California governor Arnold Schwarznegger has announced that January 29, 2007, has been declared “Milton Friedman Day” in the State of California.
The governor made the announcement on Monday, January 22, during his talk at a memorial service at Stanford University for the late renowned economist.
Friedman, who was awarded a Nobel Prize for Economic Sciences in 1976, died on November 16, 2006, at the age of 94.
Schwarznegger told those attending the tribute ceremony that he was inspired by Friedman and his ideas on the power of the free market while watching the television program Free to Choose in the early 1980s. Friedman and his wife, Rose Friedman, appeared in the PBS series discussing free-market economics.
Other organizations across the United States also are marking January 29, 2007, as Milton Friedman Day including the City of San Francisco, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, The Economist magazine, and the University of Chicago.
The University of Chicago will conduct a memorial in Friedman’s honor on January 29.
Also, on January 29 at 10 p.m. EST, PBS will premiere “The Power of Choice: The Life and Ideas of Milton Friedman,” a documentary on the life and ideas of Friedman. The special was produced for PBS by Free to Choose Media. The company, which is also leading a drive to mark the day as Milton Friedman Day across America, urges educational institutions to participate in a “Day of National Debate” on Friedman’s ideas.
