In this podcast we discussed last week seminar with Microstrategy CEO Michael Saylor. We go over his strategy for buying bitcoin and wether it works for everyone. Then we discuss wether his actions and analysis contradict the bitcoin stock to flow model. Finally, we move on to discuss how we can reconcile the stock to flow model with praxeology and the Austrian economics we cover in our courses on saifedean.com

How would the free market have handled a respiratory illness? After a year of evidence, including my personal experience with the illness, we discuss the effectiveness of individual and public health precautions and interventions.

We examine the difference in approach through the lens of Mises' calculation problem. What economic problems face public health authorities, and what would we have done without them?

We are also re-joined by Philipp Bagus, who has just published a paper on the political economy of mass hysteria.

You can find Philipp's paper here.

Article: Why COVID-19 is more deadly in people with obesity—even if they’re young

Covid-19: Why are age and obesity risk factors for serious disease?

This week we host Philipp Bagus, the economist who wrote the definitive Austrian treatment of deflation, In Defense of Deflation. We discuss the history of anti-deflation thought in economics, the different kinds of deflation, the consequences of deflation, and whether this is a problem for bitcoin. We also discuss Philipp's views on bitcoin, as well as his work on the Euro.

We are joined by Austrian-school economist Per Bylund to discuss entrepreneurship as studied in the Austrian school tradition, and how and why the treatment of this topic differs from mainstream schools of thought. Per is a Fellow of the Mises Institute and Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship & Records-Johnston Professor of Free Enterprise in the School of Entrepreneurship in the Spears School of Business at Oklahoma State University.

Stephan is a patent autorney and Libertarian scholar, from whom I’ve learned a lot over the years. Although he is not an economist, he has made a very important contribution to economics by providing the best alaboration of the case against intellectual property.

I highly recommend his paper “Against Intellectual Property”, which I taught in my ECO12 class.

Jed Grant is CEO of KYC3.com and founder of OpenCryptoAlliance, which is attempting to help fight patent trolls in the bitcoin space. We discussed the nature of patents and the threat they pose for bitcoiners and bitcoin companies, and how they attempt to fix it.

Links mentioned in the seminar:

• The Overwhelming Empirical Case Against Patent and Copyright
• Legal Scholars: Thumbs Down on Patent and Copyright
• Tabarrok: Patent Policy on the Back of a Napkin
• AskProfWolff: Patents and Copyrights: A Socialist Approach
• What would a blockchain patent war look like?
• A Patent War is Coming…
• Alibaba on Track to Be the Largest Blockchain Patent Holder by End of 2020: Study
• The Current State of Blockchain Patents
• The Fight against Intellectual Property
• Boldrin and Levine: The Case Against Patents
• Economic and Game Theory Against Intellectual Monopoly
• Lotnet – Prevent unwanted litigation while preserving the use of your patents
• Do Business Without Intellectual Property
• Defensive Patent Publishing

Saifedean discusses chapters 3 and 4 of The Fiat Standard with subscribers. These foundational chapters explain how the fiat system functions with analogy to Bitcoin, studying central banks as nodes and examining their core functions, explaining how lending in fiat is the equivalent of mining in bitcoin, how it translates to supply issuance, and how to understand price inflation in fiat. Join saifedean.com to receive new chapters as they're written, before publication!

In this seminar we are joined by Preston Pysh, an investor and podcaster who has produced excellent thought-provoking research on bitcoin. We discuss Preston's journey from value investor to bitcoiner, and how he bridges his Warren Buffet background with being a bitcoiner. We also discuss his fascinating mental model for thinking about bitcoin bull runs, and whether this bull run will be similar to previous ones in being followed by a big crash, or if this time will be different.

Description: Discussion of the economics of time, based on chapter 3 in Saifedean's forthcoming textbook, Principles of Economics. Why is time the ultimate resource, and how does money affect time preference.

Subscribe on saifedean.com to receive weekly emails with the chapters of Saifedean's books!

In today's seminar, we discuss why bitcoin's price matters, what bitcoin skeptics get wrong about it, and what it means to the success of the network. We also discuss the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's new guidance allowing banks to use public blockchains as settlement infrastructure, and how it agrees with The Bitcoin Standard's thesis.

