Adam and Bob have a fascinating conversation about all things money! How and why it came about, what it does for us, where things went wrong, and where do we go from here?
00:00 — Intro. Adam has questions about money. What "is" money? How do we define it?
06:09 — What is the origin of money? How do we know? Do we have a historical record? How would we answer this question with theory? In answering this question, we begin to see why money is useful — even essential.
20:25 — What are the competing theories? If we believe in a bottom up emergence, what are the alternative hypotheses? You'll never guess, ideology drives which theory is believed.
26:43 — Bob explains Mises's famous "regression theorem" solution to the seeming "circular" argument problem about explaining where money gets it's value.
30:46 — Given that the "money" value of the money commodity quickly becomes MUCH larger than its commodity value, how do we think about money completely separated from it's commodity use case? Can such a thing actually be money? Clearly, we use a fiat dollar. How do these principles relate to Bitcoin?
41:01 — So, we're stuck with the fiat US dollar now, and the US government is over $35 trillion in debt. How bad is our situation and what comes next?
50:49 — Adam wonders if we can increase our productivity with innovations in tech such that we "grow" our way out a complete financial collapse? Bob's answer inspires a brief but interesting talk about what LLMs (AI) are, and what they are not.
59:21 — What's the deal with "de-dollarization"? Will the US dollar lose its status as the "reserve currency of the world"? What happens if it does?
64:47 — Austrian Economist FA Hayek had a "competing currency" proposal to let us opt out of a fiat system. Can that be resurrected and apply in the modern age?
70:26 — Adam asks his most important question of the episode! Also, Bob talks about the goofy plan of: Mint a platinum coin and stamp “$1 trillion" on it. Then sell it to the Fed for actual money. What could go wrong?
77:14 — Outro.
Bitcoin website/article mentioned:
Adam's other show: Natural Order Podcast
Bob Murphy Crossover: Making (sense of) money | Hn 57