“Famine emerges from a lack of interlocal trade; when one locality's food crop fails, since there is virtually no trade with other localities, the bulk of the people starve. It is precisely the permeation of the free market throughout the world that has virtually ended this scourge of famine by permitting trade between areas.”

American economist and political theorist

Murray Newton Rothbard was an American economist, economic historian, political theorist, and activist. He was a major figure in 20th-century American libertarianism and a founder and leading thinker of anarcho-capitalism. He wrote more than twenty books on political theory, history, economics, and related subjects. His work placed him at the center of debates over liberty, markets, and the role of the state.