The Bitcoin Standard Podcast

Eminent historian Niall Ferguson joins us to discuss the history of fiat money, its relation to war, its development over the past century and the prospects for bitcoin. Why did Britain join World War I, and was it a wise choice? How eager were the British to join war? We debate whether it was the gold standard, or the suspension of the gold standard, that prevented recovery post-WWI and laid the foundation for World War II. And we discuss Professor Ferguson's views of bitcoin and its future prospects.Resources Article: Bitcoin winning the covid-19 monetary Revolution -  https://www.fa-mag.com/news/bitcoin-is-winning-the-covid-19-monetary-revolution-59155.html?section= Book: The Ascent of Money - https://www.niallferguson.com/the-ascent-of-moneyBook: Pity of War - https://www.niallferguson.com/pity-of-war  Niall Ferguson website - https://www.niallferguson.com/ Enjoyed this episode? You can take part in podcast seminars, access Saifedean’s courses – including his ongoing course ECO22: The Fiat Standard – and read chapters of his forthcoming book, Principles of Economics, by becoming a Saifedean.com member. Find out more here. 

After three years of hyperinflation, is there light at the end of the tunnel for Lebanon? The currency has lost more than 97% of its value, the largest bill is worth $1.5, the real economy is de facto dollarized, and only those dependent on government are having to suffer from hyperinflation. Fiat is dead and there are are no IMF bail-outs or natural resource revenues to get the ponzi going again. Is the death of fiat suffocating the parasite class and freeing the rest of society from having to finance them? Enjoyed this episode? You can take part in podcast seminars, access Saifedean’s courses – including his ongoing course ECO22: The Fiat Standard – and read chapters of his forthcoming book, Principles of Economics, by becoming a Saifedean.com member. Find out more here. 

We are joined by Jonathan Chester, the founder and CEO of Bitwage, a bitcoin payroll company which allows you to get paid in bitcoin no matter who is paying you, and allows companies to set up bitcoin payrolls for their workers. We discuss the genesis of the company in 2014, how it grew through bitcoin bear and bull markets, what its future plans are, and how Jonathan sees the development of the industry over the years. Resources (All links available on saifedean.com/podcast/152-bitwage-with-jonathan-chester)BitwageBitwage Twitter Jonathan Chester's Twitter and LinkedInEnjoyed this episode? You can take part in podcast seminars, access Saifedean’s courses – including his ongoing course ECO22: The Fiat Standard – and read chapters of his forthcoming book, Principles of Economics, by becoming a Saifedean.com member. Find out more here. 

What is "ESG" and why is it such a dangerous scam? We are joined by Vivek Ramaswamy, an entrepreneur in the healthcare and technology sectors and bestselling author of Woke, Inc: Inside Corporate America's Social Justice Scam, as well as Nation of Victims: Identity Politics, the Death of Merit, and the Path Back to Excellence. Vivek explains why ESG is more dangerous than silly corporate virtue-signaling, and what its long-term economic, social, and political implications are. We also delve into a deep discussion of the role monetary policy plays in corporate corruption, and whether bitcoin can fix this. Vivek contends bitcoin cannot fix everything, and Saifedean attempts to make the case for why it, in fact, does!Enjoyed this episode? You can take part in podcast seminars, access Saifedean’s courses – including his ongoing course ECO22: The Fiat Standard – and read chapters of his forthcoming book, Principles of Economics, by becoming a Saifedean.com member. Find out more here. 

Sam Apple joins us to discuss his fascinating book 'Ravenous: Otto Warburg, the Nazis, and the Search for the Cancer-Diet Connection'. We discuss the connection between diet and cancer, and the Warburg Effect, which states that cancer cells thrive on dietary glucose, and why Sam thinks it's not entirely accurate because it ignores the role of insulin resistance. We also discuss Hitler's fascination with cancer research, which allowed Warburg to survive the Nazi era even though he was Jewish and gay, and Hitler's infamous addiction to sugar. We further discuss why this enormously important work has been ignored in modern science, why alternative genetic hypotheses are woefully inadequate, whether modern medicine can be reformed to focus on dietary causes of disease, and, of course, how bitcoin fixes this!References (All links are available on saifedean.com/podcast/150-the-cancer-diet-connection-with-sam-apple)Sam Apple’s official website.Buy Sam’s book on Amazon, The Book Shop and Norton.Chris PalmerEcontalk with Gary TaubesThe Nazi War on Cancer by Robert N. Proctor Lewis Cantley Harvard pageEnjoyed this episode? You can take part in podcast seminars, access Saifedean’s courses – including his ongoing course ECO22: The Fiat Standard – and read chapters of his forthcoming book, Principles of Economics, by becoming a Saifedean.com member. Find out more here. 

Is humanity running out of resources, or are resources more abundant than ever? Gale Pooley is the co-author of Superabdundance, a fascinating and optimistic exploration of how economic progress has made life better for humanity. He joins us to explain why goods continue to become more abundant, why fears of overpopulation and resource depletion continue to be refuted forcefully by reality, and why human time keeps getting more valuable. We discuss the work of one of our favorite economists, Julian Simon, and how he brilliantly refuted the common view of resource scarcity, and reframed scarcity as the scarcity of human time. We also explore how inflation reverses economic progress, and how much better life would be without it, and conclude with a discussion of bitcoin's potential. Enjoyed this episode? You can take part in podcast seminars, access Saifedean’s courses – including his ongoing course ECO22: The Fiat Standard – and read chapters of his forthcoming book, Principles of Economics, by becoming a Saifedean.com member. Find out more here. 

