Milton Friedman in 'Syriana'?

Question

Can someone please explain to me what Friedman's theory was that they referenced in 'Syriana', and if the reference they used in the movie was accurate in regards to what Friedman actually said?

Thanks,

-MIke


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Danny Dalton: Some trust fund prosecutor, got off-message at Yale, thinks he's gonna run this up the flagpole, make a name for himself, maybe get elected some two-bit, congressman from nowhere, with the result that Russia or China can suddenly start having, at our expense, all the advantages we enjoy here. No, I tell you. No, sir. Corruption charges! Corruption? Corruption is government intrusion into market efficiencies in the form of regulations. That's Milton Friedman. He got a goddamn Nobel Prize. We have laws against it precisely so we can get away with it. Corruption is our protection. Corruption keeps us safe and warm. Corruption is why you and I are prancing around in here instead of fighting over scraps of meat out in the streets. Corruption is why we win.
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Answer 1

This rant has absolutely nothing to do with what Milton Friedman got his Nobel for. Milton Friedman got the Nobel Prize largely for the realization that people make spending and saving decisions differently depending on whether they expect their income to continue. People save a greater share of the income they consider transitory compared to income they consider permanent.

Answer 2

I can't find a reference for that specific quote, but the quote wouldn't be antithetical to Friedman's ideas. I would add though, that it isn't really a theory of Friedman's and it certainly wasn't anything he won the Nobel Prize for. His Nobel Prize was for the history of the money supply, work on the consumption function, and his critique of the inflation equation called the Phillips curve. If he did say it, it was more rhetoric than anything else and the ideas would hardly be original.