In June 2004, Professor Hans-Hermann Hoppe visited the Mises Institute to deliver an ambitious series of lectures titled Economy, Society, and History. What followed was an intellectual tour de force few academics would even attempt. Over ten lectures, one each morning and afternoon for a week, Dr. Hoppe presented nothing short of a sweeping historical narrative and vision for a society rooted in markets and property. Delivered only from notes, to an audience of academics and intellectuals, the lectures showed astonishing depth and breadth. Even the most jaded scholars in the room were blown away by the erudition and scholarship of Hoppe’s presentation. The result brought together the core of Hoppe’s lifetime of theoretical work in one vital and cohesive series. Here we find provocative themes developed by Hoppe in the 1980s and 90s, particularly in his essays found in A Theory of Socialism and Capitalism and The Economics and Ethics of Private Property. We also find his devastating critique of democracy, made famous in his seminal book Democracy, the God that Failed. We have taken the recordings, edited them, and have now published them in a convenient book for those not lucky enough to have heard these lectures. This is entirely “new” material for the vast majority of Hoppe fans. This book is a tremendous addition to Hoppe’s body of work and a hugely important contribution to the “big picture” outlook for the West. Hoppe’s work is more important today than ever, given the penchant of modern bureaucratic states to war, intervene, tax, regulate, debase, and generally plunder the engines of peace and civilization.
What is money? How does it work and what effects does it have on our society and economy? Hardly anyone has penetrated the answers to these questions better and explained them more comprehensibly than Alfred Lansburgh, who published them in the form of letters to his son, under the pseudonym "Argentarius" in his publishing house "Die Bank". This edition contains the following collections of letters from the years 1921: On Money (Original "Vom Gelde")
While many books explain the how of bitcoin, The Internet of Money delves into the why of bitcoin. Acclaimed information-security expert and author of Mastering Bitcoin, Andreas M. Antonopoulos examines and contextualizes the significance of bitcoin through a series of essays spanning the exhilarating maturation of this technology. Bitcoin, a technological breakthrough quietly introduced to the world in 2008, is transforming much more than finance. Bitcoin is disrupting antiquated industries to bring financial independence to billions worldwide. In this book, Andreas explains why bitcoin is a financial and technological evolution with potential far exceeding the label "digital currency." Andreas goes beyond exploring the technical functioning of the bitcoin network by illuminating bitcoin's philosophical, social, and historical implications. As the internet has essentially transformed how people around the world interact and has permanently impacted our lives in ways we never could have imagined, bitcoin--the internet of money--is fundamentally changing our approach to solving social, political, and economic problems through decentralized technology.
MP3 CD Format Peopled by larger-than-life heroes and villains, charged with towering questions of good and evil, Atlas Shrugged is Ayn Rand's magnum opus: a philosophical revolution told in the form of an action thriller--nominated as one of America's best-loved novels by PBS's The Great American Read. Atlas Shrugged is the "second most influential book for Americans today" after the Bible, according to a joint survey of five thousand people conducted by the Library of Congress and the Book of the Month Club in 1991. In a scrap heap within an abandoned factory, the greatest invention in history lies dormant and unused. By what fatal error of judgment has its value gone unrecognized, its brilliant inventor punished rather than rewarded for his efforts? This is the story of a man who said that he would stop the motor of the world--and did. In defense of those greatest of human qualities that have made civilization possible, he sets out to show what would happen to the world if all the heroes of innovation and industry went on strike. Is he a destroyer or a liberator? Why does he have to fight his battle not against his enemies but against those who need him most? Why does he fight his hardest battle against the woman he loves? The answers will be revealed once you discover the reason behind the baffling events that wreak havoc on the lives of the amazing men and women in this remarkable book. Tremendous in scope and breathtaking in its suspense, Atlas Shrugged is Ayn Rand's magnum opus, which launched an ideology and a movement. With the publication of this work in 1957, Rand gained an instant following and became a phenomenon. Atlas Shrugged emerged as a premier moral apologia for capitalism, a defense that had an electrifying effect on millions of readers (and now listeners) who had never heard capitalism defended in other than technical terms.
