Saifedean Ammous

Saifedean Ammous was born in Palestine in 1980 and was educated and intellectually formed mainly in Lebanon.⁠[1]

In 2001 he hosted and produced a TV debate show on Zen TV in Beirut; in 2003 he worked as a reporter for the Daily Star and earned a mechanical engineering degree from the American University of Beirut.⁠[2]

In 2004 he received a Mohammed Bin Issa Al Jaber Foundation scholarship and went on to earn a master’s degree in development management from the London School of EconomicsLondon School of Economics and Political ScienceThe London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) is a specialist social science university in central London, founded in 1895 by members of the Fabian Society. It is known for research in economics, politics and social policy, and its alumni and staff include many Nobel laureates and national leaders.Open the full entry.⁠[3]

At Columbia UniversityColumbia UniversityColumbia University, formally Columbia University in the City of New York, is a private research university in New York City and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1754 by royal charter from King George II as King's College, it is the oldest institution of higher education in New York State and the fifth oldest in the United States. It was renamed Columbia College in 1784 and adopted the university name and moved to Manhattan's Morningside Heights in 1896. It has 17 schools and four affiliated colleges, with 35,978 students enrolled in fall 2025. Legal scholar Jennifer L. Mnookin became president on July 1, 2026.Open the full entry he earned an MA and an MPhil in sustainable development and received his PhD in 2011; his dissertation examined US and EU biofuel policies, and his research interests include energy and environmental economics, monetary economics and political economy, with a focus on knowledge problems in economic and social affairs.⁠[4]

In 2005–2006 he was head teaching assistant for Jeffrey Sachs’s sustainable development course; from 2010 to 2013 he taught economics at the Columbia University Middle East Research Center in Amman, Jordan; from 2012 he was a foreign member of the Center on Capitalism and Society.⁠[2]

By his own account he immersed himself in Austrian economics in 2007 and “by 2008 I would have pretty much called myself an Austrian”; he was initially a gold advocate and was not convinced by Bitcoin until 2014, after reading about Bitcoin mining.⁠[5]

From 2009 to 2019 he taught economics at the Lebanese American University in Lebanon.⁠[6]

In 2011 he and Edmund Phelps co-wrote the Financial TimesFinancial TimesThe Financial Times (FT) is a London-based English-language business and financial news organization, known for its salmon-pink newspaper and its motto “Without Fear and Without Favour.” It was owned successively by the British Pearson group and Japan’s Nikkei Inc., and today digital subscriptions are its main source of revenue.Open the full entry commentary “Tunisians set off on the road from serfdom.”⁠[7]

On Project Syndicate he published “Now For An Arab Economic Revolution” (April 4, 2011) and “Mubarak’s Odious Debts” (October 6, 2011), and on January 31, 2012 co-wrote “Blaming Capitalism for Corporatism” with Edmund S. Phelps.⁠[8]

In 2017, then an assistant professor of economics at the Lebanese American University, he signed a contract with the publisher John Wiley & Sons for a new book.⁠[3]

Wiley published his book The Bitcoin Standard: The Decentralized Alternative to Central Banking in hardcover and e-book in April 2018, with a UK edition that June. The book traces the history of money from limestones and seashells to metals, the gold standard and government debt, and argues that Bitcoin is “a decentralized, politically neutral, free-market alternative to national central banks.” Nassim Nicholas Taleb wrote the foreword.⁠[9]

The Mises Institute’s Human Action Podcast aired an interview with him by Jeff Deist; the episode description introduced him as an economics professor at the Lebanese American University and author of The Bitcoin Standard.⁠[10]

He was a speaker at the Milken Institute’s 2019 Global Conference, whose bio described him as an associate professor of economics at the Lebanese American University and a member of Columbia University’s Center on Capitalism and Society, and called The Bitcoin Standard “the first academic treatment of the economics of digital currencies.”⁠[11]

On December 6, 2020 he published the article “The Fiat Standard and Debt Slavery” on CoinDeskCoinDeskCoinDesk is a cryptocurrency media, events, index, and data company founded in 2013 and headquartered in New York. Its businesses include the CoinDesk news website, the annual crypto industry conference Consensus, and the CoinDesk Indices index business. In November 2023, the digital asset exchange Bullish acquired CoinDesk from Digital Currency Group, and CoinDesk has since operated as an independent subsidiary of Bullish.Open the full entry.⁠[12]

In 2021 he published The Fiat Standard: The Debt Slavery Alternative to Human Civilization. His official bio states that The Bitcoin Standard has sold more than a million copies.⁠[13]

The book analyzes the fiat monetary system as a feat of engineering and technology, reviews the world’s shift from the gold standard to government-backed fiat money, and discusses “a debt jubilee and an orderly upgrade to the world's monetary operating system.”⁠[14]

CoinGeek ran a review by Neil Smith arguing that the book’s history of money is “narrow and partial,” that it misrepresents Keynes, and that Bitcoin is an electronic cash system neither intended nor able to replace banking.⁠[15]

