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'''Murray Newton Rothbard''' (March 2, 1926 – January 7, 1995) was an American [[individualist anarchist]],<ref>F. Eugene Heathe. [http://books.google.com/books?id=5m9yq0Eu-vsC Encyclopedia of Business Ethics and Society]. SAGE. 2007. [http://books.google.com/books?id=5m9yq0Eu-vsC&pg=PA89&dq=Encyclopedia+of+Business+Ethics+and+Society+Rothbard&ei=W0UdSty9EoSSzQT86LjrAw#PPA89,M1 p. 89]</ref> [[author]], and [[economics|economist]] of the [[Austrian School]] who helped define modern [[libertarianism]] and popularized a form of [[free-market anarchism]] he termed "[[anarcho-capitalism]]".<ref>{{cite book |editor=[[David Miller (political theorist)|Miller, David]] |title=Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Political Thought |year=1991 |publisher=[[Blackwell Publishing]] |isbn=0-631-17944-5}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wendymcelroy.com/rockwell/mcelroy000706.html|title=Murray N. Rothbard: Mr. Libertarian |author=[[Wendy McElroy]] |publisher=[[Lew Rockwell]]. July 6, 2000.}}</ref> Rothbard wrote over twenty books and is considered a centrally important figure in the American libertarian movement.<ref>Ronald Hamowy, Editor, ''The encyclopedia of libertarianism,'' [http://books.google.com/books?id=yxNgXs3TkJYC&pg=PT479&dq=anarcho-capitalism+libertarian&hl=en&ei=guxiTNrmIMP7lweDmPC1Dw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CCwQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&f=false p 441].</ref>
#REDIRECT [[Murray N. Rothbard]]
 
Building on the Austrian School's concept of [[spontaneous order]], support for a [[free market]] in [[money creation|money production]] and condemnation of [[central planning]],<ref>[http://www.mises.org/store/Free-Market-Monetary-System-A-P553.aspx?AFID=14 ''Free Market Money System''] by F.A. Hayek</ref> Rothbard advocated abolition of [[coercion|coercive]] government control of the economy. He considered the [[monopoly]] force of government the greatest danger to liberty and the long-term well-being of the populace, labeling [[State (polity)|the State]] as nothing but a "gang of thieves writ large"&mdash;the locus of the most immoral, grasping and unscrupulous individuals in any society.<ref>[http://mises.org/rothbard/ethics/twentytwo.asp The Ethics of Liberty], Murray Rothbard</ref><ref name="Hans-Hermann Hoppe">{{cite web|url=http://mises.org/rothbard/ethics/hoppeintro.asp|title=The Ethics of Liberty|author=[[Hans-Hermann Hoppe]]|publisher=[[Ludwig von Mises Institute]]}}</ref><ref>[http://mises.org/article.aspx?Id=1423 Repudiating the National Debt], Murray Rothbard</ref><ref>[http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard200.html To Save Our Economy From Destruction], Murray Rothbard</ref>
 
Rothbard concluded that all services provided by [[monopoly]] [[government]]s could be provided more efficiently by the private sector. He viewed many regulations and laws ostensibly promulgated for the "public interest" as self-interested power grabs by scheming government bureaucrats engaging in dangerously unfettered self-aggrandizement, as they were not subject to [[price mechanism|market disciplines]].  Rothbard held that there were inefficiencies involved with government services and asserted that [[price mechanism|market disciplines]] would eliminate them, if the services could be provided by competition in the private sector.<ref>[http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard40.html The Great Society: A Libertarian Critique], Murray Rothbard</ref><ref>[http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard53.html The Noble Task of Revisionism], Murray Rothbard</ref><ref>[http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard37.html The Fallacy of the 'Public Sector'], Murray Rothbard</ref> 
 
Rothbard was equally condemning of state corporatism. He criticized many instances where business elites co-opted government's monopoly power so as to influence laws and regulatory policy in a manner benefiting them at the expense of their competitive rivals.<ref>''For a New Liberty'', Chapter 3</ref>
 
He argued that [[taxation]] represents coercive theft on a grand scale, and "a compulsory [[monopoly]] of force" prohibiting the more efficient voluntary procurement of defense and judicial services from competing suppliers.<ref name="Hans-Hermann Hoppe"/><ref>[http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard24.html Tax Day], Murray Rothbard</ref> He also considered [[central bank]]ing and [[fractional reserve banking]] under a monopoly [[fiat money]] system a form of state-sponsored, legalized financial [[embezzlement|fraud]], antithetical to [[Libertarianism|libertarian]] principles and ethics.<ref>Rothbard, Murray. [http://www.mises.org/Books/mysteryofbanking.pdf ''The Mystery of Banking''] Ludwig von Mises Institute. 2008. p. 111</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-2737288_ITM |title=Has fractional-reserve banking really passed the market test? (Controversy). |date=January 2003 |format= |work= Independent Review|accessdate=}}</ref><ref>[http://www.fff.org/freedom/0999c.asp The Case for the 100% Gold Dollar], Murray Rothbard</ref><ref>See also Murray Rothbard articles: [http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard191.html Private Coinage]; [http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard190.html Repudiate the National Debt]; and [http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard181.html Taking Money Back]</ref> Rothbard opposed military, political, and [[economic interventionism]] in the affairs of other nations.<ref name="Rothbard on War">[http://www.antiwar.com/orig/rothbard_on_war.html Rothbard on War], excerpts from a 1973 [[Reason (magazine)|Reason Magazine]] article and other materials, published at [[Antiwar.com]], undated.</ref><ref name="For a New Liberty">Murray N. Rothbard ''[http://mises.org/rothbard/newlibertywhole.asp#p263 For a New Liberty]'', p. 265.</ref>
 
