March 8, 2008

Translation at http://babelfish.altavista.com - although the translator will probably screw some of the sentences up.

Ahora, he aprendiendo muchas palabras de Español.

Mi objetivo es aprender más que 4000 palabras antes de mi viaje a España. Un objetivo difícil. Pero, ya he aprendido quizás 1500-1600 palabras. Por supuesto, estoy feliz con esto. Es solamente Marzo! Iré España en Agosto, y he comenzado aprender palabras hace un mes.

Sin embargo, aprender palabras es la parte fácil. La parte difícil es aprender gramática.

Ayer, he charlado con un hombre de Argentina (en el ordenador). A veces, no he entendido una frase aunque he entendido todos las palabras. Así que, necesito practicar con conversaciones con gentes de otra países.

Corrientemente, mi Español es demasiado correcto. Aprenderé cómo hablar con el “Castellano de la calles” en la próxima unos meses.

Para aprender vocabulario, uso www.vocabulix.com.

I’ve been reading a lot about this man called Milton Friedman recently.

And I’ve come to a startling realisation.

That, of anyone, there is not one man who has influenced the lives of ordinary Australians living in 2008 more than Milton Friedman.  (Unless you’re a Christian, then MF comes second.)

But… most people have never heard of him!

Why? Because he always made sure to advance his ideas, and not himself.

You may have noticed the debate about the control of inflation between the Labor and the Liberal parties. But, you may not have known that the ideas of Milton Friedman have been the primary influence of Australian economic policy for the past 30 years. Have you heard of this, for example : Floating the dollar? Running a surplus? Cutting income tax? Industrial deregulation? Privatisation of government businesses?  Free trade? Control of inflation through adjustment of interest rates? When Friedman started, these ideas were considered crazy. Now they’re accepted by nearly all serious economists around the world today, and are also credited with saving the lives of tens of millions of people.
Have you noticed how China’s getting rich all of a sudden? Yep. Friedman.

He died a few years ago  but his ideas still live on and will shape your life tomorrow more than anyone who has lived in the past 100 years. Think about that, and then decide whether you think it’s  worth knowing a little more about.

I’ll do a few more posts about this, and also about some other ideas of his that aren’t yet widely accepted  (because no government has yet had the political will to implement them). Hopefully you’ll soon see