No Times de hoje #15

O New York Times de hoje traz não um, mas dois artigos assinalando a morte de Milton Friedman (nobel da economia 1976) ontem aos 94 anos. Ficam as frases que marcam não só Friedman como a Escola de Chicago que ajudou a fundar.
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"'Most economics departments are like country clubs,' said James J. Heckman, a Chicago faculty member and Nobel laureate. “But at Chicago you are only as good as your last paper.'"

"Someone walked into our lunchroom yesterday at the University of Chicago and announced that Milton Friedman had died. Mr. Friedman spent his intellectual life here, so I started asking people here about him and what they remembered. It became clear that despite retiring almost 30 years ago (and despite being only 5-foot-3), he still casts a long shadow."

"Mr. Friedman loved to argue. They say he was the greatest debater in all of economics. As improbable as it sounds, given Mr. Friedman’s small frame and thick glasses, few who saw him would deny that he had an astounding amount of charisma. It probably explains why he was so successful on television. While being an academic powerhouse, he really could explain things clearly."

"Chicago remains a place with an intensity without precedent in the world of economics, where we seem to eat, drink and breathe economics*, and Mr. Friedman’s personality has much to do with that. He always wanted to engage in a debate on something (or, according to his detractors, to make a pronouncement about something)."

"Mr. Friedman’s legacy might mean laissez-faire politics to the outside world, but to economists — and especially Chicago economists — it is more about trying to understand how the world works and engaging in a debate about it."

"When we heard the news at the University of Chicago that he had died, we actually stopped arguing and were quiet for a moment. It was a most extraordinary event for Chicago economists. Each of us seemed to contemplate Mr. Friedman’s legacy for ourselves. After that bit of calm, the argument resumed. It was, perhaps, just what the old man would have wanted."
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* Once I heard from a visiting professor in Chicago (PhD from Chicago as well) that he would miss Chicago when his visiting professor term would come to an end... "elsewhere, people talk about the weather at luch!"