One of the greatest economists the world has seen, Milton Friedman has died at the age of 94 in San Francisco yesterday. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1976, for his achievements in the fields of consumption analysis, monetary history and theory, and for his demonstration of the complexity of stabilization policy.

Friedman coined the famous phrase - ‘There is no such thing as free lunch’. During his lifetime he was an advisor to US Presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Regan. Friedman was a monetarist and always maintained that there is a close and stable link between money supply and inflation. His ideas became popular in the 80s and influenced economic policies of two of the closes Cold War allies - Ronald Regan and Margaret Thatcher.

He was a great writer as well. His outstanding works include The Methodology of Positive Economics (1953) and Essays in Positive Economics (both in 1953), Monetary Correction: A proposal for escalation clauses to reduce the cost of ending inflation (1974) and more recently Quantity Theory of Money (1998). His works - Tyranny of the Status Quo and Free To Choose (1980) were made into TV series.

Born to Jewish immigrants in New York in 1912, he was a libertarian in political views who voiced his support for the decriminalization of drugs and prostitution, and campaigned for home schooling. He also campaigned for the abolition of the military draft in the US after the Vietnam War.

The death of Milton Friedman leaves a void in the intellectual sphere that it would be very hard to fill.

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