From a former senior advisor to Senator John McCain comes an urgent wake-up call about how new technologies are threatening America's military might. For generations of Americans, our country has been the world's dominant military power. How the US military fights, and the systems and weapons that it fights with, have been uncontested. That old reality, however, is rapidly deteriorating. America's traditional sources of power are eroding amid the emergence of new technologies and the growing military threat posed by rivals such as China. America is at grave risk of losing a future war. As Christian Brose reveals in this urgent wake-up call, the future will be defined by artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, and other emerging technologies that are revolutionizing global industries and are now poised to overturn the model of American defense. This fascinating, if disturbing, book confronts the existential risks on the horizon, charting a way for America's military to adapt and succeed with new thinking as well as new technology. America must build a battle network of systems that enables people to rapidly understand threats, make decisions, and take military actions, the process known as "the kill chain." Examining threats from China, Russia, and elsewhere, The Kill Chain offers hope and, ultimately, insights on how America can apply advanced technologies to prevent war, deter aggression, and maintain peace
I think Fraudcoin is the most engaging and easy to read book about inflation that has ever been written. It also offers a great level of detail on all the government moves and countermoves in the development of the inflation policy. Very well done. Lawrence W. Lepard, Investment Manager, Sherborn, Massachusetts, USA Congratulations, you should be very proud about your book! Excellent work! Ronald-Peter Stöferle, Managing Partner of Incrementum AG Fraudcoin is an excellent book exploring the role of inflation on politics and world history. Inflation is largely a political decision that impacts all aspects of society and can bring down mighty empires, yet there is little debate about why inflation occurs and the immense repercussions. This book is an important contribution toward educating the public that the destructive power of inflation is not an unfortunate act of nature, but the result of reckless policy. Glenn Diesen, Professor, University of South-Eastern Norway, Department of Business, History and Social Sciences This mini-series only scratches the surface of Rune Østgård's book "Fraudcoin", which I recommend everyone to buy and recommend to others."Fraudcoin is the best book I've read about inflation. It's the perfect mix between the description of historical evidence and the explanation of different economic theories. It certainly demonstrates that inflation is a policy, NOT an unfortunate spontaneously emerging calamity. Wolfgang Wee, the Wolfgang Wee Uncut podcast A book that's hard to put down. A bit like a thriller. Suddenly, you understand things you thought were insurmountable to gain insight into. Erika Hauffen, Librarian, Snåsa, Norway Fraudcoin is the best book I've read about inflation. It's the perfect mix between the description of historical evidence and the explanation of different economic theories. It certainly demonstrates that inflation is a policy, NOT an unfortunate spontaneously emerging calamity. David St-Onge, Author of “Tout sur Bitcoin" (Bitcoin: Everything you need to know), Montreal, Canada A wonderfully well-written and accessible book for everyone, regardless of your knowledge background. Children and young people really need to have access to this knowledge. Trine Sofie Bergh, Economics blogger, Trondheim, Norway This is an incredibly important book. It lays out the story of the inflation policy in a clear, precise, and easy-to-understand way. It is absolutely necessary for a healthy society to have healthy money, but that will not happen until most people understand what sound money is, and why the inflation policy creates sick money. @hodlonaut *** Rune Østgård’s easy-to-read book explains what inflation is and how it affects the society. The book takes us through 1000 Years of Inflation as a Policy, beginning with the Viking age and King Harald Hardrada, who introduced the death penalty for those who did not accept his coins as payment. With lessons learned from the historical narrative, it is easy to join the author on the ‘journey of money’ through modern society, as he demonstrates how inflation redistributes wealth from the working and middle classes to the upper class, speculators, and the state, and away from the countryside and into the big cities. The book includes a discussion on several issues related to monetary policy, including national security, cryptocurrency, saving and investment, and if it is correct to say that “a little inflation is good for the economy” and that “our system is based on trust”.
