Economics, trade, monetary theory, production, business cycles, government intervention, credit/debit and much more were paved with a solid foundation involving these four economists. Everyone had their own opinions about each other, which only led to new discoveries about our economies as a whole. Ideas have also made great contributions to nations. Karl Marx was in some ways the founder of modern communism; by merging politics and economics, it gave way to new ideas involving the working class as owners of part of what they create. John Maynard Keynes emphasized the idea that the government should intervene in fiscal and monetary policy to avoid economic downturns and recessions. Friedrich Hayek was a supporter of classical liberalism and free market capitalism; it essentially meant limited government and individual freedoms. Milton Friedman believed in the macroeconomic policy known today as monetarism, which included many government limitations and an emphasis on free market economics. These four economists shaped the society we live in today. Without their contributions to the economy, there would be so much left to discover and learn. The world today would not be the same economically if they had not contributed to science. Although before these four came Adam Smith; better known as the father of economics. Adam Smith had a fundamental belief that people would act in their own self-interest and produce the goods and services required by society as a whole (www.thewallstreetpsychologist.com). He often used what is now called "the invisible hand theory." This theory is essentially a natural phenomenon that guides free markets and capitalism through competition for scarce resources (www.investo...... middle of paper ...... to actually work for change. C This is where you see the inflation rate rising significantly on the Phillips curve as unemployment approaches this threshold. He also predicted that the Phillips curve was not stable and would eventually cause stagflation. (an increase in inflation and unemployment at the same time). Friedman didn't like the idea of. He entered the Federal Reserve System, but worked around the fact that it wasn't going away any time soon. He incorporated it into his theories by stating that the only good policy would be to steadily increase the money supply. The greatest alternative macroeconomic policy that Friedman is known for is called "monetarism". promoted an alternative macroeconomic policy known as "monetarism". Works Cited • http://www.thewallstreetpsychologist.com • http://www.econlib.org • http://www.wikipedia.org • http://www.fee.org