The Early Patinkin—Friedman Correspondence

Abstract

Don Patinkin (1922-95) was a co-author of the Keynesian neoclassical synthesis, and became engaged in several important controversies. One of them involved Milton Friedman's (1956) assertion about a supposed Chicago quantity theory “oral tradition.” From 1968 until his death, Patinkin hardly seemed to miss an opportunity of denigrating what he regarded as Friedman's “invention.” This controversy was taken to the 1970 American Economic Association (AEA) meeting by Harry Johnson (1971), and divided at least two economics departments, Chicago and the University of Western Ontario, where Patinkin and Johnson were frequent visitors, and where two influential monetarists, David Laidler and Michael Parkin, had migrated from Britain (Parkin, 1986; Patinkin, 1986).