==Life and work==
Rothbard was born to David and Rae Rothbard, who raised their [[Jewish]] family in the [[Bronx]]. His father worked as a chemist and immigrated to the US from Poland, while his mother came from Russia.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://mises.org/etexts/hhhonmnr.asp |title=Murray N. Rothbard: Economics, Science, and Liberty |first=Hans-Hermann |last=Hoppe |year=1999 |publisher=The Ludwig von Mises Institute}} Reprinted from ''15 Great Austrian Economists'', edited by Randall G. Holcombe.</ref> "I grew up in a Communist culture," he recalled.<ref>[http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard45.html Life in the Old Right by Murray N. Rothbard], [[LewRockwell.com]], first published in [[Chronicles (magazine)|Chronicles]], August 1994.</ref> He attended [[Columbia University]], where he was awarded a [[Bachelor of Arts]] degree in mathematics and economics in 1945 and a [[Master of Arts (postgraduate)|Master of Arts]] degree in 1946. He earned a [[Doctor of Philosophy]] degree in economics in 1956 at Columbia under Joseph Dorfman.<ref name="Gordon">David Gordon, [http://mises.org/about/3249 Murray N. Rothbard (1926-1995) biography], [[Ludwig Von Mises Institute]].</ref><ref>Gary North, [http://www.lewrockwell.com/north/north252.html Ron Paul on Greenspan’s Fed], [[Lew Rockwell.com]], February 28, 2004.</ref>
 
During the early 1950s, he studied under the [[Austrian School|Austrian economist]] [[Ludwig von Mises]] at his seminars at [[New York University]] and was greatly influenced by Mises' book ''[[Human Action]]''. In the 1950s and 1960s he worked for the [[classical liberalism|liberal]] [[William Volker Fund]] on a book project that resulted in ''[[Man, Economy, and State]]'', published in 1962. From 1963 to 1985, he taught at [[Polytechnic Institute of New York University]] in [[Brooklyn]], [[New York]].  From 1986 until his death he was a distinguished professor at the [[University of Nevada, Las Vegas]]. Rothbard founded the [[Center for Libertarian Studies]] in 1976 and the ''[[Journal of Libertarian Studies]]'' in 1977. He was associated with the 1982 creation of the [[Ludwig von Mises Institute]] and later was its academic vice president. In 1987 he started the scholarly ''Review of Austrian Economics'', now called the ''[[Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics]]''.<ref name="Gordon"/>
 
In 1953 in [[New York City]] he married JoAnn Schumacher, whom he called the "indispensable framework" for his life and work.<ref name="Gordon"/> He died in 1995 in [[Manhattan]] of a [[Myocardial infarction|heart attack]]. The ''[[The New York Times|New York Times]]'' obituary called Rothbard "an economist and social philosopher who fiercely defended individual freedom against government intervention."<ref>[[David Stout]], [http://www.nytimes.com/1995/01/11/obituaries/murray-n-rothbard-economist-and-free-market-exponent-68.html Obituary: Murray N. Rothbard, Economist And Free-Market Exponent, 68], ''[[The New York Times]]'', January 11, 1995.</ref>
 
== Austrian School writings ==
The [[Austrian School]] attempts to discover axioms of human action (called "[[praxeology]]" in the Austrian tradition). It supports [[free market economics]] and criticizes [[command economy|command economies]].  Influential advocates were [[Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk]], [[Friedrich Hayek]], and [[Ludwig von Mises]]. Rothbard argued that the entire Austrian economic theory is the working out of the logical implications of the fact that humans engage in purposeful action.<ref>Grimm, Curtis M.; Hunn, Lee; Smith, Ken G. Strategy as Action: Competitive Dynamics and Competitive Advantage. New York Oxford University Press (US). 2006. p. 43</ref> In working out these axioms he came to the position that a monopoly price could not exist on the free market. He also anticipated much of the “[[rational expectations]]” viewpoint in economics.
 
In accordance with his free market views Rothbard argued that individual protection and national defense also should be offered on the market, rather than supplied by government’s coercive monopoly.<ref name="Gordon"/> Rothbard was an ardent critic of [[Keynesian]] economic thought<ref>See Robthbard's essay [http://www.mises.org/etexts/keynestheman.pdf Keynes the Man], originally published in ''Dissent on Keynes: A Critical Appraisal of Keynesian Economics'', Edited by Mark Skousen. New York: Praeger, 1992, 171–198; Online edition at The [[Ludwig von Mises Institute]].</ref> as well as the [[utilitarian]] theory of [[philosopher]] [[Jeremy Bentham]].<ref>See Rothbard's essay, "Jeremy Bentham: The Utilitarian as Big Brother" published in his work, ''Classical Economics''.</ref>
 
