The New York Times bestselling author of The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels draws on the latest data and new insights to challenge everything you thought you knew about the future of energy For over a decade, philosopher and energy expert Alex Epstein has predicted that any negative impacts of fossil fuel use on our climate will be outweighed by the unique benefits of fossil fuels to human flourishing--including their unrivaled ability to provide low-cost, reliable energy to billions of people around the world, especially the world’s poorest people. And contrary to what we hear from media “experts” about today’s “renewable revolution” and “climate emergency,” reality has proven Epstein right: * Fact: Fossil fuels are still the dominant source of energy around the world, and growing fast—while much-hyped renewables are causing skyrocketing electricity prices and increased blackouts. * Fact: Fossil-fueled development has brought global poverty to an all-time low. * Fact: While fossil fuels have contributed to the 1 degree of warming in the last 170 years, climate-related deaths are at all-time lows thanks to fossil-fueled development. What does the future hold? In Fossil Future, Epstein, applying his distinctive “human flourishing framework” to the latest evidence, comes to the shocking conclusion that the benefits of fossil fuels will continue to far outweigh their side effects—including climate impacts—for generations to come. The path to global human flourishing, Epstein argues, is a combination of using more fossil fuels, getting better at “climate mastery,” and establishing “energy freedom” policies that allow nuclear and other truly promising alternatives to reach their full long-term potential. Today’s pervasive claims of imminent climate catastrophe and imminent renewable energy dominance, Epstein shows, are based on what he calls the “anti-impact framework”—a set of faulty methods, false assumptions, and anti-human values that have caused the media’s designated experts to make wildly wrong predictions about fossil fuels, climate, and renewables for the last fifty years. Deeply researched and wide-ranging, this book will cause you to rethink everything you thought you knew about the future of our energy use, our environment, and our climate.
Since the inception of Bitcoin in 2008, thousands of cryptocurrencies or decentralised blockchains have been launched. Most ventures into the cryptocurrency sphere have not gone according to plan as their founders would have hoped. Nevertheless, there are currently hundreds of crypto related projects which are succeeding. This book covers the history of Peercoin, a decentralised, globally accessible and secure ecosystem for transferring value across the world. Since August 2012, a growing committed and visionary team of developers has been driving the project forward.
Over a million copies sold! A fundamental influence on modern libertarianism, this classic guide to the basics of economic theory defends capitalism and the free market from economic myths that persist to this day. “A magnificent job of theoretical exposition.”—Ayn Rand Considered among the leading economic thinkers of the “Austrian School,” which includes Carl Menger, Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich (F.A.) Hayek, and others, Henry Hazlitt wrote Economics in One Lesson in 1946. Concise and instructive, it is also deceptively prescient and far-reaching in its efforts to dissemble economic fallacies that are so prevalent they have almost become a new orthodoxy. Economic commentators across the political spectrum have credited Hazlitt with foreseeing the collapse of the global economy which occurred more than fifty years after the initial publication of Economics in One Lesson. Hazlitt’s focus on non-governmental solutions, strong—and strongly reasoned—anti-deficit position, and general emphasis on free markets, economic liberty of individuals, and the dangers of government intervention make Economics in One Lesson every bit as relevant and valuable today as it has been since publication.
Principles of Economics is a university-level textbook offering a comprehensive, engaging, and easy-to-read overview of the field of economics that is valuable to the university student, the general reader, and the professional economist. Saifedean Ammous’ first book, The Bitcoin Standard, is an international best-seller that has been translated into 37 languages. The book garnered praise from respected scholars, successful entrepreneurs, professional athletes, and countless readers worldwide for its engaging and enlightening presentation of sophisticated economic and technical concepts, delivered in a style accessible to the general reader. With its sequel, The Fiat Standard, Ammous established himself as one of the world’s most effective communicators of economic ideas, whose writing resonates with a growing global readership. In Principles of Economics, his most ambitious and elaborate work to date, Ammous offers readers a potent antidote to the modern economics textbook. After two decades of learning and teaching economics at university level, Ammous became aware that most economic textbooks confuse more than they illuminate and most university students tasked with reading them learn very little that is useful and actionable. The culmination of four years' work, this book uses the underappreciated approach of the Austrian school of economics to introduce the principles, methods, and concepts of economics in a readable, engaging, and informative manner. Rather than relying on mathematical analysis of aggregates and arcane theoretical models, the book uses the clear written word to effectively illustrate key economic concepts. The book first presents the Austrian school method and the foundational concepts of value and time. With these foundations laid, the second part of the book explores how humans act individually to achieve their ends under scarcity—in other words, how humans economize. A chapter is dedicated to detailed overviews of labor, property, capital, technology, and energy, and each topic is accompanied by vivid examples explaining its relevance to the reader. The third part of the book examines economizing in the social context, with chapters examining trade, money, the market order, and capitalism—important concepts that are often shrouded by misconceptions in most modern treatments. The fourth part of the book presents the Austrian perspective on monetary economics, laying the groundwork through a detailed discussion of time preference, followed by a discussion of banking and credit, and the business cycle and its monetary origins. The final section of the book explains why respect for property rights in an extended market order is the basis for human civilization, how the market order protects against aggression, and the failures of monopoly provision of defense.
