“All economists—monetarists, Keynesians, or what-not—recognize that there is such a thing as market failure. I believe that what distinguishes economists is not whether they recognize market failure, but how much importance they attach to government failure, especially when government seeks to remedy what are said to be market failures. That difference in turn is related to the time perspective that economists bring to various issues. Speaking for myself, I do not believe that I have more faith in the equilibrating tendencies of market forces than most Keynesians, but I have far less faith than most economists, whether Keynesians or monetarists, in the ability of government to offset market failure without making matters worse.”
(Milton Friedman, in Brian Snowdon and Howard R. Vane, Modern Macroeconomics: Its Origins, Development and Current State (Cheltenham, UK, and Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar, 2005), p. 212.)
Milton Friedman, winner of the 1976 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. Interviewed in Brian Snowdon and Howard R. Vane, Modern Macroeconomics: Its Origins, Development and Current State (Cheltenham, UK, and Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar, 2005), p. 212.