Saifedean Ammous

Bitcoin is the newest technology for money—find out how it fits in the future.Bitcoin is the digital age's novel, decentralized, and automated solution to the problem of money: accessible worldwide, controlled by nobody. Can this young upstart money challenge the global monetary order? Economist Saifedean Ammous traces the history of the technologies of money to seashells, limestones, cattle, salt, beads, metals, and government debt, explaining what gave these technologies their monetary role, what makes for sound money, and the benefits of a sound monetary regime to economic growth, innovation, culture, trade, individual freedom, and international peace.The monetary and historical analysis sets the stage for understanding the mechanics of the operation of Bitcoin, the reasons for its initial success, and the role it could play in an information economy. Rather than serving as a currency and network for consumer purchases, the author argues Bitcoin is better suited as a store of value and network for settlement between large financial institutions. With an automated and perfectly predictable monetary policy, and the ability to perform final settlement of large sums across the world in a matter of minutes, Bitcoin's true importance may just lie in providing a decentralized, neutral, free-market alternative to national central banks.

In The Fiat Standard, world-renowned economist Saifedean Ammous applies his unique analytical lens to the fiat monetary system, explaining it as a feat of engineering and technology just as he did for bitcoin in his global bestseller The Bitcoin Standard.This time, Ammous delves into the world's earlier shift from the gold standard to today's system of government-backed fiat money—outlining the fiat standard's purposes and failures; deriving the wider economic, political, and social implications of its use; and examining how bitcoin will affect it over time.With penetrating insight, Ammous analyzes global political currencies by analogy to how they're "mined" whenever government-guaranteed entities create loans, their lack of inherent restraints on inflation, and the rampant government intervention that has resulted in heavy, devastating, and persistent distortions to global markets for food, fuel, science, and education.Through these comparisons, Ammous demonstrates that bitcoin could be our next step forward—providing high salability across space, just like the fiat system, but without the unchecked fiat-denominated debt. Rather than a messy hyperinflationary collapse, the rise of bitcoin could look like a debt jubilee and an orderly upgrade to the world's monetary operating system, revolutionizing global capital and energy markets.

Principles of Economics is a university-level textbook offering a comprehensive, engaging, and easy-to-read overview of the field of economics that is valuable to the university student, the general reader, and the professional economist. Saifedean Ammous’ first book, The Bitcoin Standard , is an international best-seller that has been translated into 36 languages. The book garnered praise from respected scholars, successful entrepreneurs, professional athletes, and countless readers worldwide for its engaging and enlightening presentation of sophisticated economic and technical concepts, delivered in a style accessible to the general reader. With its sequel, The Fiat Standard , Ammous established himself as one of the world’s most effective communicators of economic ideas, whose writing resonates with a growing global readership. In Principles of Economics , his most ambitious and elaborate work to date, Ammous offers readers a potent antidote to the modern economics textbook. After two decades of learning and teaching economics at university level, Ammous became aware that most economic textbooks confuse more than they illuminate and most university students tasked with reading them learn very little that is useful and actionable. The culmination of four years' work, this book uses the underappreciated approach of the Austrian school of economics to introduce the principles, methods, and concepts of economics in a readable, engaging, and informative manner. Rather than relying on mathematical analysis of aggregates and arcane theoretical models, the book uses the clear written word to effectively illustrate key economic concepts. The book first presents the Austrian school method and the foundational concepts of value and time. With these foundations laid, the second part of the book explores how humans act individually to achieve their ends under scarcity—in other words, how humans economize. A chapter is dedicated to detailed overviews of labor, property, capital, technology, and energy, and each topic is accompanied by vivid examples explaining its relevance to the reader. The third part of the book examines economizing in the social context, with chapters examining trade, money, the market order, and capitalism—important concepts that are often shrouded by misconceptions in most modern treatments. The fourth part of the book presents the Austrian perspective on monetary economics, laying the groundwork through a detailed discussion of time preference, followed by a discussion of banking and credit, and the business cycle and its monetary origins. The final section of the book explains why respect for property rights in an extended market order is the basis for human civilization, how the market order protects against aggression, and the failures of monopoly provision of defense.

Den væsentligste guide til bitcoins historie, egenskaber, anvendelse og fremtid.I Bitcoinstandarden giver økonom Saifedean Ammous læserne en gennemgang af de fascinerende teknologier, der historisk er brugt som penge, og diskuterer hvorfor de mistede denne rolle, hvad vi kan lære af dem, og hvordan bitcoin er designet som bedre penge. Ammous belyser de økonomiske, sociale, kulturelle og politiske fordele ved solide penge, og gennemgår argumenterne for hvordan bitcoin kan spille en rolle i fremtidens digitale økonomi. I stedet for at være en valuta for kriminelle eller et betalingsnetværk til billigt masseforbrug, argumenterer bogen for, at bitcoin er et decentraliseret, politisk neutralt og frimarkeds alternativ til nationale centralbanker, hvilket giver enorme konsekvenser for individuel frihed og velstand. For alle, der ønsker en dybere forståelse af nye digitale penge, er Bitcoinstandarden det væsentligste værktøj."Bitcoinstandarden bør være påkrævet læsning for alle i nutidens samfund. Den giver en kortfattet og sammenhængende fortælling om monetær teori, historien om penge, praktisk økonomi, og politisk påvirkning af erhvervsliv, kultur og økonomi. Bogen indeholder en af de bedste formuleringer, der er tilgængelig i nutidens erhvervslitteratur, af de dyder, stærke penge har, og om farerne ved en svag valuta. Bitcoinstandarden afliver samtidig, på mesterlig vis, myterne om moderne monetær teori og de ødelæggende ideer, der har domineret den fiatøkonomisk tankegang siden begyndelsen af det 20. århundrede."–Fra forordet af Michael Saylor, CEO for MicroStrategy"Jeg har dedikeret hele min karriere til at studere værker om økonomiske teorier, guldstandarden, sammenligninger af pengesystemer, centralbanker og forslag til både monetære- og finansielle reformer. Kun en lille brøkdel af bøgerne jeg har læst om disse emner, vil jeg vurdere som værende fremragende. Dr. Ammous' bog, Bitcoinstandarden, indeholder en fremragende behandling af disse emner. Derudover er den en af de få bøger, jeg har stødt på, der foretager en oplysende gennemgange af bitcoin. Bogen er essentiel læsning, for alle der er interesserede i at forstå, den rolle bitcoin kan udfylde i en et fremtidigt styre med frie og solide penge."–Dr. Joseph T. Salerno, Akademisk Vicepræsident af Mises InstituteDanish translation of The Bitcoin The Decentralized Alternative to Central Banking