What if the world's economic problems are not the result of bad policies—but of a fundamentally broken monetary system? In Bitcoin Is Venice, Allen Farrington and Sacha Meyers challenge the assumptions underpinning modern economics, finance, and fiat currency. Drawing on history, political economy, philosophy, and Bitcoin, they present a provocative vision of how sound money could transform capital formation, human cooperation, and the future of civilization itself. Far more than a book about cryptocurrency, Bitcoin Is Venice explores how societies create wealth, how institutions evolve, and why monetary systems shape everything from innovation and entrepreneurship to culture and individual freedom. Through a series of deeply researched and thought-provoking essays, Farrington and Meyers examine: • The failures and contradictions of modern economic theory • The hidden costs of fiat currency systems • The relationship between money, capital, and human progress • How Bitcoin changes incentives throughout society • The future of entrepreneurship, investment, and wealth creation • Whether a Bitcoin standard could usher in a new era of prosperity and innovation Building on ideas from economics, history, technology, and political philosophy, the authors offer a framework for understanding Bitcoin not merely as a digital asset, but as a transformative monetary technology with far-reaching implications for the modern world. Featuring a foreword by human rights advocate Alex Gladstein and praised by leading thinkers including Jeff Booth and Harris Irfan, Bitcoin Is Venice presents a compelling exploration of money, freedom, and the foundations of a flourishing society. All profits from the sale of this book are donated to the Human Rights Foundation. Whether you're an investor, entrepreneur, economist, policymaker, or simply curious about the future of money, Bitcoin Is Venice offers a challenging and insightful perspective on one of the most important innovations of the twenty-first century. Discover why Bitcoin may be about far more than finance—and what that could mean for the future of civilization.
Edwin Lefèvre’s Reminiscences of a Stock Operator is a fictionalized autobiography based on the life of Jesse Livermore (1877–1940) who was a pioneer of day trading and one of the greatest investors of all time. At his peak in 1929, Livermore was worth $100 million, which in today’s dollars roughly equates to $1.5 billion, making him one of the richest people in the world at that time. The book, which began as a series of articles published during 1922 and 1923 in The Saturday Evening Post, tells the story of Livermore’s progression from day trading in the then so-called “bucket shops” to market speculator, market maker, and market manipulator to Wall Street “Boy Plunger” where he won and lost tens of millions of dollars. This classic of American business writing continues to offer sharp insights into the art and psychology of trading and speculation. It is one of the most widely read, highly recommended investment books of all time. This Warbler Classics edition includes an illustrated life of Jesse Livermore. Edwin Lefèvre (1871–1943) was an American journalist, writer, and diplomat who is most noted for his writings about Wall Street, most notably Reminiscences of a Stock Operator (1923). He began his career as a journalist and eventually became a stockbroker as well. Edwin Lefèvre’s first short stories were published under the title, Wall Street Stories (1901), which were followed by several novels about money and finance. Lefèvre was appointed an Ambassador of the United States by President Howard Taft in 1909, serving in posts in Italy, France, and Spain. In 1913, Lefévre returned to his home in Vermont where he resumed writing novels and contributing short stories for magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post and McClure’s. “A must-read classic for all investors, whether brand-new or experienced.” —Investor’s Business Daily “Although...first published some seventy years ago, its take on crowd psychology and market timing is as timely as last summer’s frenzy on the foreign exchange markets.” —Worth magazine
Seventeen years passed between the moment Robert M. Pirsig burst onto the literary scene with his successful debut "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance," and the publication of "Lila." Fedro, the phantom alter-ego who haunted the narrator of "Zen," has exchanged his motorcycle for a sailboat on which he travels alone, still on his personal quest in pursuit of the Metaphysics of Quality, radically distanced from the parameters of traditional moral extremism. "Diecisiete anos pasaron desde que Robert M. Pirsig irrumpio en el mundo literario con su exitosa opera prima, "Zen y el arte del mantenimiento de la motocicleta," hasta la publicacion de "Lila." Fedro, el alter ego fantasma que acosaba al narrador de "Zen," ha cambiado la motocicleta por un velero en el que navega solitario, y persevera en su personal busqueda de un sistema de pensamiento, la Metafisica de la Calidad, radicalmente alejado de los parametros de la maniquea moral tradicional."
