetarism.
May they rest in peace as they lived, together.