On the subject of money, entrepreneurs, invention, innovation

Jordan Peterson interviews a Brazilian-Lebanese-American economist of the Austrian School, Saifedean Ammous. Very good on the conception of what money is. Highly recommended value for your  investment in time.

  • Peterson at 28:15 on  the astonishing series of assumptions that lie behind the view that we can fix “global warming”. The fatal conceit that lies behind the idea that we can solve it – “fatal conceit” being a term that Hayek coined.
  • There follows a fascinating discussion of what kind of people entrepreneurs are: open to innovation and ideas (at 39:00).
  • The free market conception of money versus the statist conception of money. (at 42:00) Money is a product of the market, not the state.
  • Ammous says that Bitcoin is by definition the hardest currency, meaning least amenable to inflation.
  • The incentive of governments is to print money, which is enormously profitable to them.
  • Peterson: I am always more afraid of the solutions to climate change than I am to climate change. “The solutions terrify me.”
  • You cannot think long term about the planet when your wealth is continuously eroded by inflation. (at 58:00)

Ammous is the author of “The Bitcoin Standard”.   Fiat money is devaluing at 7% per year, meaning it loses about half its value in ten years. And what interest rates are you getting at the bank?