In ''Man, Economy, and State'' Rothbard divides the various kinds of state intervention in three categories: "autistic intervention", which is interference with private non-exchange activities; "binary intervention", which is forced exchange between individuals and the state; and "triangular intervention", which is state-mandated exchange between individuals. According to [[Sanford Ikeda]], Rothbard's typology "eliminates the gaps and inconsistencies that appear in Mises's original formulation."<ref>Ikeda, Sanford, ''Dyamics of the Mixed Economy: Toward a Theory of Interventionism'', Routledge UK, 1997, 245.</ref><ref>Murray Rothbard, [http://mises.org/rothbard/mes/chap14.asp Chapter 2 "Fundamentals of Intervention"] from ''Man, Economy and State'', [[Ludwig von Mises Institute]].</ref>
 
Rothbard also was knowledgeable in history and political philosophy. Rothbard's books, such as ''Man, Economy, and State'', ''[[Power and Market]]'', ''[[The Ethics of Liberty]]'', and ''[[For a New Liberty]]'', are considered by some to be classics of [[natural law]] and [[libertarian]] thought, combining [[libertarian]] [[natural rights]] philosophy, anti-government [[anarchism]] and a [[free market]] perspective in analyzing a range of contemporary social and economic issues. He also possessed extensive knowledge of the history of economic thought, studying the pre-[[Adam Smith]] free market economic schools, such as the [[Scholastics]] and the [[Physiocrats]] and discussed them in his unfinished, multi-volume work, ''[[An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought]]''.
Rothbard writes in ''[[Power and Market]]'' that the role of the economist in a free market is limited, but the role and power of the economist in a government which continually intervenes in the market expands, as the interventions trigger problems which require further diagnosis and the need for further policy recommendations. Rothbard argues that this simple self-interest prejudices the views of many economists in favor of increased government intervention.<ref>Peter G. Klein, [http://www.mises.org/story/2318 Why Intellectuals Still Support Socialism], [[Ludwig von Mises Institute]], November 15, 2006</ref><ref>[http://www.mises.org/rothbard/mes/chap19.asp Man, Economy, and State, Chapter 7-Conclusion: Economics and Public Policy], [[Ludwig Von Mises Institute]].</ref>
 
Rothbard also created "Rothbard's law" that "people tend to specialize in what they are worst at. [[Henry George]], for example, is great on everything but land, so therefore he writes about land 90% of the time. [[Milton Friedman|Friedman]] is great except on money, so he concentrates on money."<ref>[http://mises.org/journals/aen/aen11_2_1.asp Interview with Murray N. Rothbard], [[Ludwig von Mises Institute]], Summer 1990.</ref>
 
== Political views ==
Rothbard "combined the ''[[laissez-faire]]'' economics of his teacher [[Ludwig von Mises]] with the absolutist views of human rights and rejection of the state he had absorbed from studying the individualist American anarchists of the nineteenth century such as [[Lysander Spooner]] and [[Benjamin Tucker]]."<ref>''Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Political Thought'', 1987, ISBN 0-631-17944-5, p. 290</ref> He connected these to more modern views, writing: "There is, in the body of thought known as '[[Austrian economics]]', a scientific explanation of the workings of the free market (and of the consequences of government intervention in that market) which individualist anarchists could easily incorporate into their political and social Weltanschauung."<ref name="Spooner-Tucker Doctrine">[http://www.mises.org/journals/jls/20_1/20_1_2.pdf "The Spooner-Tucker Doctrine: An Economist's View"]</ref>
 
Rothbard opposed what he considered the overspecialization of the academy and sought to fuse the disciplines of economics, history, ethics, and political science to create a "science of liberty." Rothbard described the moral basis for his anarcho-capitalist position in two of his books: ''[[For a New Liberty]]'', published in 1972, and ''[[The Ethics of Liberty]]'', published in 1982. In his ''[[Power and Market]]'' (1970), Rothbard describes how a stateless economy might function.<ref>Hans-Hermann Hoppe, [http://www.lewrockwell.com/hoppe/hoppe5.html Anarcho-Capitalism: An Annotated Bibliography], [[LewRockwell.com]].</ref>
 
===Self-ownership===
In ''The Ethics of Liberty'', Rothbard asserts the right of total [[self-ownership]], as the only principle compatible with a moral code that applies to every person&mdash;a "universal ethic"&mdash;and that it is a [[natural law]] by being what is naturally best for man.<ref>Rothbard, Murray Newton. The Ethics of Liberty. NYU Press. 2003. pp. 45 - 45</ref> He believed that, as a result, individuals owned the fruits of their labor. Accordingly, each person had the right to exchange his property with others. He believed that if an individual mixes his labor with unowned land then he is the proper owner, and from that point on it is private property that may only exchange hands by trade or gift. He also argued that such land would tend not to remain unused unless it makes economic sense to not put it to use.<ref>Kyriazi, Harold. Reckoning With Rothbard (2004). ''American Journal of Economics and Sociology'' 63 (2), 451</ref>
 
