Saifedean is an experienced guy and has worked in different companies. Benji Block: I love that your curiosity led you to continue down that path because for many, when something doesnt make sense, they stop there. As you have access to hard money, you are able to plan better for the future. To say that fiat printing is the reason the government spends so much misses the taxation elephant in the room. The result is massive insecurity across society, and it makes peoples time horizon much shorter. Save The Fiat Standard: The Debt Slavery Alternative to Human Civilization for later. Saifedean and Cedric sit down to discuss Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for The Bitcoin Standard: The Decentralized Alternative to Central Banking at the best online prices at eBay! All of this gives him a net worth of $2 million. Grandma was right throughout all of human history, but it doesnt work in this kind of monetary system because in this monetary system, if you buy a house from your savings, the time it takes you to save money as you are saving that money, that money is losing value because other people are being able to mine new money and so theyre devaluing your existing savings. I would rate a tiny fraction of the books I have read about any one of these topics as excellent. This unfolding timeline is an excellent example of the entrepreneurial method at work. On the other hand, fiat (government) money ruins the concept of opportunity cost Here is why: Money is cheap, interest rates are low, its easy to borrow, In addition: holding on to money means it loses value, Suddenly you care about the future, even beyond your own lifespan, Children are only concerned with the present moment, growing older involves becoming aware of the future and understanding actions have consequences (In essence lowering of time preference). He is also host of the Economics for Business podcast. Tax ID# 52-1263436, Saifedean Ammous on Knowledge Entrepreneurship, Economic Calculation In The Socialist Commonwealth, An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought, 2 Volumes, Economic Depressions: Their Cause and Cure, A History of Money and Banking in the United States Before the Twentieth Century, Man, Economy, and State, with Power and Market, The Austrian School of Economics: A History of Its Ideas, Ambassadors, and Institutions, Bourbon for Breakfast: Living Outside the Statist Quo, Busting Myths about the State and the Libertarian Alternative, Chaos Theory: Two Essays On Market Anarchy, Cronyism: Liberty versus Power in Early America, 16071849, Free Private Cities: Making Governments Compete For You, From Aristocracy to Monarchy to Democracy, It's a Jetsons World: Private Miracles and Public Crimes, Left, Right, and the Prospects for Liberty, Mises and Austrian Economics: A Personal View, The Myth of National Defense: Essays on the Theory and History of Security Production, No Treason: The Constitution of No Authority, Organized Crime: The Unvarnished Truth About Government, Pearl Harbor: The Seeds and Fruits of Infamy, The Politics of Obedience: The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude, A Short History of Man: Progress and Decline, Vices Are Not Crimes: A Vindication of Moral Liberty, Reclamation of Liberties: Revisiting the War on Drugs, Inflation: Causes, Consequences, and Cure, Taxes Are What We Pay for an Impoverished Society, Why Austrian Economics Matters (Chicago 2011), The Truth About American History: An Austro-Jeffersonian Perspective, The Rosetta Stone to the US Code: A New History of Taxation, The Economic History of the United States, The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History, The American Economy and the End of Laissez-Faire: 1870 to World War II, Crisis and Liberty: The Expansion of Government Power in American History, Radical Austrianism, Radical Libertarianism, The History of Political Philosophy: From Plato to Rothbard, Microeconomics From an Austrian Viewpoint, The History of Economic Thought: From Marx to Hayek, The Life, Times, and Work of Ludwig von Mises, The Austrian School of Economics: An Introduction, Introduction to Economics: A Private Seminar with Murray N. Rothbard, Introduction to Austrian Economic Analysis, Fundamentals of Economic Analysis: A Causal-Realist Approach, Austrian Economics: An Introductory Course, Austrian School of Economics: Revisionist History and Contemporary Theory, After the Revolution: Economics of De-Socialization, The Federal Reserve: History, Theory and Practice, The Twentieth Century: An Austrian Critique, The Truth About War: A Revisionist Approach, The Economic Recovery: Washington's Big Lie, The 25th Anniversary Celebration in New York, How to Think about the Economy: Mises Seminar in Tampa, The Ron Paul Revolution: A Ten-Year Retrospective, Against PC: The Fight for Free Expression. Joakim Book is a writer, researcher and editor on all things money, finance and financial history. He has a keen interest in Austrian The benefits to the people involved are clear: the home buyer doesnt have to save up before purchase; the homeowner can sell to a larger range of people and get a higher price; and the buyer pays the bank interest for decades to come. Tune in to peer-to-peer conversations between the brightest minds in the investing world, and tune up your portfolio. He is also author ofThe Fiat Standardand an upcoming book on the principles of economics. Though he has three books, only The Bitcoin Standard is for sale publicly. What actually happened was governments were practically insolvent and they covered up their insolvency by figuring out ways of basically kicking the can down the road and trying to get their people to accept their credit as a substitute for gold. As a company, all companies are constantly borrowing, governments are constantly borrowing, everybody is in debt and thats just how the system works. Please note: All notes are independently