The classic history of the political and economic devastation wrought by runaway inflation in Weimar Germany—“brilliant” (Guardian) In 1923, with its currency effectively worthless (the exchange rate in December of that year was one dollar to 4,200,000,000,000 marks), the German republic was all but reduced to a barter economy. Expensive cigars, artworks, and jewels were routinely exchanged for staples such as bread; a cinema ticket could be bought for a lump of coal; and a bottle of paraffin for a silk shirt. People watched helplessly as their life savings disappeared and their loved ones starved. Germany's finances descended into chaos, with severe social unrest in its wake. Money may no longer be physically printed and distributed in the voluminous quantities of 1923. However, "quantitative easing," that modern euphemism for surreptitious deficit financing in an electronic era, can no less become an assault on monetary discipline. Whatever the reason for a country's deficit— necessity or profligacy, unwillingness to tax or blindness to expenditure—it is beguiling to suppose that if the day of reckoning is postponed economic recovery will come in time to prevent higher unemployment or deeper recession. What if it does not? Germany in 1923 provides a vivid, compelling, sobering moral tale.
THE BEST BOOK THAT DESCRIBES THE WORLD OF 2020's Nineteen Eighty-Four: A Novel, often published as 1984, is a dystopian social science fiction novel by English novelist George Orwell. It was published on 8 June 1949 by Secker & Warburg as Orwell's ninth and final book completed in his lifetime. Thematically, Nineteen Eighty-Four centres on the consequences of totalitarianism, mass surveillance, and repressive regimentation of persons and behaviours within society. Orwell, himself a democratic socialist, modeled the authoritarian government in the novel after Stalinist Russia. More broadly, the novel examines the role of truth and facts within politics and the ways in which they are manipulated. The story takes place in an imagined future, the year 1984, when much of the world has fallen victim to perpetual war, omnipresent government surveillance, historical negationism, and propaganda. Great Britain, known as Airstrip One, has become a province of a totalitarian superstate named Oceania that is ruled by the Party who employ the Thought Police to persecute individuality and independent thinking. Big Brother, the leader of the Party, enjoys an intense cult of personality despite the fact that he may not even exist. The protagonist, Winston Smith, is a diligent and skillful rank-and-file worker and Party member who secretly hates the Party and dreams of rebellion. He enters into a forbidden relationship with a colleague, Julia, and starts to remember what life was like before the Party came to power. Nineteen Eighty-Four has become a classic literary example of political and dystopian fiction. It also popularised the term "Orwellian" as an adjective, with many terms used in the novel entering common usage, including "Big Brother", "doublethink", "thoughtcrime", "Newspeak", "memory ho
Peopled by larger-than-life heroes and villains, charged with towering questions of good and evil, Atlas Shrugged is Ayn Rand’s magnum opus: a philosophical revolution told in the form of an action thriller—nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read. Who is John Galt? When he says that he will stop the motor of the world, is he a destroyer or a liberator? Why does he have to fight his battles not against his enemies but against those who need him most? Why does he fight his hardest battle against the woman he loves? You will know the answer to these questions when you discover the reason behind the baffling events that play havoc with the lives of the amazing men and women in this book. You will discover why a productive genius becomes a worthless playboy...why a great steel industrialist is working for his own destruction...why a composer gives up his career on the night of his triumph...why a beautiful woman who runs a transcontinental railroad falls in love with the man she has sworn to kill. Atlas Shrugged, a modern classic and Rand’s most extensive statement of Objectivism—her groundbreaking philosophy—offers the reader the spectacle of human greatness, depicted with all the poetry and power of one of the twentieth century’s leading artists.
