The Fiat Standard: Debt Slavery Alternative to Human Civilization Hardcover – November 16, 2021

If you read only two books on economics and money, it should be The Bitcoin Standard, and this sequel, The Fiat Standard. This is a two-book master class on economics, money, and how governments destroyed them for their own gain - at your expense.You'll get a little background history here (but more in his first book), as he traces the path to today's bubble waiting to explode. Then the chapters on how fiat money has enabled terrible health, bad energy policies, destruction of social relations, etc., is a priceless and eye-opening discussion. If this doesn't impress upon you how important it is to understand and get her head out of the sand, nothing will.The devaluing of money, the constant "printing" of currency, has made us unwitting slaves to system that claims to be democratic. On the surface, maybe it is, but when you realize what the elite have done to your wealth and earnings, you never support the status-quo again.

If you've ever felt like you've done all the right things but you can't get ahead, this book explains exactly why

Saif is a genius and completely educates & elucidates us on the free market, gold standard, history of money and Austrian economics versus the plundering corrupt Keynesian centrally controlled money

Really enjoyed this book. Offers compelling insight into how fiat economies came about and the subsequent effects that the transition to fiat has had on many different aspects of society such as education, food quality, science, and more.Good quality print, too.

After reading the Bitcoin standard this was a great reflection about the fiat system.Well written and easy to underatand. This should be your fiat 101!

The Fiat Standard evaluates how government/elite corruption through monopoly control of the monetary system over the last century has decimated the industries of modern research/acedemia, innovation, food production, energy production, personal savings, and the development of other nations. It will open your eyes. The author went just a little too far on the perfection of meat, but the processed food bashing was well deserved.Overall I enjoyed this book even more than the Bitcoin Standard.I would also recommend pairing with “Inventing Bitcoin” (very short), and “The Creature From Jekyll Island.”Becoming aware of the blatant government/elite corruption that you are not taught in school is definitely worth it.

Great read

I read both The Bitcoin Standard and this book, and until about 1/2 way through The Fiat Standard, I was really impressed and excited about Saifedean's point of view and arguments. But then things started going off the rails. He descended into the very failure modes he was criticizing, which obviously compromised his credibility. In particular, when attacking climate change, he sounded like a raving lunatic railing against anyone who supports work to combat climate change as a servant of the evil empire. He essentilally argued for just continuing with the hydrocarbon-based society. What could go wrong? I mean, there's no need to worry about the fact that we're burning through billions of years of natural hydrocarbon production in hundreds of years. I was amazed at his incredible ignorance about technology development. His argument that renewable energy is complex and expensive is wrong-headed to the extreme. It ignores the fact that we're early on the development curve for these technologies, and fundamental tech like this is generally extremely expensive in the early days. Is it worth it? Well, I guess if you believe that pumping arbitrary amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere forever is fine and that somehow, hydrocarbons are actually renewable, then sure, great. Let's do it. I'm in. But, well, there *is* a fair amount of evidence to the contrary of both of those points. Consider that, while oil at one time was quite easy to find and exploit, today it is incredibly difficult to find and pump out of the Earth, requiring advanced technology and large amounts of capital. Of course, we also have a very mature hydrocarbon-based society with all the associated infrastructure, so it is straightforward to justify such investment. To transition to another paradigm, it is expensive and uncomfortable, but it is, to say the least, shortsighted to think such a transition is optional. Saifedean's aggressive preserve-the-status-quo argument is disappointing on multiple levels. It demonstrates that he actually is not truth-seeking in the way he presents himself to be. It shows that he ignorant about science and the nature of discontinuous innovation. It makes one question all other arguments he makes in the two books, given that he provides only minimal true support for them. With such a great start, it is sad to see him snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.