===Egalitarianism===
The title essay of Murray Rothbard’s 1974 book ''[[Egalitarianism as a Revolt Against Nature and Other Essays]]'' held that “Equality is not in the natural order of things, and the crusade to make everyone equal in every respect (except before the law) is certain to have disastrous consequences.” In it Rothbard wrote, “At the heart of the egalitarian left is the pathological belief that there is no structure of reality; that all the world is a [[tabula rasa]] that can be changed at any moment in any desired direction by the mere exercise of human will.”<ref>George C. Leef, [http://www.thefreemanonline.org/departments/book-review-egalitarianism-as-a-revolt-against-nature-and-other-essays-by-murray-rothbard-edited-by-david-gordon/#  Book Review of Egalitarianism as a Revolt Against Nature and Other Essays by Murray Rothbard, edited by David Gordon (2000 edition)], [[The Freeman]], July 2001.</ref><ref>Murray Rothbard, [http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard31.html Egalitarianism as a Revolt Against Nature and Other Essays], essay published in full at [[Lewrockwell.com]], 2003. See also Rothbard’s essay [http://mises.org/daily/3007 The Struggle Over Egalitarianism Continues], the 1991 introduction to republication of "Freedom, Inequality, Primitivism, and the Division of Labor", [[Ludwig Von Mises Institute]], 2008.</ref> Rothbard also expressed his views that statists suppressed academic research on race in order to support their goal of using the state to enforce egalitarian goals.<ref>Murary Rothbard, [http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/ir/Ch75.html Race! That Murray Book], [[LewRockwell.com]], December 1994.</ref>
 
In a 1963 article called the “Negro revolution” Rothbard wrote that “the Negro Revolution has some elements that a libertarian must favor, others that he must oppose. Thus, the libertarian opposes compulsory segregation and police brutality, but also opposes compulsory integration and such absurdities as ethnic quota systems in jobs.”<ref>Murray N. Rothbard, [http://oll.libertyfund.org/?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=2136&chapter=195367&layout=html&Itemid=27 The Negro Revolution], New Individualist Review, Volume 3, Number 1, Summer 1963.</ref> According to Rothbard biographer [[Justin Raimondo]], Rothbard considered [[Malcolm X]] to be a “great black leader” and [[Martin Luther King]] to be favored by whites because he “was the major restraining force on the developing Negro revolution.” Rothbard also compared [[Lyndon Baines Johnson|U.S. President Lyndon Baines Johnson]]’s use of troops to crush urban rioters in 1968 after King’s assassination to Johnson’s use of American troops against the [[Vietnam War|Vietnamese]].<ref>[[Justin Raimondo]], ''An Enemy of the State'', p. 167-168, Prometheus Books, 2000.</ref>
 
===Children and rights===
In the ''Ethics of Liberty'' Rothbard explores in terms of self-ownership and contract several contentious issues regarding children's rights. These include women's right to abortion, proscriptions on parents aggressing against children once they are born, and the issue of the state forcing parents to care for children, including those with severe health problems. He also holds children have the right to "run away" from parents and seek new guardians as soon as they are able to choose to do so. He suggested parents have the right to put a child out for adoption or even sell the rights to the child in a voluntary contract, which he feels is more humane than artificial governmental restriction of the number of children available to willing and often superior parents. He also discusses how the current juvenile justice system punishes children for making "adult" choices, removes children unnecessarily and against their will from parents, often putting them in uncaring and even brutal foster care or juvenile facilities.<ref>''[http://mises.org/rothbard/ethics/fourteen.asp The Ethics of Liberty]'', Chapter 14 "Children and Rights."</ref><ref>See also Ronald Hamowy, [http://books.google.com/books?id=yxNgXs3TkJYC The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism], [[Cato Institute]], SAGE, 2008, 59-61
ISBN 1-4129-6580-2, 9781412965804</ref>
 
===Anarcho-capitalism===
Rothbard began to consider himself a private property anarchist in the 1950s and later began to use "[[anarcho-capitalism|anarcho-capitalist]]".<ref name="Crocetta">Roberta Modugno Crocetta, [http://mises.org/journals/scholar/roberta.pdf Murray Rothbard's anarcho-capitalism in the contemporary debate. A critical defense], [[Ludwig Von Mises Institute]].</ref><ref>Michael Oliver, [http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard103.html 'Exclusive Interview With Murray Rothbard], originally published in "The New Banner: A Fortnightly Libertarian Journal", February 25, 1972.</ref> He wrote: "Capitalism is the fullest expression of anarchism, and anarchism is the fullest expression of capitalism."<ref>[http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard103.html "Exclusive Interview With Murray Rothbard"] ''The New Banner: A Fortnightly Libertarian Journal'' (February 25, 1972)</ref> In his anarcho-capitalist model, a system of protection agencies compete in a free market and are voluntarily supported by consumers who choose to use their protective and judicial services. Anarcho-capitalism would mean the end of the state [[monopoly on force]].<ref name="Crocetta"/>
 
Rothbard was equally condemning of relationships he perceived between big business and big government. He cited many instances where business elites co-opted government's monopoly power so as to influence laws and regulatory policy in a manner benefiting them at the expense of their competitive rivals. He wrote in criticism of Ayn Rand's "misty devotion to the Big Businessman" that she: "is too committed emotionally to worship of the Big Businessman-as-Hero to concede that it is precisely Big Business that is largely responsible for the twentieth-century march into aggressive statism..."<ref>''For A New Liberty'' (1973), p. 17</ref> According to Rothbard, one example of such cronyism included grants of monopolistic privilege the railroads derived from sponsoring so-called conservation laws.<ref>''For A New Liberty'' (1973), Power and Market ch. 3</ref>
 
