The Day Milton Friedman Called Me Back. Collect.

Milton Friedman receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Reagan, in 1988.

Our recent bout with inflation brings to my mind the struggle everybody had understanding inflation the last time it afflicted our country — back in the late ’70s and early ’80s. Inflation was much worse for much longer back then — mortgage rates briefly hit 20% in the early ’80s — and it was a major issue in Jimmy Carter’s 1980 re-election campaign against Ronald Reagan. It was also a time when economics…