This episode contains most of the final lecture of The Fiat Standard online course, which just concluded, based on the last chapter of The Fiat Standard. After having studied the bitcoin and fiat monetary systems extensively in The Bitcoin Standard and The Fiat Standard, Saifedean analyzes how bitcoin can continue to rise in a fiat world. Can central banks adopt bitcoin? Will bitcoin lead to hyperinflation? Or will bitcoin be an orderly upgrade and debt jubilee, allowing us to unwind fiat painlessly as it devalues everyone's debts? Will bitcoin speculative attacks carry the day? And how do central bank digital currencies affect bitcoin's rise? Enjoyed this episode? You can take part in podcast seminars, access Saifedean’s courses – including his ongoing course ECO22: The Fiat Standard – and read chapters of his forthcoming book, Principles of Economics, by becoming a Saifedean.com member. Find out more here. 

We are rejoined by Nik Bhatia, author of Layered Money, to get his perspective on the bond market, the global economy, and bitcoin. Why did bonds have their worst year ever? Why is Nik convinced a recession is looming? How does he see the bond market developing in the medium and long term? Will bonds recover and yields fall? Will we see negative bond yields? Is there still more road for the Fed to can unto, or are we really at the end of the road?Resources (All links available on saifedean.com/podcast/147-bond-markets-with-nik-bhatia)Articles from The Bitcoin Layer: Rapid-fire Macro Reorientation - https://thebitcoinlayer.substack.com/p/rapid-fire-macro-reorientationPUBLIC: Hidden Leverage Reveals The Gargantuan Size of FX Swap Markets - https://thebitcoinlayer.substack.com/p/public-hidden-leverage-reveals-the Deflation Cometh & Production Cost Eclipses Bitcoin's Price By $10,000: TBL Weekly #22 - https://thebitcoinlayer.substack.com/p/deflation-cometh-and-production-cost The Hills Are Alive With The Sound of Recession: Global Macro Update - https://thebitcoinlayer.substack.com/p/the-hills-are-alive-with-the-sound Why We Fight movie by Eugene Jarcki - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0436971/  Enjoyed this episode? You can take part in podcast seminars, access Saifedean’s courses – including his ongoing course ECO22: The Fiat Standard – and read chapters of his forthcoming book, Principles of Economics, by becoming a Saifedean.com member. Find out more here. 

James Lavish CFA has decades of experience in institutional investing and risk management, and he joins us to give us his perspective on global bond markets, their recent developments and where he sees them going forward. He explains his bleak outlook for government bonds in the long run, and why continues inflation is a very likely outcome. He explains his view on why a debt spiral is likely and what it means for bond-holders and governments. James also gives us his perspective on the global foreign exchange market and where national currencies are headed. References (all links available on saifedean.com/146-bonds-with-james-bond-lavish)Saifedean's thread on housing inflation, numbers from Zillow.com - https://twitter.com/saifedean/status/1571648029639294976?t=BppvcNeX7Ti60--zC849cQ&s=19 US national debt clock - https://www.usdebtclock.org/ Economist Hyman Minsk - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyman_Minsky James's debt spiral thread - https://twitter.com/jameslavish/status/1562078782453792768  James's FX thread - https://twitter.com/jameslavish/status/1580989721202683905?t=yGuWtdAXQs6ufqV0ZDRhfg&s=19 The Informationist Newsletter - http://jameslavish.substack.comLooking Glass Education Platform - lookingglasseducation.comJames Lavish Twitter profile - https://twitter.com/jameslavish Saifedean’s first book, The Bitcoin Standard.Saifedean’s second book, The Fiat Standard. Enjoyed this episode? You can take part in podcast seminars, access Saifedean’s courses – including his ongoing course ECO22: The Fiat Standard – and read chapters of his forthcoming book, Principles of Economics, by becoming a Saifedean.com member. Find out more here. 

Bitcoin Magazine market analyst Dylan Leclair joins us for an in-depth discussion of the many ponzi schemes and failed financial institutions of our times, and how he identified the problems with them in his prescient writings. Dylan discusses the many red flags and structural problems with Luna/UST, Three Arrows Capital, Celsius, Blockfi, FTX, and Genesis, and why so many people refuse to see the warning signs and seem to want to fall victim for anything that offers them the holy grail of “yield.” We conclude with Dylan’s view on the bond market, why he successfully predicted the recent crash in bonds, what his expectations are for the fiat market moving forward, and what the lessons of crypto ponzis have to teach us about fiat and its ponzis.References (All links available on saifedean.com/podcast/145-ponzi-hunting-with-dylan-leclair)Speculative Attack – Pierre RochardThe Myth of National Defense – Hans Herman HoppeDebate with MashinskySaifedean’s thread on why withdraw bitcoin from exchanges Only the stronger survive – Allen Farrington Dylan’s Thread on GBTC and GrayscaleDylan’s Thread on Genesis Dylan’s thread on Alameda Pitch Deck Luke Gromen Twitter accountSaifedean’s first book, The Bitcoin Standard.Saifedean’s second book, The Fiat Standard.Enjoyed this episode? You can take part in podcast seminars, access Saifedean’s courses – including his ongoing course ECO22: The Fiat Standard – and read chapters of his forthcoming book, Principles of Economics, by becoming a Saifedean.com member. Find out more here.