Gold Standard Explained | Saifedean Ammous and Lex Fridman

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GUEST BIO:
Saifedean Ammous is an Austrian economist and author of The Bitcoin Standard and The Fiat Standard.

PODCAST INFO:

SOCIAL:

[brandonbuhrmusic]

You should have Peter Schiff on your podcast

[justinpliskowski]

Look I can summarize this real simply. Gold standards force governments to run balanced budgets and to be accountable for their spending... That's why they hate them

[toddweatherly]

When did Michel Knowles learn all this

[mazklassa]

There is a fantastic, indispensable educational film illustrating how the Gold standard works. It's called "I want the earth plus 5%". It's all about how the money system was conceived. Before fiat currency was invented people used bartering and trading of goods that were NEEDED (not "wanted" in a desired sense). But as there were limits to what needs could be met and what needs couldn't, people needed a more efficient way of trading value based on needs/wants, because of the sheer scale of difference between everyone's personal and individual needs to meet the expectations of life - hence the creation of paper money and a credit system in the form of "I owe yous".

[vvsmixing]

he right about everything except one.. copper doesn’t rust lol! that why your water pipes are made out of them!

[SuperSoldier]

Lex, at this point it’s criminal you haven’t had on Warren Mosler, Bill Mitchell, Randall Wray, or someone similar.

Not once on this channel have I been exposed to a heterodox view on the origin/function of money. It’s borderline ridiculous given the academic strength of that community.

[markpalmer]

Of course, he's completely right and one of the smartest men around.

[msdm]

The gold standard is based on the concept that having to tied your bedroom is theft. And I stand by that

[mathrodite]

Copper has an extremely finite supply. Because of its importance in industrial use, may actually be more valuable than gold. But the real illogicality is he doesn't realize any standard currency can be subdivided infinitely, just like bitcoin. It does not imply value in any meaningful way.

[JosueA_]

You must explain to us why this guy says that bitcoin is so safe and right now the price went down like crazy. Comments ?

[jonathanfrouws]

So is "Hard money" anything that's physically hard to make as money due to it's limited nature? Not a lot of gold around/ silver. If silver was as abundant as grass it would be considered soft in it's nature if it was considered a currency at some point in time?

[MrRickkramer]

Better trade in your currency for money real fast...

[zacharybennett]

Hi there Mr. Guy, Money is a legally binding contract for debt owed and credit earned, which is finalized at the point of transfer. The value of a good, service or future is determined by the participating parties in the exchange. (Participation includes everyone that worked on the process to allow the finalized outcome)
Humans decided the value of goods services and futures, and therefore create "value" in that assignment. The "value of money" is just the standardized unit of measurement for these exchanges.
So yes, Money is a human construct.

Signed- a realist

[Geokinkladze]

In a scene from The Restaurant at the End of the Universe some survivors have crash landed on a habitable planet and the leaf is established as currency. In order to curb inflation a number of forests are destroyed.

Economic theory in a nutshell.

[danielmarin]

Silver could be used for lower denominations

[cryptic]

And, what was before gold as a standard? Most likely, animals and agriculture products.

[cigancrni]

Copper does not rust.. it is a precious metal.

[snowsandmicstand]

You can tell lex isn’t listening. Happens throughout the full interview.

[pupwizard]

Just use gold and silver DIRECTLY. No receipts, no "gold standard", just start circulating real gold and silver.

[brennangum]

Fractional reserves isn't "shady"... It's fairly common. Our gold standard was fractional. Theres also plenty of ways to manipulate it. Other central banks started bascially robbing our gold reserves by turning in dollars for gold.