created and do not imply any sponsorship or endorsement by the source podcast. What happened was that The Bank of England, the British Government, issued bonds to finance its participation in World War I, and then these bonds were undersubscribed. As an academic, I was studying it and looking into it. Chapter 18 Can Bitcoin Fix This 307. Because then you can just get to work on yourself, and yourself is one thing you CAN change, you can control at least, Saifedean adds: Its much better than demanding things from others or placing blame on others. It put together the technical, economic, motivational and related issues around Bitcoin better than anything I've seen. Saifedean Ammous prefers to live a private life and has not exposed his family details in the media. Well, thanks so much for taking the time to be with us here on Author Hour today. However, YouTube is not his main income source. This is also one of the key points of The Bitcoin Standard, which is that as money gets harder. But the Dr. Saifedean Ammous gave us the definitive book on digital money with The Bitcoin Standard, a must-read for anyone interested in monetary tech and worried about ruinous fiat regimes. (949) 799-2165. Saifedean Ammous: I used to be a university professor in economics and then I wrote a book about Bitcoin. As Scott Sumner writes, and many other monetary economists have pointed out, The Fed controls the nominal quantity of money in the US economy. Prices range from $15 per month for beginners to $1,000 per year for the Institutional subscription. Then, after I wrote it, a year or two later, I had a whole bunch of ideas that I was writing about how Bitcoins progress and growth will continue and how I would expect it to grow in the modern world and then I decided that the best way to frame this study would be to study the Fiat system in order to then be able to synthesize the two books together and figure out how Bitcoin evolves in the Fiat standard. Only about a third of them were sold. Its capricious dynamics and exuberance largely shroud Deflation and the End of Fiat. How Financial Advisers Should Think About Bitcoin with Morgen Rochard. I'm considering going back to University for a year to do a masters/thesis in cryptocurrency and the role it has to play in our future, or studying the online literature that's available now, Dumped half of my net worth into it too. Podcast Notes is a Signal From the Noise LLC Production, All Right Reserved, Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholders Meeting, Christopher Lockhead's Follow Your Different, Everyday Espionage Podcast with Andrew Bustamante, Feel Better, Live More With Dr. Rangan Chatterjee, Moonshots and Mindsets with Peter Diamandis, Network State Podcast with Balaji Srinivasan, Spearhead with Naval Ravikant and Babak Nivi, The Unraveling Podcast with Jocko Willink and Darryl Cooper, This Week in Startups with Jason Calacanis, Where It Happens with Sahil Bloom and Greg Isenberg, If Bitcoin succeeds, it will be like the sewage system or electricity: its one of the best things of our civilization but nobody will talk about it. , Every moment of your life you make decisions that make your life better or worse. Not an expert, but I think the world should have transitioned to nuclear power 30 years ago. to join us. It is part of the process of a rising time preference that people can indulge in this stuff because they think more about the present rather than the future. Archived. Saifedean Ammous: It was just something that I found very interesting early on. This action will also remove this member from your connections and send a report to the site admin. Similar to what I did with The Bitcoin Standard, but this time with The Fiat Standard. Debate with Saifedean Ammous, Steve Hanke, and Hong Fang . "This book blew my mind; it is a work of genius. Although bitcoin can be used to purchase things in transactions, it really doesnt matter if that happens or not. Become a parent (Suddenly you care about the future, even beyond your own lifespan), In raising children, Saifedean emphasizes tying rewards to actions We cant do what we want to do until we do what we have to do first, The Internet allows you to learn things directly from anywhere, Saifedean utilizes this by teaching economics courses outside of mainstream academia, Bitcoin is a complicated animal, you could argue no one understands it completely , The book puts together all his ideas and views on Bitcoin. He and his family relocated to Lebanon when In Saifedeans case, the transformative event was Bitcoin, the study of which opened up a deeper understanding of hard money and low time preference. With a strong libertarian voice, this provides a good overview of cryptocurrencies and their potential to change our global economy and our lives in the future. However, he hasnt revealed her name and likes to keep his family life private. Dr. Ammous book, The Bitcoin Standard, contains an excellent treatment of all these topics in addition to one of the few enlightened and enlightening accounts of Bitcoin that I have come across. Even if all the Feds balance-sheet increase were at the disposal of the government which its not it wouldnt explain the many recipients that Saif believes are on the fiat-government payroll. government fiat), and thats the base layer of our money the concept economics textbooks used to call high-powered money. The vast majority of outstanding fiat, Saif explains, is digital, created through commercial banks issuing debt. It doesnt need central banks in order for it to travel. 