===Free market money===
:''See also [[Free banking]] and [[Gold standard]]''
Rothbard believed the [[monopoly power]] of government over the issuance and distribution of [[money]] was inherently destructive and unethical.  The belief derived from [[Ludwig von Mises]] and [[Friedrich Hayek]]'s [[Austrian Business Cycle Theory|Austrian theory]] of the [[business cycle]], which holds that undue [[credit expansion]] inevitably leads to a gross misallocation of capital resources, triggering unsustainable [[credit bubble]]s and, eventually, [[economic depression]]s.  He therefore strongly opposed [[central banking]] and [[fractional reserve banking]] under a [[fiat money]] system, labeling it as "legalized counterfeiting"<ref>[http://www.fff.org/freedom/0999c.asp The Case for a 100% Gold Dollar], Murray Rothbard</ref> or a form of institutionalized [[embezzlement]] and therefore inherently [[fraud]]ulent.<ref>"It should be clear that modern [[fractional reserve banking]] is a [[shell game]], a [[Ponzi scheme]], a [[fraud]] in which fake warehouse receipts are issued and circulate as equivalent to the cash supposedly represented by the receipt." Rothbard, Murray. [http://www.mises.org/Books/mysteryofbanking.pdf ''The Mystery of Banking''], pp. 96-97, 89-94</ref><ref name="What is Money">[http://www.lewrockwell.com/north/north769.html What is Money?], [[Gary North]]</ref>  He characterized the government-enforced prohibition on citizens using [[gold as money|commodity currencies]] as legal tender a compulsory [[Ponzi scheme]], a [[Ponzi scheme]] from which no citizen could escape.<ref name="What is Money"/><ref>Rothbard, Murray. [http://www.mises.org/Books/mysteryofbanking.pdf ''The Mystery of Banking''], pp. 96-97, 89-94</ref>
 
He strongly advocated [[full reserve banking]] ("100 percent banking")<ref>[http://mises.org/story/3480 The Case Against the Fed], Murray Rothbard: 'A [[gold standard|gold-coin standard]], coupled with instant liquidation for any bank that fails to meet its contractual obligations, would bring about a [[free banking]] system so “[[hard currency|hard]]” and sound, that any problem of [[monetary inflation|inflationary]] credit or [[counterfeit money|counterfeiting]] would be minimal. It is perhaps a “second-best” solution to the ideal of treating [[fractional-reserve banking|fractional-reserve bankers]] as [[embezzlement|embezzlers]], but it would suffice at least as an excellent solution for the time being, that is, until people are ready to press on to [[full reserve banking|full 100 percent banking]].'</ref> and a voluntary, nongovernmental [[gold standard]]<ref name="Gordon"/><ref>See also these Rothbard articles: [http://www.mises.org/money.asp What Has Government Done to Our Money?], [http://www.mises.org/story/1829 The Case for the 100% Gold Dollar]; [http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/cartelization.pdf The Fed as Cartel], [http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard191.html Private Coinage], [http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard190.html Repudiate the National Debt]; [http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard181.html Taking Money Back], [http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard163.html Anatomy of the Bank Run], [http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard128.html Money and the Individual]</ref> or, as a second best solution, [[free banking]] (which he also called "free market money").<ref>Rothbard, Murray. [http://www.mises.org/Books/mysteryofbanking.pdf ''The Mystery of Banking''], Ludwig von Mises Institute. 2008. p. 111, 278</ref> 
 
In relation to the current [[central bank]]-managed [[fractional reserve banking|fractional reserve]] [[fiat currency]] [[debt-based monetary system|system]], he stated the following:<ref>Rothbard, Murray. [http://www.mises.org/Books/mysteryofbanking.pdf ''The Mystery of Banking''], p. 261</ref>
 
{{quote|Given this dismal monetary and banking situation, given a 39:1 pyramiding of checkable deposits and currency on top of gold, given a Fed unchecked and out of control, given a world of fiat moneys, how can we possibly return to a sound noninflationary market money? The objectives, after the discussion in this work, should be clear: (a) to return to a gold standard, a commodity standard unhampered by government intervention; (b) to abolish the Federal Reserve System and return to a system of free and competitive banking; (c) to separate the government from money; and (d) either to enforce 100 percent reserve banking on the commercial banks, or at least to arrive at a system where any bank, at the slightest hint of nonpayment of its demand liabilities, is forced quickly into bankruptcy and liquidation. While the outlawing of fractional reserve as fraud would be preferable if it could be enforced, the problems of enforcement, especially where banks can continually innovate in forms of credit, make free banking an attractive alternative.}}
 
