The Bitcoin Standard Podcast

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-reorientation
• PUBLIC: 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.com
• Looking Glass Education Platform - lookingglasseducation.com
• James 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 Rochard
• The Myth of National Defense – Hans Herman Hoppe
• Debate with Mashinsky
• Saifedean’s thread on why withdraw bitcoin from exchanges 
• Only the stronger survive – Allen Farrington 
• Dylan’s Thread on GBTC and Grayscale
• Dylan’s Thread on Genesis 
• Dylan’s thread on Alameda Pitch Deck 
• Luke Gromen Twitter account
• 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.

Crowdhealth CEO Andy Schoonover joins us for a wide-ranging discussion of the failures of fiat healthcare and health insurance, and how his new startup Crowdhealth, works to solve them. Andy explains the institutional and regulatory reasons that make healthcare costs continue to rise, and why insurance companies have the perverse incentive to let costs rise. He also explains how Crowdhealth uses bitcoin to make healthcare affordable for patients and better rewarding for doctors by taking the insurance companies out of the equation.

References (All links available on saifedean.com/podcast/144-fiat-healthcare-crowdhealth-with-andy-schoonover)

• 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.

Rowais Hanna operates Coinbits' Twitter account, and has used it to publish fascinating in-depth investigations into the common myths of modern macroeconomics. He joins us to discuss the Consumer Price Index, how it is calculated, and the endless justifications used to adjust it. We also discuss the mythical origins of the 2% inflation target, and the trade-off between unemployment and inflation, and why supposedly empirical economists refuse to ever admit it is invalid. Rowais also discusses why he views bitcoin as the only way out of this mess, and how Coinbits helps onboard newcomers to bitcoin in a smooth and easy-to-understand way. We conclude with a discussion of Rowais' thoughts on bitcoin through a Biblical lens.

References (All links available on saifedean.com/podcast/143-macro-myths-with-coinbits-rowais-hanna)

• Rent Equivalence Fiat-splanation
• CPI “misconception” response from BLS
• NY Fed Research connecting credit expansion and tuition rising
• Rowais’ essay on Bitcoin through a Biblical Lens
• The Origins of 2 Percent Inflation Target – Mises .org 
• Rowais’ tweet about being at the Egyptian Central Bank  
• Sheikh Imam, The Ballad of Beans and Meat
• Coinbits blog 
• The philips curve is actually a blob
• Coinbits ultimate Thread
• 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.

Why are so many bitcoin miners going bankrupt? We discuss the economics of bitcoin mining, how the difficulty adjustment works, why it makes bitcoin mining a zero sum game, and why it ensures bitcoin is optimized for the saver, not for the miner. Plus, what are the things you need to keep in mind if you are considering getting into mining? 

Resources (All links available on saifedean.com/podcast/142-why-bitcoin-miners-get-rekt)

• 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.

Join us as we take a close look at the amazing series of events in a week in which FTX went from being one of the biggest crypto exchanges in the world, to being exposed as a fraudulent ponzi scheme, and its founder went from being a globally acclaimed & highly politically influential successful genius entrepreneur and philanthropist to a reviled con artist, who lost his investors & clients billions of dollars. What lessons can we learn from this episode about bitcoin, sh*tcoins, DeFi, and exchanges?

Resources (All links available on saifedean.com/podcast/141-ftx-beyond-ponzi)

• 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.

Richard Lindzen is professor of Meteorology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and he joins us to offer his scientific expertise on climate alarmism. He discusses how his background in physics and meteorology leads him to conclude that the alarmism around climate is unjustified, and we discuss how institutional and financial reasons have made fiat scientists so keen to promote an agenda of fear and panic. We discuss the problems with the academic publication industry, as well as Professor Lindzen’s experience as a lead author with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and where that led him. He also shares his most recent work on communicating his research ideas publicly.

References (All links available on saifedean.com/podcast/140-climate-alarmism-with-professor-richard-lindzen)

• Professor Lindzen’s recent paper ‘The Assessment of The Conventional Global Warming Narrative” for which he welcomes comments
• Professor Lindzen’s profile on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology website.
• Transcript of 2018 Prof Lindzen’s Global Warming Policy Foundation lecture.
• Professor Lindzen speaking at the 2017 At the Crossroads IV: Energy and Climate Policy Summit.
• CO2 coalition website
• Article on 97% of scientists agree with consensus in WSJ 
• 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.

Alex Epstein joins us again to discuss his excellent new book, Fossil Future, which makes a powerful case for why fossil fuels are essential for human flourishing, and why restricting them is the real crisis facing humanity. Alex explains how overhyped the supposed ‘alternatives’ to fossil fuels are, and how fossil fuels remain completely essential for our modern standards of living, and why their use is constantly growing. Why do fossil fuels represent the only realistic alternative to poverty and early death for everyone on earth? Why do carbonhysterics only focus on the supposed negative impacts of fossil fuels, but never their benefits? Why is it so hard to have an honest debate with carbonhysterics? We also discuss how the use of fossil fuels was instrumental in ending slavery and liberating women, and whether fiat inflation is the driver of the propaganda to vilify fossil fuels. We conclude with a discussion of whether fossil fuels really are from fossils, or if they are naturally occurring in earth.

Resources (All links available on saifedean.com/podcast/139-fossil-future-with-alex-epstein)

• Alex’s book Fossil Future 
• Get a free copy of Alex’s book from fossilfuture.com
• Subscribe to Alex’s Substack “Energy Talking Points”
• A Question of Power: Electricity and the Wealth of Nations by Robert Bryce
• Three billion people use less electricity than the average American fridge.
• Alex's podcast interview with Professor Mukul Sharma on fracking
• 18 spectacularly wrong climate predictions from the 1970s, including several made by Paul Ehrlich.
• Alex’s Congressional Testimony, May 19, 2021
• Alex eviscerates COP26 on GB News
• Saifedean’s first book, The Bitcoin Standard
• Saifedean’s second book, The Fiat Standard
• Alex's previous appearances on The Bitcoin Standard podcast:
  TBS16: Wholesome Hydrocarbons
  TBS90: Climate Hysteria

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.

Princeton Professor Emeritus in Physics, William Happer, joins us to discuss the impact of CO2 on the Earth's climate and the state of modern science. What is the scientific evidence on the relationship between CO2 and Earth's climate? Does CO2 drive the Earth's temperature, or does temperature drive CO2? What does the fossil record tell us about the state of the world's climate in the past? Is current warming unprecedented? Why don't scientists study the evidence of prehistoric forests in the Arctic, and what it implies for historical temperatures? Why is there little focus on the enormous benefits of CO2? What is the evidence for CO2 driving ocean acidification? How much better are scientists today from the scientists involved in the Salem witch hunt? How does politicization affect science, and why does Professor Happer think that the more policy-driven a field is, the less trustworthy its conclusions are?

References (All links available on saifedean.com/podcast/138-climate-physics-with-professor-william-happer)

• Professor Happer’s 2014 paper Why has global warming paused?
• The CO2 Coalition website.
• Does ocean acidification alter fish behavior
• Elsmere Island Mummified Forest
• Professor Happer's editorial with Harisson Schmitt: In defence of Carbon Dioxide
• Professors Lindzen and Happer's Comment on the SEC's Proposed Rule "The Enhancement and Standardization of Climate-Related Disclosures for Investors."
  https://co2coalition.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Happer-Lindzen-SEC-6-17-22.pdf
• 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.