The Daily Economy of the American Institute for Economic Research published a review by Joakim Book criticizing the book for rarely giving references, for several factual and calculation errors and for using the word “fiat” inconsistently; the review also granted that the book raises real concerns about higher education, dietary guidance and green energy policy.⁠[16]

He appeared on episode #284 of the Lex FridmanLex FridmanLex Fridman is a Soviet-born, US-raised computer scientist and podcast host who works as an MIT research scientist on human-AI interaction and autonomous driving. His Lex Fridman Podcast is known for hours-long conversations with guests including heads of state and technology leaders.Open the full entry Podcast, “Bitcoin, Anarchy, and Austrian Economics,” introduced as an Austrian economist and author of The Bitcoin Standard and The Fiat Standard; the outline covers money, the gold standard, Austrian versus Keynesian economics, fiat money, the SWIFT system, Bitcoin and its criticisms, proof of stake, central bank digital currencies, advice for young people, Palestine and mortality.⁠[17]

In 2023 he published the economics textbook Principles of Economics.⁠[1]

Aimed at students, general readers and professional economists, the book takes an Austrian school approach, using prose rather than mathematical modeling of aggregates, and covers value and time, individual action under scarcity, exchange and money, monetary economics and the business cycle, and property rights; the sales page says it is the product of four years of work.⁠[18]

Around May 30, 2023, El Salvador’s National Bitcoin Office (ONBTC) announced him as an economic adviser; its director Stacy HerbertStacy HerbertStacy Herbert is a media producer and Bitcoin advocate who for many years co-hosted and produced the financial program Keiser Report with Max Keiser; since late 2022 she has led the work of the National Bitcoin Office of El Salvador together with Keiser.Open the full entry said he would advise remotely, and the office said he had asked not to be paid. He was then in El Salvador for CUBO+, a program teaching Bitcoin programming and the Lightning Network, and said the country had a “large potential to be a hub of innovation.”⁠[19]

Bitcoin adviser Max Keiser said: “Having Saifedean Ammous on team El Salvador is fantastic.”⁠[20]

Responding to criticism online of former anarcho-capitalists working for the Bukele government, he replied that the purely advisory role carried no authority and that he was not paid for it.⁠[21]

His official bio lists The Gold Standard as published in 2024, describing it as an alternative economic history of the twentieth century.⁠[13]

The book imagines a 1911 aviation-based, peer-to-peer gold settlement network that triggers a 1915 financial panic, ending World War I and the fiat money experiment early, and then depicts a twentieth century under a decentralized free-market gold standard; the product page describes it as one-third history, one-third novel and one-third economic analysis.⁠[22]

A March 2026 article dates the book’s release to fall 2025; in it he said: “I've always been so fascinated by World War I.”⁠[5]

The Fundación Rafael del Pino hosted his keynote lecture in Madrid marking the Spanish edition of Principles of Economics, published by Deusto, which had published the Spanish edition of The Bitcoin Standard in 2022. He presented economics as the study of human action under scarcity and said “Bitcoin is more than a cryptocurrency.”⁠[23]

At the “100 Years with Rothbard” event in Porto, Portugal, he delivered the speech “Rothbard on Palestine,” in which he described himself as a Palestinian who has studied the history of the conflict; the same year he contributed “Murray Rothbard: An Ode to an Intellectual Hero” to the volume Rothbard at 100 and published the article “Property Rights: The Root Cause of the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict.”⁠[24]

On his website he argued that “Bitcoin electricity consumption may have peaked” and that Bitcoin may never again consume as much electricity as in 2024–2025, using Cambridge’s estimates of Bitcoin’s electricity consumption as the test; this is his own assessment and forecast.⁠[25]

He published a response to Lawrence H. White’s argument in Better Money: Gold, Fiat, or Bitcoin? that a fixed supply makes Bitcoin too volatile to serve as a medium of exchange, contending that “Resistance to dilution makes an asset attractive for saving.” and saying he expects continued Bitcoin monetization to bring deeper liquidity and lower volatility.⁠[26]

His website describes him as an “Internationally acclaimed best-selling author, economist, and educator” and offers recorded courses of 18 lectures each on The Fiat Standard and Principles of Economics, free public lectures, weekly seminars on X Spaces and an Arabic-language site.⁠[27]

He hosts The Bitcoin Standard Podcast, featuring long-form interviews, debates and lectures from an Austrian economics perspective; episode 347, released on October 13, 2026, was the launch lecture of The Bitcoin Standard course.⁠[28]

The translations page of his imprint The Saif House lists 24 translated editions of The Bitcoin Standard, 10 of The Fiat Standard, 4 of Principles of Economics and a Portuguese edition of The Gold Standard.⁠[29]

Personal website: Public link: https://saifedean.com/ (opens in a new window)⁠[6]

X: Public account: https://x.com/saifedean (opens in a new window)⁠[6]

YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is Google’s video-sharing and creator platform, founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim and acquired by Google in 2006. Built around video uploading, viewing, and creator earnings, the platform has developed Shorts, YouTube Music, Premium, YouTube TV, and products for children, and is headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States.Open the full entry: Public channel: https://www.youtube.com/@saifedean (opens in a new window)⁠[6]