4. Later that year, he was promoted to an Assistant Professor of Economics in his main job at Beirut. His exact birthdate is undisclosed. It leads to the third part of the book is about Bitcoin and about how Bitcoin rises within Fiat, informed by the first two parts. Ask yourself, are you delaying your long-term goals because you are busy with daily activities, rather than investing in things that matter to you in the long run? Check out The Once BITten Podcast Episode Page & Show Notes. In fact, it turns out that the best way to navigate the Fiat system is to be short Fiat, which is effectively to borrow Fiat, to have your liabilities denominated in Fiat. If you cant make payments for a couple of months then you get wiped out, you lose your business or you lose your house. Remember, Keynesian economics is just one big giant obsession with getting GDP up and exports is positive on If youre an American doctor, your estimated net worth at age 25 is probably negative 250k. What makes it tick and whats some of the history there? The Real Economy: What Hillary and Trump Cant and Wont Address. Sound money holds its value and lowers the time preference of society This has significant implications: People are encouraged to save and defer consumption. Ammous holds a Ph.D. in Sustainable Development from Columbia University. WebShout out to Matt Homewood for continuing to fight food waste - bins full of good food is absolutely insane. You would expect that this would mean that the value of Bitcoins going to rise while the value of the other currencies of each unit of the other currencys going to decline. Economically and historically speaking and ironically, MMT-speaking hes not entirely wrong: Every episode of hyperinflation has seen fiscal powers subdue whatever level of independence the monetary powers may have once had or resistance they might have put up. The question remains: Where is all the supposed money coming from? It has all the nutrients that your body could eat. Dr. Ammous holds a Then, he moved to the UK to attend The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). They e He develops effective memes and ideas. Or, if you default your loan, you cant pay your bank back. As such, it is more resistant to wild inflation and corrupt banks. Was it a conscious decision to come out with the Bitcoin Standard first then, knowing you were going to go into the Fiat Standard? And you have a pretty good chance of having it there for you next year. When people think about when the world went off the gold standard, they think 1971 but in reality, it was 1914. A fairly basic website (i.e., not requiring any technological expertise or gear that is not available to everyone) is the platform for the new level of knowledge entrepreneurship. He switched his platform for teaching from the university to the internet, and now is able to reach many more customers citizens of the world who want to learn more about Austrian economics and to understand Bitcoin and hard money. Is there a path for bitcoin to become the new gold standard? But, of course, that meant that the Bank of England effectively printed a whole bunch of money to buy those bonds, it was like quantitative easing what we see today. Golds value doesnt rise as much as the inflation. Its very far from the scientific way of looking at things. Saifedean Ammous ( @saifedean) is a Bitcoin economist and author of The Bitcoin Standard Check out his website Read the Podcast Notes from Stephan Livera Podcast, where Saifedean explains Bitcoin as a Savings Technology Host Daniel Prince ( @princey1976) Why Saifedean wrote The Bitcoin Standard Please confirm you want to block this member. I teach economics on my own website, saifedean.com. The hard money is money whose supply is hard to produce and so you cant just make more of it. Because we still have to operate within some level of this system while also, thinking to like what youre talking about with Bitcoin. He held the position from 2005 to 2008 and was promoted to Instructor in 2009. When I heard Saifedean was preparing a book about bitcoin I had high hopes. To the extent that this description is accurate, the parties to this money creation process have this in common: Their purchasing power isnt the governments to spend. How did he know they were out there? Its very far from what a normal inquisitive brain would try and develop if theyre trying to understand things. And like, and, [00:05:40] and really think about it not so wouldnt you rather have the Hashemites in Lybia? WebSaifedean Ammous Wife And Family. modern fiat money is not conjured out of thin air through government fiat. The Republic awealthofcommonsense.com The latest central-bank data shows that the top 1% of Americans have seen their net worth surge by 29.8% in the pandemic, says Ben Carlson. In fact, the Great Depression happened because of the abandonment of the gold standard in the 1920s and in World War I. Benji Block: Wow, that is some history and it really does set up much of what you discuss because it seems like the Fiat Standard, you would pull back the curtain and there would be these real systems and thought-through planning, but it feels like its more been this haphazard. WebSaifedean Ammous's Biography. Benji Block: Yeah, Id love actually to go right there because you do talk about several things. I have to say, one of the disheartening learnings in your book for me, because Im not an economist, I was unaware of the reality of the Fiat system really just being built on debt but it explains a lot and so I am going to quote you here and then Ill have you expand on this a little bit. Most countries dont maximize their seigniorage revenue, precisely because of the political backlash that accompany such extractive inflation regimes. Hosted by Marty Bent. Ive left my job at university and now Im an author and an independent educator. Benji Block: It may be important here to just have you explain a little bit of the difference between hard money and soft money because it seems like were going to end up going in that direction a little bit. I think the really powerful thing thats happening with Bitcoin and I think a lot of people might be tempted to just dismiss Bitcoin as just another TikTok or another Twitter or social network or something like that