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Murray Newton Rothbard (March 2, 1926 – January 7, 1995) was an American intellectual, individualist anarchist,[1] author, and economist of the Austrian School who helped define modern libertarianism and popularized a form of free-market anarchism he termed "anarcho-capitalism".[2][3] Building on the Austrian School's concept of spontaneous order in markets, support for a free market in money production, and condemnation of central planning,[4] Rothbard sought to minimize coercive government control of the economy and considered the monopoly force of government the greatest danger to liberty and the long-term wellbeing of the populace.[5][6][7]
Rothbard concluded that taxation represents theft on a grand scale, and "a compulsory monopoly of force" prohibiting the voluntary procurement of defense and judicial services.[5] He also considered central banking and fractional reserve banking under a fiat money system a form of institutionalized, legalized financial fraud, antithetical to libertarian principles and ethics.[8][9][10] Rothbard opposed military, political, and economic interventionism in the affairs of other nations.[11][12] Rothbard wrote over twenty books before his death in 1995.