Reason Magazine: But you knew Mises personally. Did you see the intolerance that you find in his method also in his personal behavior?
Milton Friedman: No question. The story I remember best happened at the initial Mont Pelerin meeting when he got up and said, “You’re all a bunch of socialists.” We were discussing the distribution of income, and whether you should have progressive income taxes. Some of the people there were expressing the view that there could be a justification for it.
Another occasion which is equally telling: Fritz Machlup was a student of Mises’s, one of his most faithful disciples. At one of the Mont Pelerin meetings, Fritz gave a talk in which I think he questioned the idea of a gold standard; he came out in favor of floating exchange rates. Mises was so mad he wouldn’t speak to him for three years. Some people had to come around and bring them together again.
Maybe we all just have a little Mises in us
Perhaps that’s why they call us “MIsesians”! aaahhh!
P.S.
The bird is the word.