I think it is a far more significant thing because its really allowing us to upgrade our monetary operating system from an easy money to a harder money. The Bitcoin Standard is a great book. This, of course, led to rises in prices. But what every episode of hyperinflation also shows is that theres a limit to how many real resources the government can extract through inflation. Find motivation in what you are passionate about. As seen in the remittance that the Fed sends to the Treasury every year ($54.9 billion in 2019, $88.5 billion in 2020, $107.4 billion in 2021), the Feds operations do directly cover some government expenditures in the range of around 1 percent of outlays: Until 2019, the US public sector spent some 39 percent of GDP putting it in the lower half of OECD countries. There is liberation in understanding that you are your own worst enemy and your own worst ally How so? Free shipping for many products! Saifedean Ammous: Yeah, this is a key point in my first book, The Bitcoin Standard. Edit: thanks for all the positive feedback, didnt mean to come off as pretentious mentioning my background my apologies. You would expect that your money would hold on to its value pretty well next year because everything else is increasing at a rate higher than 2% every year. The Bitcoin Standard Podcast is the place to discuss Bitcoin and economics from the Austrian schools perspective. Ask yourself, are you delaying your long-term goals because you are busy with day to day activities rather than investing in things that matter to you in the long run? WebAmerican Economist and Director of the Cato Institute, George Selgin, joins me for a conversation about his book, Money: Free and Unfree. Saifedean Ammous: I think the traditional way that most people think about the Fiat System, most people who are critical of it would say, Well, this is all a big giant debt bubble and it is all going to collapse. Saifedean Ammous: I think, not to ruin the book, well, I will ruin the book for people, but basically Bitcoin fixes all of this. People had better things to do than spend their money on fighting pointless wars in Europe. Heralded by promises for the long-awaited economic empowerment of digital art and the paradigmatic shift of creative production, the art market’s fusion with blockchain technologies and the crypto economy has polarized opinions among artists, cultural workers, and economists. Possibly, but in comparison it would be quite limited. Lets talk about maybe how this system was born and what gave it some level of sticking power, because now its been around for a hundred years. One of the entrepreneurs bird-in-the-hand resources is their individual utilization and allocation of their personal time and effort. Show us the smoking gun, please. We'd love for you Saifedean Ammous: Yeah, absolutely. WebBitcoin was created to be a store of value (yes, perceived value, just like fiat, gold, etc., yet as long as it has perceived value then it is worth having). 5/5. So, government money can travel much faster than gold because it has the license of government. The vast majority are digital entries on ledgers of banks that are all connected to the Central Bank and the way that these dollars come into existence is through lending. Is Bitcoin Worth It? (Today I recommend The Bitcoin Standard, this book is the best and most important to understand Bitcoin.). Thats when I really thought, Theres a lot of red flags here, things dont really make a lot of sense the way that they are laid out, and I think the fascinating thing was to just watch how at Columbia and in the media and with my university professors, the only kind of perspective that you see is just rationalizing the decisions of the federal reserve, you know? So then next year becomes less uncertain. Are We on the Edge of the Economic Abyss? This is basically the old human industry. Bitcoin is a sophisticated technology whose ownership requires an understanding of complex technologies and tools. The way they do that is by promoting all of these cheap food substitutes rather than food. I know this book is going to be another great resource for so many. What is the Austrian School of Economics? This content is reserved for the thousands of visionaries supporting the financial revolution. You know, we all grew up being told by our grandmothers that you shouldnt get into debt. And where is the compelling evidence for it that validates Saifedeans harsh words? It is featured in his YouTube channel, which only started in 2021. Books will be written about the world before the invention of financial plumbing, Fact: Every moment of your life you are making decisions that will make your life better or worse. You can also join the weekly discussion seminars where we discuss bitcoin, economics, and a variety of questions and topics. Could you explain the difference between hard and soft money? This is why everybody is in debt. We went from a 2% increase per year to about a 14% increase per year in the supply of the money that we have. Finally, he targets the development industry, which he claims is filled with miseducated economists with degrees from what he describes as Keynesian and socialist fiat universities. Going further, he claims these economists have access to a line of credit from the Federal Reserve [which] grants them immunity from market failure.. He isnt a fan of other altcoins like Ethereum or Ripple and advises people to avoid them. The first step was writing and publishing a book called the Bitcoin Standard (conventionally published by Wiley) and then leaving academia for the joys of hard money. Press Esc to cancel. Thats really the process of human civilization, the ability of us to think further into the future to provide for our future more and more and to discount the future less and less. In addition, Saifedean associates the Austrian concept of lowering time preference with entrepreneurial success.