Eugene Delgaudio - Sterling District
Constituent Resources

Loudoun County, Virginia to honor Milton Friedman

December 13, 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Contact: Eugene Delgaudio (703-421-4599, [email protected])

The Loudoun County, Virginia Board of Supervisors will on Tuesday, December 19 honor the life and works of free-market economist Milton Friedman by naming his birthday, all subsequent anniversaries, as "Milton Friedman Day" in the county.

"Loudoun County owes its success to the global economy that Friedman helped create," said Sterling District Supervisor Eugene Delgaudio, sponsor of the resolution. "Without Friedman's lifelong advocacy of greater individual freedom we would never know the quality of life we enjoy in both Loudoun County and United States."

The Resolution of Recognition names July 31, 2007 and every July 31 afterwards, as "Milton Friedman Day" in the county. An integral hub of global business, Loudoun is home to Dulles International Airport and companies such as AOL, all of whom have benefited greatly from the free trade economic policies he pioneered.

Former U.S. President Ronald Reagan and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher credited Friedman for helping create the policies that led to dramatic economic revivals in both nations. His work in then-impoverished Chile created the most stable and fastest-growing economy on the South American continent and led to the replacement of the Pinochet regime by a free democracy. Even today, Friedman's policies continue to be adopted and spur economic growth and greater freedom in nations such as Sweden.

Friedman served as an economic advisor to both Reagan and Thatcher, as well as Presidents Ford and Nixon. He was instrumental in the abolishment of the military draft and in his lifetime was awarded the John Bates Clark Medal, the National Medal of Science, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and a Nobel Prize in Economics.

In addition to his work as a scholar, Friedman authored twelve books, was a columnist for Newsweek columnist and host of the PBS program "Free To Choose."