Austrian School Economists were Bitcoiners, They Just Didn’t Know It Yet
Since Bitcoin is often equated to and dubbed as “digital gold,” would famous Austrian school economic theorist Ludwig von Mises choose Bitcoin over the world’s favorite precious metal if he were alive today? In a 1951 book titled “The Free Market and Its Enemies,” theoretical Austrian School economist, Ludwig von Mises, argues against the dangers of fiat....
Related News
This is a guest post by Ben Best. Bitcoin and Austrian Economics. Austrian Economists are harsh critics of government central banks (such as the Federal Reserve System of the United States - a name intended to obscure its role as a central bank, unlike the Bank of England). Austrian Economists can also be very critical of fractional reserve banking, the practice of lending money in greater quantity than the amount of deposits. For these reasons, Austrian Economists could be expected to be enthusiastic supporters of Bitcoin. Unfortunately, this is usually not the case. Cryptocurrency,....
Here's Part 1: The Value Foundations of Bitcoin. While gritting teeth and shaking hands with Bitcoin is necessary, Austrian economists should flash a toothy smile and embrace it warmly. Bitcoin is, after all, Rothbardian money. I say this because Bitcoin digitally manifests the optimal attributes given to money by Austrian School economist Murray Rothbard. Because of the distributed nature of its protocol, Bitcoin is, in fact, superior to its alternatives: fiat money and a return to precious metals. The comparative advantages Bitcoin provides are staggering and therefore those who champion....
This is a guest post by Andrew Criscione who co-organizes the Mises Group in Boston, Ma. He hosted Jeffrey Tucker for a dinner with the Mises Group members and shared the experience. The Boston Austrian Economics Group held the event "Bitcoin and Bowties" featuring Jeffrey Tucker, CEO of Liberty.me and publisher of Laissez Faire Books. Tucker is an influential Austrian economist, author, and former editor for the foremost repository of Austrian thought, Mises.org. Austrian economics is a school that holds much weight in the libertarian and crypto-anarchist circles so intertwined with....
The greatest accomplishment of Satoshi's technological advancement must be the ability to make huge power structures irrelevant. Making money and the financial system based in math and not in the whims of central authority is the most revolutionary change we may see in our time. However, there is a growing political thought that opposes the traditional monetary system for all the wrong reasons. Greenbackers are fiat money supporters that want to end the Federal Reserve and central banks in order to give the power of money to the government, allowing the state to print off money instead of....
The vast majority of economists seem to have a serious distaste for Bitcoin. Whenever an economist who has received a Nobel Prize, teaches at an Ivy League school or works at a central bank comments on Bitcoin, they always seem to have something negative to say about the technology. Some of these individuals simply say that Bitcoin has no future whatsoever, while others go as far as to claim it is pure evil. Paul Krugman, who won the 2008 Nobel Prize in Economics, has ridiculed Bitcoin on multiple occasions. Late last month, fellow Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz shared his own disdain for....