Socialism sucks, is more irreverent than most Public Policy books we usually organize events around here at cato but i can assure you the authors we are featuring today are serious accomplished economists with decades of scholarly work. Inevitably, they have drinksn their hand, probably because we chat at receptions, hotel bars and the like. But the conversation is always interesting, informative, and fun. Thats also true of this new book. This is a light book about a heavy topic. So its fortunate, fortuitous rather, that we are featuring today on the birthday of the late milton friedman, one of the greatest economist of the 20th century and the champion of economic and overall human freedom. We were lucky to have known him, or some of us to have worked with him to a limited degree. Im sure he, too, would agree with the title of the book, though i i cant really recallm ever putting his opposition to socialism in quite those terms. Today, socialism has gained an appeal among some americ