For decades, Friedman remained stranded in the intellectual wilderness, spurning the postwar Keynesian consensus that governments should use fiscal policy to manage aggregate demand – a view that sustained statist economic policies through the 1970’s. Indeed, in the context of his age, Friedman was a true intellectual revolutionary, combining rigorous academic research and gracefully written popular books and journalism to argue for free-market policies – and to affirm the link, defended by writers from Adam Smith to Friedrich von Hayek, between economic freedom and political liberty.
几十年来，弗里德曼在知识荒野中流落，拒绝接受二战后凯恩斯主义的共识，即政府应当运用财政政策来管理总需求，这一观点在整个七十年代支撑了国家干预的经济政策。确实，在其年龄背景下，弗里德曼是一位真正的知识界革命性人物。他结合了严谨的学术研究、文笔优雅的畅销书籍和新闻学笔调来呼吁自由市场政策，并且肯定经济自由以及政治自由之间的联系。从亚当∙斯密到哈耶克的大师也都为这一联系辩护。