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Milton Friedman on Money, banking, and the gold standard

It would be highly desirable if Europe could have a common money, a single unified money, just as it's desirable for the United States that we have a single unified currency. But in order for that to be possible or desirable, you have to have a unified currency over an area in which people and goods move relatively freely, and in which there is enough homogeneity of interest so that severe political strains are not raised by divergent developments in different parts of the area.
Interview with Milton Friedman
Interview, 1992, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, The Region, Interview by David Levy, June 1, 1992
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  1. Well, I have always argued that you will not solve problems by electing the right man to the White House. Certainly not by electing the wrong man. … The only way you will ever solve problems, in my opinion, and move in the direction we want to move is by making it in the political interest of the wrong people to do the right thing.
    The Open Mind
    Interview, 1977, The Open Mind, hosted by Richard Heffner, Episode “A Nobel Laureate on the American Economy” (May 3, 1977)
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  2. The contraction from 1929 to 1933 was by far the most severe business-cycle contraction during the near-century of U.S. history we cover and it may well have been the most severe in the whole of U.S. history.
    A Monetary History of the United States
    Book, 1963, "The Great Contraction, 1929-1933" (1963), with Anna J. Schwartz
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  3. On interest rates, the desirable policy is to permit interest rates to be determined completely by free markets. ( … ) A free competitive market in loanable funds is no less desirable than a free and competitive market in other goods and services.
    Statement to the House Subcommittee on Domestic Finance
    Testimony, 1968, Compendium on Monetary Policy Guidelines and Federal Reserve Structure, Subcommittee on Domestic Finance, House Committee on Banking and Currency, 90th Congress, 2nd Session (December 1968), p. 204
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