Thomas Semaan is an ex-student of Saifedean who has been active in the Lebanese bitcoin scene. He joins us to tell us about the Lebanese fiat crisis, how bitcoin has helped him and other bitcoiners, and compare its effectiveness to political activism and delusions of reform.

• Bitcoin Du Liban website and TG group.
• Thomas's blog.

We are joined by Bitcoin trader and analyst Tone Vays, to discuss professional trading, amateur trading, bitcoin trading, and the likely course of the bitcoin bull market.

In today’s seminar we discuss Central Bank Digital Currencies and what they mean for Bitcoin. What are the likely contours of a new global monetary system, in the wake of the global economic crises? Finally we examine Hayek’s proposal for competing currencies and whether it makes him a shitcoiner.

Gold became money as determined by the free market because of its properties—scarcity. But with the invention of Bitcoin, we are now seeing a historical event that will never be repeated. Bitcoin’s characteristics make it a direct competitor to the central banks because of its absolute scarcity, resistance to theft and confiscation, and the system that it’s built upon prevents it from being shut down.

Saifedean Ammous, economist and author of The Bitcoin Standard: The Decentralized Alternative to Central Banking says, “The higher the ratio of the stock to the flow, the more likely a good is to maintain its value over time and thus be more salable across time.” And he says it’s this reason Bitcoin is the only working alternative for central banking.

Host Robert Kiyosaki and Saifedean Ammous answer the questions surrounding Bitcoin and why it the “first demonstrably reliable operational example of digital cash and digital hard money.”

Website: www.saifedean.com

This week we are joined by Russell Lamberti, macroeconomic analyst from the Austrian School, to discuss the global macro outlook, and how bitcoin fits in. Russell is on Twitter on @RussLamberti

The Fiat Standard - Chapter 1 Read by Guy Swann

"For the reader who has become familiar with the operation of bitcoin, a good way to understand the operation of fiat is by drawing analogy to the operation of bitcoin using concepts like mining, nodes, balances, and proof of work. My aim is to explain the operation and engineering structure of the fiat monetary system and how it operates, in reality, away from the naive romanticism of governments and banks who have benefited from this system for a century." - Saifedean Ammous

Today we dig into Chapter 1 of the sequel to the seminal work in the Bitcoin ecosystem, The Fiat Standard. The book is being published on Saifedean.com chapter by chapter before its final release, and you can subscribe to get his courses and the other chapters as they release. But today we dig into the first chapter, the ideas, and a new mindset for examining the failures and successes of fiat money. This is not to be missed.

Visit saifedean.com for more information on The Fiat Standard, the new book by Saifedean Ammous.

Find Guy Swann on Twitter @TheCryptoconomy

In today's seminar we discuss Microstrategy's latest issuance of notes to finance more purchases of bitcoin, and what it tells us about the state of fiat markets and bitcoin. We also discuss bitcoin price bubbles, and how they relate to halvings and the stock-to-flow ratio.

Saifedean joins Stephan to discuss the underlying technology behind The Fiat Standard, how it operates, and what bitcoin can teach us about how the fiat system functions!

Jeff Booth is a long-time leader in the tech industry and the founder and ex-CEO of BuildDirect, who recently wrote The Price of Tomorrow: Why Deflation Is the Key to an Abundant Future. He joins us to discuss inflation and deflation, why deflation is the natural state of markets, and how a hard money like bitcoin fixes much of what is wrong with today's world.

PLanB is the pseudonym of a Dutch money manager and quantitative analyst who has produced a numerical modelling of bitcoin's price based on its stock-to-flow ratio, after reading about it in The Bitcoin Standard. He joins us to discuss his model, why he thinks it holds so well, what he expects to happen to the model long term, and what problems the model has.

Find out more on PlanBTC.com.

Alex Epstein is the author of The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels, and the founder of the Center for Industrial Progress. He joins us to discuss his work on the importance of energy, and in particular fossil fuels.

• Center for Industrial Progress
• The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels

In today's seminar we host Stephen Barbour, founder and CEO of Upstream Data, Inc. We discuss Upstream's unique products which allow for mining bitcoin off of methane gas that cannot be sold economically otherwise. We also discuss the economics of Bitcoin mining, the difficulty adjustment, and different energy sources.

Upstream Data's website.

In today's seminar, Saifedean discusses his new book The Fiat Standard, on which he has been working for two years! You can read the first chapter, and sign up to receive a new chapter every week, on saifedean.com!