There's a great warmth, actually, beyond the obvious rather steely rivalry. I mean, there's no doubt this was fist fighting. This was every bit as much as gains hik fought each other. And then they became close friends. Of course, these guys were close friends, but they always maintained ner civil relationships with each other that there was never any outright slanging. They both shared ap ladystewatsare usually prominent, iend, you know, ot talking about as numbers, numbers one and two. But in their lifetime, they would both admit that each other was the most important rival outside of their world, t least living rival.
Journalist and author Nicholas Wapshott talks about his book Samuelson Friedman with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Milton Friedman and Paul Samuelson were two of the most influential economists of the last century. They competed for professional acclaim and had very different policy visions. The conversation includes their differences over the work of Keynes, their rivalry in their columns at Newsweek, and a discussion of their intellectual and policy legacies.