End of the Free Lunch (April 1963)

[Fred Shapiro]

On Fri, 9 Mar 2001, George Thompson wrote:

> This is a very interesting tidbit Barry has posted.  There's no doubt
> that Prof. Friedman would be more familiar with practices at stock-
> holders meetings than in low taverns at the turn of the 19th century,
> and also that he would have been interested in pointing out to
> stock-holders that the "free" lunch they were grousing about no longer
> receiving had been paid for with money that otherwise might have been
> added to their dividends.

"There's no such thing as a free lunch" seems to have been well known
among economists by the 1930s.  Its origins seem to be more academic than
corporate.

Fred


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