Tras dos décadas aprendiendo y enseñando economía en la universidad, Saifedean Ammous se dio cuenta de que la mayoría de los libros de texto de economía confundían más de lo que los estudiantes universitarios que debían estudiarlos aprendían muy poco que fuera útil y aplicable.Este libro, culminación de cuatro años de trabajo, utiliza el enfoque de la escuela austriaca de pensamiento económico para presentar los principios, métodos y conceptos de la economía de forma amena, atractiva e informativa.En lugar de basarse en el análisis matemático de variables agregadas y en arcanos modelos teóricos, el libro utiliza la simple palabra escrita para explicar, de manera eficaz, los conceptos fundamentales de la economía.«Con el mismo espíritu didáctico con el que ha impartido clases en la Lebanese American University, o con el que ha escrito best sellers como The Bitcoin Standard, Saifedean Ammous nos invita a explorar temas que podrían resultar complejos de la mano de otros autores.» Ricardo B. Salinas Pliego«Este va a ser el libro que voy a recomendar a partir de ahora, cuando la gente me diga “quiero aprender economía”. Sin ninguna duda, es una auténtica obra maestra.» Tom Woods, ganador del Premio Hayek a la Trayectoria 2019

Una introducción accesible y exhaustiva a los fundamentos económicos desde la perspectiva de la escuela austriaca Principios de economía ofrece una visión general y clara de los conceptos fundamentales de la economía, lo que hace que sea ideal para estudiantes universitarios, economistas profesionales y el público general.Saifedean Ammous emplea el enfoque de la escuela austriaca de economía para explicar principios y métodos económicos, evitando complejos modelos matemáticos y agregados teóricos. A lo largo de sus cinco partes, el libro aborda temas como el valor, el tiempo, el trabajo, el capital, el dinero y los derechos de propiedad, proporcionando al lector ejemplos prácticos y relevantes. Esta obra es una herramienta esencial para quienes desean entender y aplicar la economía en el contexto moderno.

Ne Il Fiat Standard, l’economista di fama mondiale Saifean Ammous applica la sua personale lente analitica al sistema monetario fiat, spiegandolo quale conquista ingegneristica e tecnologica così come aveva fatto per spiegare Bitcoin nel suo best seller mondiale Il Bitcoin Standard.Questa volta, Ammous si addentra nelle questioni che portarono al passaggio dal gold standard all’odierno sistema monetario fiat controllato dai governi, evidenziandone scopi e fallimenti, analizzandone le vaste implicazioni economiche, politiche, sociali ed esaminandone il cambiamento potenziale causato da Bitcoin.Con un approfondimento penetrante, Ammous analizza le valute di stampo politico ricorrendo all’analogia col funzionamento di come vengono “minate” attraverso l’erogazione del credito, la mancanza di vincoli alla loro emissione inflazionistica e il crescente intervento governativo che ha finito col provocare pesanti, devastanti, persistenti distorsioni nei mercati globali dell’alimentazione, delle fonti energetiche, della scienza e dell’educazione.Attraverso questi paralleli, Ammous dimostra come Bitcoin potrebbe rappresentare un salto in avanti, fornendo un sistema monetario con alta commerciabilità nello spazio come quello fiat, ma senza il pesante fardello del debito che quest’ultimo alimenta senza limiti e freni. Piuttosto che emergere da un collasso iperinflazionistico del sistema fiat, l’ascesa stessa di Bitcoin potrebbe offrire l’opportunità di un giubileo del debito e un ordinato aggiornamento del sistema monetario, rivoluzionando i mercati globali dei capitali e dell’energia.

What would the twentieth century have looked like on a gold standard? What would have happened to the state without its money printer? What would have happened to prices, wages, living standards, capital markets, politics, energy production, technology, and education?In The Gold Standard, internationally bestselling author Saifedean Ammous answers these questions with a unique alternative history that is one-third history, one-third novel, and one-third economic analysis.In 1911, French aviation pioneer Louis Blériot partners with the Wright brothers to build the Blériot Transport Corporation (BTC)—an airplane-based decentralized peer-to-peer gold-settlement network. Dismissed by economists and the press as a doomed eccentricity, BTC alters world history in 1915 when it offers Europeans the chance to escape central bank war inflation by exporting their wealth to neutral countries. The result is a global financial panic that bankrupts the world’s major central banks and destroys their currencies. The World War comes to an abrupt end, and the fiat money experiment is strangled in its crib.A new world order emerges around a free-market decentralized gold standard, and an entirely different twentieth century unfolds. Hard-money savings make capital plentiful and cheap, accelerating technological progress and increasing energy production. The death of central banking and the rise of a free market in banking force financial institutions to become safer and more responsible. Governments become accountable service providers, while citizens become customers who expect—and receive—better service at a lower cost year after year.Much more unfolds in this gripping, serious, and thought-provoking story written in Ammous’s trademark engaging style.