===Noninterventionism===
Believing like [[Randolph Bourne]] that "war is the health of the state" Rothbard opposed aggressive foreign policy.<ref name="Gordon"/> He criticized imperialism and the rise of the American empire which needed war to sustain itself and to expand its global control. His dislike of U.S. imperialism even led him to eulogize and lament the [[CIA]]-assisted execution of [[Marxist]] revolutionary [[Che Guevara]] in 1967, proclaiming that "his enemy was our enemy".<ref>[http://mises.org/journals/lar/pdfs/3_3/3_3_1.pdf ''Ernesto Che Guevara R.I.P.''] by Murray Rothbard, Left and Right: A Journal of Libertarian Thought, Volume 3, Number 3 (Spring-Autumn 1967)</ref> Rothbard believed that stopping new wars was necessary and knowledge of how government had seduced citizens into earlier wars was important. Two essays expanded on these views "War, Peace, and the State" and "The Anatomy of the State". Rothbard used insights of the [[elitism]] theorists [[Vilfredo Pareto]], [[Gaetano Mosca]], and [[Robert Michels]] to build a model of state personnel, goals, and ideology.<ref>Joseph R. Stromberg, [http://antiwar.com/stromberg/?articleid=4296 Murray Rothbard on States, War, and Peace: Part I] (also see [http://www.antiwar.com/stromberg/?articleid=4420 Part II]), [[Antiwar.com]], originally published June 2000.</ref><ref>See both essays, Murray N. Rothbard,  [http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard26.html War, Peace, and the State], first published 1963; [http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard62.html Anatomy of the State], first published 1974, both at  [[LewRockwell.com]].</ref>  In an obituary for historian [[Harry Elmer Barnes]] Rothbard explained why historical knowledge is important:<ref>Murray N. Rothbard, [http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard165.html Harry Elmer Barnes, RIP], from "Left and Right" final issue, 1968, republished at [[LewRockwell.com]].</ref>
 
{{quote|Our entry into World War II was the crucial act in foisting a permanent militarization upon the economy and society, in bringing to the country a permanent garrison state, an overweening military-industrial complex, a permanent system of conscription. It was the crucial act in creating a mixed economy run by Big Government, a system of state-monopoly capitalism run by the central government in collaboration with Big Business and Big Unionism.}}
 
Rothbard discussed his views on the principles of a libertarian foreign policy in a 1973 interview: "minimize State power as much as possible, down to zero, and [[isolationism]] is the full expression in foreign affairs of the domestic objective of whittling down State power." He further called for "abstinence from any kind of American military intervention and political and economic intervention."<ref name="Rothbard on War"/>  In ''For a New Liberty'' he writes: "In a purely libertarian world, therefore, there would be no 'foreign policy' because there would be no States, no governments with a monopoly of coercion over particular territorial areas."<ref name="For a New Liberty"/>
 
In "War Guilt in the Middle East" Rothbard details Israel's "aggression against Middle East Arabs," confiscatory policies and its "refusal to let these refugees return and reclaim the property taken from them."<ref>Murray Rothbard, [http://mises.org/journals/lar/pdfs/3_3/3_3_4.pdf War Guilt in the Middle East], "Left and Right", Vol. 3 No. 3 (Autumn 1967) ([http://mises.org/rothbard/1967-1969.asp cited here].)</ref> Rothbard also criticized the “organized Anti-Anti-Semitism” that critics of the state of Israel have to suffer.<ref>Murray N. Rothbard, [http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/ir/Ch6.html Pat Buchanan and the Menace of Anti-anti-semitism], December 1990, from ''The Irrepressible Rothbard'', published at [[LewRockwell.com]].</ref> Rothbard criticized as [[state terrorism|terrorism]] the actions of the United States, Israel, and any nation that "retaliates" against innocents because they cannot pinpoint actual perpetrators. He held that no retaliation that injures or kills innocent people is justified, writing "Anything else is an apologia for unremitting and unending mass murder."<ref>Murray N. Rothbard, [http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard110.html Who Are the Terrorists?], first published in the ''[[Libertarian Party (United States)|Libertarian Party]] News'', March/April 1986, reproduced at [[LewRockwell.com]].</ref>
 
==Political activism==
As a young man, Rothbard considered himself part of the [[Old Right (United States)|Old Right]], an anti-statist and anti-[[interventionist]] branch of the [[Republican Party (United States)|U.S. Republican]] party. When interventionist [[cold warrior]]s of the ''[[National Review]]'', such as [[William F. Buckley, Jr.]], gained influence in the Republican party in the 1950s, Rothbard quit the party. After Rothbard died, Buckley wrote a bitter obituary in the ''National Review'' criticizing Rothbard's "defective judgement" and views on the [[Cold War]].<ref>William F. Buckley, [http://web.archive.org/web/20080406091940/http://bkmarcus.com/cache/WFB2/MNR_RIP/ Murray Rothbard, RIP - professor and Libertarian Party founder], ''[[National Review]]'', February 6, 1995.</ref>
 
During the late 1950s, Rothbard was an associate of [[Ayn Rand]] and her philosophy, [[Objectivism (Ayn Rand)|Objectivism]], along with other students of Ludwig von Mises, such as [[George Reisman]]. According to Rand biographer Jennifer Burns, Rothbard was introduced to both [[Aristotle|Aristotelian]] [[epistemology]] and the "whole field" of [[natural rights]] through his discussions with Rand, and, at one time, described Rand's novel, ''[[Atlas Shrugged]]'', as "not merely the greatest novel ever written, it is one of the very greatest books ever written, fiction or nonfiction."<ref>Burns, Jennifer, ''[[Goddess of the Market|Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right]]'', Oxford Univ. Press, 2009, p.145 and p.182.</ref> Later, however, he left her circle and lampooned their relationship in his fictionalized play ''[[Mozart Was a Red]]''.
 
