Milton Friedman at The Commonwealth Club: A Reader, Part II

This is the continuation of a previous post.


We decided to make Milton Friedman's Commonwealth Club speeches available here for anyone interested in what this guru of the modern market economists had to say. We think that even if you disagree with his politics and theories, you will find him to be an engaging speaker, and it might help people understand how Friedman's many acolytes in free-market circles think.

The speeches are presented here as scans of the published speeches and question-and-answer sessions from The Commonwealth, the official publication of The Commonwealth Club. We apologize if some of the quality of the scans are not the greatest; we did the best we could without doing damage to the bound copies of the publication. Unfortunately, we do not have audio or video files of these speeches, or we would gladly link to them here.

Click on the images to view them in larger sizes.

July 17, 1987: "In Defense of Dumping"

July 15, 1988: "Internationalization of the U.S. Economy – Fact or Fiction"

July 21, 1989: "Communism and the Market"

June 1, 1990: "A Welfare State Syllogism"

August 7, 1992: "Parental Choices: The Effective Way to Improve Schools"

August 14, 1998: "Two Lucky People"

See the first part of this Milton Friedman reader here.

Milton Friedman at The Commonwealth Club: A Reader, Part I

When conservative political satirist P.J. O'Rourke spoke at The Commonwealth Club of California in February 2007, he was asked who he thought was the modern equivalent of Adam Smith. O'Rourke replied, "Unfortunately, he just died. Milton Friedman was the guy."

More recently, a request for information about famed economist Milton Friedman's appearances here set us off on a mission to find all of his speeches at The Club, and we found he had spoken at The Commonwealth Club 12 times between 1977 and 1998.

We decided to make them all available on this blog for anyone interested in what this guru of the modern market economists had to say. We think that, even if you disagree with his politics and theories, you will find him to be an engaging speaker, and it might help people understand how Friedman's many acolytes in free-market circles think.

The speeches are presented here as scans of the published speeches and question-and-answer sessions from The Commonwealth, the official publication of The Commonwealth Club. We apologize if some of the quality of the scans are not the greatest; we did the best we could without doing damage to the bound copies of the publication. Unfortunately, we do not have audio or video files of these speeches, or we would gladly link to them here.

Click on the images to view them in larger sizes.

November 1, 1977: "Liberal McCarthyism: A Personal Experience"

October 31, 1980: "America: It's Economy and Government"

April 15, 1983: "The Real Threat to the U.S. Security"

July 27, 1984: "The Economy: Where Are We Headed?"

June 28, 1985: "Is Hyper-Inflation Necessary?"

June 13, 1986: "What We Know That Ain't So About Economic Policy"

See the second part of this Milton Friedman reader here.

New Issue of The Commonwealth Magazine Now Out

Members of The Commonwealth Club should keep an eye on their mailboxes over the next week as the December/January issue of The Commonwealth makes its way through the mails.

The issue features U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on the cover; inside, she speaks about expanding participation in – and the resources for – American diplomacy, and she answers questions about energy, Mexico, China, Afghanistan, and much more.

Also this issue: Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice discusses growing up in segregated Birmingham, Alabama; a bipartisan panel takes on the heated topic of solving America's burgeoning national debt and deficit; Swiss Federal Chancellor Corina Casanova compares and contrasts California's and Switzerland's experiences with referenda.

Plus, an expert panel looks at the challenges of funding current and future transportation needs; commentator (and aide to four U.S. presidents) David Gergen gives a sobering view of national decline; attorney David Boies discusses his work on the legal challenge to California's Proposition 8; The Commonwealth has a chat with conservative political satirist P.J. O'Rourke; chef Rick Bayless discusses food and cooking with fellow chef Joey Altman; and Commonwealth Club President and CEO Dr. Gloria Duffy looks at solving seemingly intractable urban problems.

It's all in the new issue of The Commonwealth. Members will receive the print edition in the mail, but they will also have access to the digital version of the magazine. They will receive a link to the digital edition in the weekly e-mail newsletter for members. If you are a member but have not yet subscribed to that e-newsletter, go to our web site and sign up on the e-newsletter box on the left side of that page.

Combating Islamophobia in America

“If you are painting 1.5 billion people with the same brush of violence and extremism [as al Qaeda], you’re a bigot,” said Reza Aslan, in one of his passionate television appearances discussing the American impressions of al Qaeda, which are frequently transferred onto the Muslim community as a whole.

A popular commentator on a heated controversy in New York – he says that the issue should not be spoken of as “a proposed mosque at ground zero” but rather an “Islamic cultural center (much like the Jewish cultural centers we see across the country) a few blocks away from ground zero” – Aslan aims to expose an unknown side of the Muslim world to the American people.

His intention to reveal the diversity of the Muslim population is apparent in his commentary, including one of his recent columns on The Daily Beast titled “Why Obama Can Be Proud of Indonesia”:

At a time when most Americans believe that Islamic values and democratic ideals cannot be reconciled, Indonesia has proved otherwise. Home to nearly 15 percent of all Muslims on earth, as many Muslims as there are in the entire Arab world, Indonesia is not only the richest, most stable, and most populous county in the Muslim world. It is the Muslim world. While Muslims in the Middle East are still fighting each other over whose vision of Islam will rule them all, Muslims in Indonesia have almost effortlessly fused their Islamic identity with the requirements of a modern constitutional state.”

Aslan is a scholar of religions and a contributing editor at online news site The Daily Beast. He will be speaking Monday, November 29 at the Club office in San Francisco. The Inforum program will begin at 6:30 p.m.

Hopeful Huffington?

By Sally Schilling

Arianna Huffington will speak to a sold-out audience at the Commonwealth Club on Thursday evening (check our web site, standing room tickets may still be available) about her new book, which has an off-putting yet increasingly relevant title: Third World America: How Our Politicians Are Abandoning the Middle Class and Betraying the American Dream.


A media innovator, Huffington is the co-founder of an extremely successful political blog which bears her name and which provides links to the political news of the moment. It boasts a large collection of liberal commentary on contemporary issues from noted scholars, actors, authors and political figures. “[The Huffington Post] has grown from a hyperspace operation with a cadre of volunteer journalists to a hefty organization with 6,000 unpaid bloggers and 186 paid staffers,” according to Forbes magazine.


In a recent blog post on her $100 million media blog, Huffington wrote that since writing her new book with a doomsday title, her outlook on the future of America is surprisingly optimistic. Huffington, the queen of the inventive online news medium, wrote that she finds hope for the future in the American citizens who are pulling together by creating their own media innovations, providing online forums for struggling Americans. Huffington cited wevegottimetohelp.org, a blog started in Portland, Oregon, which lists volunteer projects happening around the country and encourages people who are unemployed to put their skills to work to help others in need.


Huffington will speak at the Club Office at 6:30 p.m.

George Weyerhauser Climate Program on KGO HD this Month

For those of you in the Bay Area who might like to catch The Commonwealth Club's program with George Weyerhauser ("Climate Countdown"), it will air on KGO HD Channel 715 on Sunday, November 28, at 10:00 p.m.