Milton Friedman: The Last Conservative

Featured Events | Apr 04, 2024 | Gabelli School of Business

Jennifer Burns, Ph.D., was the guest speaker during the March 26, 2024 Financial Issues Forum, a virtual event hosted by Fordham University’s Gabelli School of Business Center for Global Security Analysis, the Museum of American Finance, and the CFA Society New York. Her talk was based upon her recently released book, “Milton Friedman: The Last Conservative.” Friedman, alongside John Maynard Keynes, was the most influential economist of the 20th century. Through this fascinating discussion, Burns shared highlights from his extraordinary life, providing the audience with examples of his groundbreaking work, his early influences and how he became instrumental in creating a new economic vision and a modern American conservatism. Over the course of the hour-long presentation and Q&A session, she elucidated details of his career including his long-standing collaborations with women, such as economist Anna Schwartz; his complex relationship with powerful figures such as Federal Reserve Chairman Arthur Burns and Treasury Secretary George Shultz; and his direct interventions in policymaking at the highest levels. With her book and thought-provoking lecture, Burns brought a legend to life, and revealed why the last decades of the 20th century have been appropriately called “the Age of Friedman.”