Economic growth depends upon the ability of governments to exert and project power. In this way they capture and control resources and markets. It is in this way that powerful empires emerge. US wealth today is largely based upon its military power and its domination and control of the global banking monetary system and the major global regulatory institutions and protocols- eg SWIFT, IMF, World Bank, BIS. Without a government in sync with its merchants and exerting its power projection in their favour there has never been a powerful and wealthy empire. Libertarians ignore this reality.