Person
Every book Saifedean Ammous recommended on podcasts
Key facts
- Saifedean Ammous has recommended or discussed 7 books on podcasts, as of May 11, 2022.
- Saifedean Ammous has talked about books on 3 podcasts, as of May 11, 2022.
- Those books came up in 3 episodes, as of May 11, 2022.
- The 3 books Saifedean Ammous has mentioned in the most episodes, not counting Saifedean Ammous's own, as of May 11, 2022: Human Action, The Blocksize War and Principles of economics.
- The latest episode with a book mention from Saifedean Ammous aired on May 11, 2022.
Updated
Across 3 podcasts. Every show Saifedean Ammous appears on, in one place — not just one.
Saifedean Ammous’s most recommended books
- Human Action by Ludwig von Mises, Bettina Bien Greaves
- The Blocksize War by Jonathan Bier
- Principles of economics by Carl Menger
- Socialism by Ludwig Von Mises
- The theory of money and credit by Ludwig von Mises
Saifedean Ammous is a Palestinian-Jordanian economist, author, and prominent advocate of Bitcoin. Ammous is best known for his book The Bitcoin Standard (2018), which explains the economics of Bitcoin grounded in the principles of Austrian economics and critiques modern fiat currencies and contemporary economics. During his appearance on the Lex Fridman Podcast, Saifedean Ammous recommended Jonathan Bier's book, The Blocksize War, to explain how network nodes triumphed over miners and how participants in 2017 realized they could not control Bitcoin. Throughout the conversation, Ammous also discussed several foundational economic texts. He highlighted Ludwig von Mises's comprehensive 1940s treatise Human Action, Carl Menger's 1871 work Principles of Economics—which established the Austrian school and introduced marginal analysis—and Mises's 1912 text The Theory of Money and Credit. Additionally, during an appearance on This Week in Startups, he referred to his own follow-up book, The Fiat Standard, to explain how fiat currency has subsidized dysfunctional forms of energy over the preceding fifty years and led to grid unreliability. Finally, when speaking on The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast, Ammous brought up Ludwig von Mises's 1922 book Socialism to discuss historical critiques of socialist central planning and to argue that no socialist had successfully comprehended Mises's arguments regarding economic calculation.
Books recommended by Saifedean Ammous
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Human Action
Human Action by Ludwig von Mises is a foundational and dense treatise on Austrian economics, methodological individualism, and human decision-making.
Discussed“and then in the 40s he wrote human action which is a big treatise on economics”
Where to get it
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The Bitcoin Standard
Saifedean Ammous's "The Bitcoin Standard" offers a detailed exploration of the history of money and argues for the economic necessity of a hard, decentralized currency rooted in Austrian economic principles.
Recommended“it's a great description of in 2017 essentially the miners thought that they could control bitcoin”
Where to get it
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The Blocksize War
The Blocksize War by Jonathan Bier is an analytical deep dive into the intense scaling conflicts and ideological battles that tested the decentralized governance of Bitcoin.
Recommended“but there's a recent book that discusses this in detail called the blocksize war by jonathan beer”
Where to get it
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Principles of economics
Principles of Economics by Carl Menger is a foundational economic text that established the Austrian School of Economics and introduced the revolutionary concept of marginalism.
Discussed“and the um the establishment of the austrian school per se came in 1871 150 years ago when karl menger the father of the school wrote a book called principles of economics and essentially invented marginal analysis which is a big deal in economics”
Where to get it
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Socialism
Socialism by Ludwig Von Mises is a 1922 treatise that offers a rigorous economic critique of socialist systems and central planning.
Discussed“this is one of the critiques that mises has leveled at socialism exactly a century ago 1922 he wrote his book socialism and until today I don't think there has been a single socialist that has actually Illustrated their ability to comprehend this point”
Where to get it
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The Fiat Standard
Saifedean Ammous's book The Fiat Standard explores the economic consequences of government-issued fiat currency systems, arguing that traditional monetary policies have subsidized dysfunctional energy grids and various structural inefficiencies over the past half-century.
Discussed“i think so i think this is this is a point that i make in the fiat standard which is that you know we've had fiat subsidize all these dysfunctional forms of energy over the last 50 years that have led to the grid becoming unreliable”
Where to get it
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The theory of money and credit
The Theory of Money and Credit is a foundational treatise on monetary economics and business cycles written by Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises in 1912.
Discussed“and he developed a theory of money and um he wrote a book in 1912 called the theory of money and credit”
Where to get it
Books Saifedean Ammous wrote
Appearances
Other mentions (18: passing, ad reads, own books)
“in the bitcoin standard i present the argument that money is always whatever is the hardest thing to make”
“In "The Bitcoin Standard," I present the argument that money is always whatever is the hardest thing to make.”
“Over the last 150 years since 1870, I discuss this in detail in "The Bitcoin Standard."”
“and i discussed this in detail in uh the bitcoin standard what happened in 1870 was germany won the franco-prussian war and germany was on a silver standard”
“so if you look at on in the bitcoin standard i mentioned this metric called the stock to flow ratio which is the ratio of the annual production the flow to the stockpile the existing stockpiles”
“and i discussed this in chapter four of the bitcoin standard”
“After what happened in World War I, this changed; I discussed this in detail in The Fiat Standard.”
“But with the fiat system, and this is where I make a breakthrough in my book, fiat replaces gold mining with credit creation.”
“and I think this is a big deal and essentially the first four chapters of my book focus on explaining why this is such a big deal”
“and um this is kind of the sociological explanations for it now to get more technical in terms of the explanations”
“and in fact I discussed this in the Fiat standard uh okay I use this as a as an uh as an example of how Fiat corrupts the planet”
“and I think this is something I discuss extensively in the Bitcoin standard I think that's uh highly related to the time preference of individuals which is an enormously important topic”
“I've done the numbers in the Fiat standard”
“also we've always used but again it won't build you a car um in order to have all these modern conveniences that we have we need those energies and people in the Fiat world are completely dissociated from this reality”
“so in the Fiat standard looking at the uh looking at the way that the Fiat money works as uh you know”
“um what happens is that uh you know if more miners try and mine copper or gold or silver you end up with a lot more copper or so gold or silver”
“um what happens is that uh you know if more miners try and mine copper or gold or silver you end up with a lot more copper or so gold or silver”
“and in fact I begin the second section of my Fiat standard books called Fiat life”