Friend of Investors and Savers
Instead of trying to boost the economy by trying to fool consumers, Friedman believed the same ends could be met by minimizing government involvement. This would be achieved by lessening taxes in the long term and ceasing inflationary policies.
Inflation, Friedman pointed out, was just another attempt to fool consumers into thinking they were earning more, when the corresponding rise in the cost of living was actually canceling out any gains in wages. Friedman and the other economists at the Chicago school led attack after attack on concepts like the Keynesian
multiplier and the damage of saving.
Friedman took issue with the Keynesian multiplier because it gave any form of government spending - even debt spending - a superior rating over private investment. Friedman pointed out that the more the government borrows to spend, the more pressure there is to inflate the currency to meet the payments in the future. Furthermore, government spending crowds out private investors who will sit on their
capital when the government is paying for everything. Friedman argued that, at best, the multiplier was unjustified and the implications of government
deficit spending needed to be looked at in a broader sense to measure the true impact.