Written in the same year that he testified before the Currency Commission in Austria-Hungary, and published in English in 1892, Carl Menger explains that it is not government edicts that create money but instead the marketplace. Individuals decide what the most marketable good is for use as a medium of exchange. “Man himself is the beginning and the end of every economy,” Menger wrote, and so it is with deciding what is to be traded as money."Money has not been generated by law. In its origin it is a social, and not a state institution. Sanction by the authority of the state is a notion alien to it. "This is the first time this essay has been in print in more than a century!Introduction by Doug French
A Progressive's Case for Bitcoin is for everyone who is starting to learn about Bitcoin and wants to understand the reality behind the buzz. Exploring the value proposition of Bitcoin through a progressive lens, Maier's book explores why Bitcoin is good for the environment, how it helps poor and marginalized communities, and why Bitcoin serves as a protest against too-big-to-fail banks: all the people-centric reasons Bitcoin was created in the first place. This inspirational read, which requires no background knowledge, is a great starting point for anyone who is curious about Bitcoin beyond the boundaries of western privilege, clickbait headlines, and social media chatter. “Jason’s book is outstanding, and fills a niche that has been seriously underserved until now —a treatise on Bitcoin for progressives. He thoughtfully walks the reader through the shortcomings of the current financial system and the benefits that Bitcoin can bring to people around the world.” —Lyn Alden, Macro Economist and Investor “In A Progressive’s Case for Bitcoin, Jason offers an uncommon perspective of how Bitcoin can be used as a tool for progressive social change. Through a combination of introspection and real-world case studies, Jason explores how Bitcoin can help to empower marginalized communities including the unbanked, those affected by hyperinflation and more.” —Lamar Wilson, Founder, Black Bitcoin Billionaire “A Progressive's Case for Bitcoin offers a refreshing perspective on Bitcoin particularly suited for a more liberal voter. Maier writes with humility and clarity inviting even the most ardent Bitcoin critics to question their assumptions. It is one of the best books written on Bitcoin.” —Dr. Mark Stephany, Physician and Host of The Progressive Bitcoiner “—If you care about the environment, human rights, or equality, you need to read this book and share it with everyone you know who considers themselves to be a progressive. This is a must read book!” —Dennis Porter, Co-Founder and CEO of the Satoshi Action Fund “Jason Maier has written what may be the most consequential Bitcoin book to date. In our historical moment, everything is politicized, often before it is even understood. So it is with Bitcoin, a technology attacked by many on the political left and embraced by those on the right, but which is actually nothing more than a few hundred lines of code. The social, political, economic, and environmental consequences of Bitcoin have hardly been thought through. Maier shows how Bitcoin—yes, Bitcoin!--actually aligns with the deepest values of progressives and serves their highest goals, most surprisingly, aiding the fight against climate change." “Reading this book, you realize that humanity is on the verge of a devastating mistake. Progressives have always pointed out injustices and critiqued systems of privilege. Yet, in a brilliant PR campaign, those very systems have enlisted progressives to protect themselves from being reformed or disrupted by an upstart technology. Maier’s book is a desperately needed corrective. He explains Bitcoin like a veteran teacher, breezes through arguments in a conversational style, yet his careful reasoning reminds you he is a mathematician. Open-minded progressives, and maybe even close-minded ones, will have to rethink their opinions on the possibilities and promise of neutral, digital money.” —Troy Cross, Environmentalist and Professor of Philosophy, Reed College C. Jason Maier is a teacher of mathematics with a personal conviction about how Bitcoin will reshape the world. More of Jason's writing can be found at www.bitcoinmagazine.com
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize A metaphorical fugue on minds and machines in the spirit of Lewis Carroll Douglas Hofstadter's book is concerned directly with the nature of "maps" or links between formal systems. However, according to Hofstadter, the formal system that underlies all mental activity transcends the system that supports it. If life can grow out of the formal chemical substrate of the cell, if consciousness can emerge out of a formal system of firing neurons, then so too will computers attain human intelligence. Gödel, Escher, Bach is a wonderful exploration of fascinating ideas at the heart of cognitive science: meaning, reduction, recursion, and much more.