In the late 1960s, Rothbard advocated an alliance with the [[New Left]] anti-war movement, on the grounds that the conservative movement had been completely subsumed by the statist establishment. However, Rothbard later criticized the New Left for supporting a "People's Republic" style draft. It was during this phase that he associated with [[Karl Hess]] and founded ''[[Left and Right: A Journal of Libertarian Thought]]'' with [[Leonard Liggio]] and George Resch, which existed from 1965 to 1968. From 1969 to 1984 he edited ''[[The Libertarian Forum]]'', also initially with Hess (although Hess's involvement ended in 1971).
 
Rothbard criticized the "frenzied nihilism" of left-wing libertarians, but also criticized right-wing libertarians who were content to rely only on education to bring down the state; he believed that libertarians should adopt any non-immoral tactic available to them in order to bring about liberty.<ref>Lora, Ronald & Longton, Henry. 1999. ''The Conservative Press in Twentieth-Century America''. Greenwood Press. p. 369</ref>
 
During the 1970s and 1980s, Rothbard was active in the [[United States Libertarian Party|Libertarian Party]]. He was frequently involved in the party's internal politics. From 1978 to 1983, he was associated with the [[LPRadicals|Libertarian Party Radical Caucus]], allying himself with [[Justin Raimondo]], [[Eric Garris]] and [[Williamson Evers]].  He opposed the "low tax liberalism" espoused by 1980 Libertarian Party presidential candidate [[Ed Clark]] and [[Cato Institute]] president [[Ed Crane|Edward H Crane III]]. Rothbard split with the Radical Caucus at the 1983 national convention over cultural issues, and aligned himself with what he called the "rightwing populist" wing of the party, notably [[Lew Rockwell]] and [[Ron Paul]], who ran for President on the Libertarian Party ticket in 1988 and in the [[Republican Party (United States) presidential primaries, 2008|2008 Republican Party Primaries]].
 
[[File:Blumert Rockwell Gordon Rothbard.jpg|thumb|300px|right|[[Burton Blumert]] with [[Lew Rockwell]], economist and philosopher David Gordon, and [[Murray Rothbard]].]]
In 1989, Rothbard left the Libertarian Party and began building bridges to the post-[[Cold War]] anti-interventionist right, calling himself a [[paleolibertarian]].<ref>Murrary Rothbard, [http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/ir/Ch16.html "Big Government Libertarianism"], [[Lew Rockwell.com]], November 1994.</ref> He was the founding president of the conservative-libertarian [[John Randolph Club]] and supported the presidential campaign of [[Pat Buchanan]] in 1992, saying "with Pat Buchanan as our leader, we shall break the clock of [[social democracy]]."<ref>Lee Edwards, [http://books.google.com/books?id=jn9mEDvqdZAC The Conservative Revolution: The Movement That Remade America], [[Simon and Schuster]], 1999, 329.</ref> However, later he became disillusioned and said Buchanan developed too much faith in economic planning and centralized state power.<ref>Lew Rockwell, [http://www.lewrockwell.com/rockwell/paleoism.html What I Learned From Paleoism], [[LewRockwell.com]], 2002.</ref>
 
According to Lew Rockwell, Rothbard is considered the "dean of the [[Austrian School]] of economics, the founder of [[libertarianism]], and an exemplar of the [[Old Right (United States)|Old Right]]".<ref>[http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard-lib.html Rothbard archives, Lew Rockwell.com]</ref>{{rs|date=October 2010}}
 