Murray Rothbard was known as the state's greatest living enemy, and this book is his most powerful statement on the topic. He explains what a state is and what it is not. He shows how it is an institution that violates all that we hold as honest and moral, and how it operates under a false cover. He shows how the state wrecks freedom, destroys civilization, and threatens all lives and property and social well being, all under the veneer of "good intentions."
Described by the philosopher A.J. Ayer as a work of 'great originality and power', this book revolutionized contemporary thinking on science and knowledge. Ideas such as the now legendary doctrine of 'falsificationism' electrified the scientific community, influencing even working scientists, as well as post-war philosophy. This astonishing work ranks alongside The Open Society and Its Enemies as one of Popper's most enduring books and contains insights and arguments that demand to be read to this day.
A Comprehensive Overview of the Past, Present, and Future of Money Broken Money explores the history of money through the lens of technology. Politics can affect things temporarily and locally, but technology is what drives things forward globally and permanently. The book's goal is for the reader to walk away with a deep understanding of money and monetary history, both in terms of theoretical foundations and in terms of practical implications. From shells to gold, from papyrus bills of exchange to central banks, and from the invention of the telegraph to the creation of Bitcoin, Lyn Alden walks the reader through the emergence of new technologies that have shaped what we use as money over the ages. And beyond that, Alden explores the concept of what money is at its very foundation to give the reader a framework to analyze and compare different types of monetary technologies and monetary theories. The book also takes a distinctively human look at how money impacts the lives of real people, and how new monetary technologies shape the power structures within society. In the modern era, energy abundance and technological enhancements have broadly improved human well-being, but the global monetary system has been slow to keep up. There are over 160 active currencies in the world, each with a local monopoly over its own country, and with little or no acceptance elsewhere. Many of them are rapidly diluted, which continually devalues the savings and the wages of the billions of people who live and work within those jurisdictions. Being born in the "wrong" country makes saving money far harder than it needs to be. Nigeria has a population of over 200 million people and has averaged 13% annualized inflation over the past decade. Egypt cut its currency in half relative to the dollar twice over the past decade, which instantly devalued the savings and wages of its 100 million citizens. Dozens of countries have experienced at least triple-digit year-over-year inflation within the past four decades, including Brazil that outright hyperinflated in the 1990s while it was the fifth most populous country in the world. Europe and Japan had $18 trillion worth of negative-yielding bonds in 2019, right before a wave of inflation wiped their purchasing power away. In 2021, the chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve dismissed the idea that the sharp rise in the money supply from the pandemic stimulus would lead to price inflation. By 2022, as major inflation emerged, the chairman rapidly changed his outlook and tightened monetary policy so quickly that it led to the failure of some of the largest banks in the country. How did we get to this point? Why isn't our money better than this in the 21st century? Broken Money answers these questions by examining the current mix of technology that has led to these limitations, and then explores emerging technologies that may be able to provide us with a monetary system that is fit for the modern era.
Lysander Spooner's discontentment with the Constitution of the United States led him to publish No Treason, which revises significant parts of that document to reduce the power of the state versus individuals. The author was an anti-authoritarian philosopher and legal theorist who had spent his earlier life vigorously campaigning against slavery. Following the American Civil War however, he became horrified at the brutality and carnage that had been unleashed. Redoubling his criticisms, Spooner asserts his dismay that the U.S. government was rendered inert by its Constitution - slavery was only abolished after a long and bloody war, whereas had it been forbade at the outset, no such conflict would have arisen. A strong proponent of natural law - the concept that all humans had rights endowed at the point of their birth - Spooner had a sense of revulsion at how American politics had ensued in the early-to-mid 19th century. It was thus that No Treason was written in the hope of moderating the Constitution to ensure that slavery and bloody recriminations for secession would never again occur. In life, many of Spooner's actions versus authority were successful; his abolitionism consisted of circulating pamphlets including those suggesting guerrilla warfare by slaves, and prefaced the Civil War. Later in life his challenge to the postal monopolies successfully resulted in such monopolies being regulated to the point where mailing became much cheaper for all. Furthermore he advanced a cogent theory of self-employment, believing it a way to laborers avoiding or reducing their exploitation by employers.
Frederick Bastiat dismantles Socialism, the Nanny State, the Welfare State, Pro-Business Cronyism, and all the other forms of government interference in people's lives. He destroys the perverse logic of the Do-Gooders who want to help one group or another because, somehow, it's the fair thing to do. Bastiat shows that the result of all this protection and benevolence is to make people poorer and less free. His lessons and logic are up to date and powerful. Amazingly, the book originally came out in 1850! The Law is a quick read for both the beginner and the neophyte... and one you'll choose to re-read.