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David D. Friedman

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David Director Friedman (born February 12, 1945) is an American economist, physicist, legal scholar, and anarcho-capitalist theorist. Although he studied chemistry and physics and not law or economics, he is known for his textbook writings on microeconomics and the libertarian theory of anarcho-capitalism, which is the subject of his most popular book, The Machinery of Freedom. 

Described by Walter Block as a "free-market anarchist" theorist, Friedman has also authored several other books and articles, including Price Theory: An Intermediate Text (1986), Law's Order: What Economics Has to Do with Law and Why It Matters (2000), Hidden Order: The Economics of Everyday Life (1996), and Future Imperfect (2008).

David Friedman is the son of economists Rose and Milton Friedman. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1965 with a bachelor's degree in chemistry and physics. He later earned a master's (1967) and a Ph.D. (1971) in theoretical physics from the University of Chicago.

Despite his later career, he never took a class for credit in either economics or law. He was a law professor at Santa Clara University from 2005 to 2017 and a contributing editor for Liberty magazine. He is currently a Professor Emeritus. He is an atheist. Patri Friedman's son has also written about libertarian theory and market anarchism, particularly seasteading.

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Legal Systems Very Different From Ours

Emmett Shear
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