== Books ==
* ''[[Man, Economy, and State]]'' ([http://www.mises.org/rothbard/mes.asp Full Text]; ISBN 0-945466-30-7) (1962)
* ''[[The Panic of 1819]]''. 1962, 2006 edition: ISBN 1-933550-08-2.
* ''[[America's Great Depression]]''. ([http://www.mises.org/rothbard/agd/contents.asp Full Text]) ISBN 0-945466-05-6. (1963, 1972, 1975, 1983, 2000)
* ''[[What Has Government Done to Our Money?]]'' ([http://www.mises.org/money.asp Full Text] / [http://www.mises.org/media.aspx?action=category&ID=92 Audio Book]) ISBN 0-945466-44-7. (1963)
* ''Economic Depressions: Causes and Cures'' (1969)
* ''[[Power and Market]]''. ISBN 1-933550-05-8. (1970) (restored to ''Man, Economy, and State'' ISBN 0-945466-30-7, 2004)
* ''Education: Free and Compulsory''. ISBN 0-945466-22-6. (1972)
* ''Left and Right, Selected Essays 1954-65'' (1972)
* ''[[For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto]]'' ([http://www.mises.org/rothbard/newlibertywhole.asp Full text] / [http://www.mises.org/media.aspx?action=category&ID=87 Audio book]) ISBN 0-945466-47-1. (1973, 1978)
* ''The Essential von Mises'' (1973)
* ''The Case for the 100 Percent Gold Dollar''. ISBN 0-945466-34-X. ([http://www.mises.org/story/1829 Full Text] / [http://www.mises.org/media.aspx?action=category&ID=92 Audio Book]) (1974)
* ''[[Egalitarianism as a Revolt Against Nature and Other Essays]]'' ISBN 0-945466-23-4. (1974)
* ''[[Conceived in Liberty]]'' (4 vol.) ISBN 0-945466-26-9. (1975–79)
* ''Individualism and the Philosophy of the Social Sciences''. ISBN 0-932790-03-8. (1979)
* ''[[The Ethics of Liberty]]'' ([http://www.mises.org/rothbard/ethics/ethics.asp Full Text] / [http://www.mises.org/media.aspx?action=category&ID=95 Audio Book]) ISBN 0-8147-7559-4. (1982)
* ''[[The Mystery of Banking]]'' ISBN 0-943940-04-4. (1983)
* ''Ludwig von Mises: Scholar, Creator, Hero''. {{OCLC|20856420}}. (1988)
* ''Freedom, Inequality, Primitivism, and the Division of Labor''. [http://www.mises.org/fipandol.asp Full text] (included as Chapter 16 in ''Egalitarianism'' above) (1991)
* ''[[The Case Against the Fed]]'' ISBN 0-945466-17-X. (1994)
* ''[[An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought]]'' (2 vol.) ISBN 0-945466-48-X. (1995)
* ''Wall Street, Banks, and American Foreign Policy''. ([http://www.mises.org/rothbard/WSBanks.pdf Full Text]) with an introduction by [[Justin Raimondo]]. (1995)
* ''Making Economic Sense''. ISBN 0-945466-18-8. (1995, 2006)
* ''Logic of Action'' (2 vol.) ISBN 1-85898-015-1 and ISBN 1-85898-570-6. (1997, to be reprinted as ''Economic Controversies'' in 2010/2011)
* ''The Austrian Theory of the Trade Cycle and Other Essays''. ISBN 0-945466-21-8. (also by Mises, Hayek, & Haberler)
* ''Irrepressible Rothbard: The Rothbard-Rockwell Report Essays of Murray N. Rothbard''. ([http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/ir/Contents.html Full Text].) ([http://students.uis.edu/araut01s/ir-preface.html Preface] by JoAnn Rothbard) ([http://students.uis.edu/araut01s/ir-intro.html Introduction] by [[Lew Rockwell]].) ISBN 1-883959-02-0. (2000)
* ''[[A History of Money and Banking in the United States]]''. ISBN 0-945466-33-1. (2005)
* ''[[The Libertarian Forum|The Complete Libertarian Forum]]'' (2 vol.) ([http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/lf/lib-forum-contents.html Full Text]) ISBN 1-933550-02-3. (1969–84; 2006)
* ''[[The Betrayal of the American Right]]'' ISBN 978-1-933550-13-8 (2007)
* ''[[Rothbard vs. the Philosophers]] edited with an introduction by Roberta Modugno ISBN 978-1-9335504-66 (2009)
* ''[[Strictly Confidential]] edited by David Gordon (2010)
 
== Notes ==
<references/>
 
== Further reading ==
* Gordon, David. ''The Essential Rothbard'', [[Ludwig von Mises Institute]], 1st edition. February 26, 2007. ISBN 1-933550-10-4
* [[Justin Raimondo|Raimondo, Justin]]. ''An Enemy of the State: The Life of Murray N. Rothbard''. [[Prometheus Books]]. July 2000. ISBN 1-57392-809-7
 
== External links ==
{{wikiquote}}
{{commons}}
* [http://www.mises.org/about/3249 Murray N. Rothbard] by [[David Gordon (philosopher)|David Gordon]]; also includes links to audio clips of Rothbard and the complete text of several books.
* [http://www.youtube.com/user/misesmedia Ludwig Von Mises YouTube page including several Rothbard videos]
* [http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard-lib.html Murray N. Rothbard Library and Resources]
* [http://www.mises.org/media.aspx?action=category&ID=32 Murray N. Rothbard Media Archive at Mises.org]
* [http://www.blackcrayon.com/people/rothbard/ BlackCrayon.com: People: Murray Rothbard]
* [http://mises.org/content/mnrbib.asp Chronological Bibliography of Murray Rothbard]
* [http://www.mises.org/journals/libertarianforum.asp The Complete Archives] of [[The Libertarian Forum]], written about twice a month between 1969 and 1984.
* [http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard23.html ''Sociology of the Ayn Rand Cult''] (pamphlet published by the Center for Libertarian Studies)
* [http://www.mises.org/journals/lf/1981/1981_01-04.pdf "It Usually Ends With Ed Crane"] - Rothbard's story of what happened with Ed Crane, the CATO institute and the Libertarian party
* [http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard103.html A 1972 ''New Banner'' interview with Murray Rothbard]
* [http://www.mises.org/journals/aen/aen11_2_1.asp A 1990 interview with Murray Rothbard]
* [http://www.mises.org/etexts/hhhonmnr.asp Why Hans-Hermann Hoppe considers Rothbard the key Austro-libertarian intellectual]
* Murray N. Rothbard, [http://www.mises.org/journals/qjae/pdf/qjae2_3_1.pdf The Origins of the Federal Reserve], The Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics vol. 2, no. 3 (Fall 1999): 3 – 51
* [http://students.uis.edu/araut01s/rothbard.html Remembering Rothbard: Antiwar Archive], selection of online articles by Rothbard, on foreign policy
* [http://www.rothbard.be Murray Rothbard Institute], Belgium
* Murray N. Rotbard, [http://www.mises.org/story/910 Left and Right: The Prospects for Liberty], "Left and Right: A Journal of Libertarian Thought," Spring 1965.
* Murray N. Rothbard, [http://www.antiwar.com/rep/wp_auth.html Newt Gingrich is No Libertarian], ''Washington Post'', Friday, December 30, 1994; Page A17. (Rothbard's last newspaper column, before his death)

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