First principles. Nothing else.
Evergreen writing on Bitcoin, Austrian economics, and the transition off fiat. No price predictions. No trading signals. No hype.
How Bitcoin Fixes New Zealand's Money: Prices, Homes, Pensions and Families
A dollar saved in 1971 now buys what about 5.3 cents bought then. This guide sets out New Zealand's money problems in its own official numbers, from prices and houses to pensions and birth rates, explains the sound-money principles behind them, and shows what bitcoin and currency competition could and could not fix.
What Is a Bank Run? Northern Rock, SVB and the Bail-in
A bank run is when many depositors try to withdraw their money at once because they fear the bank will fail. Banks keep only a fraction of deposits as cash and reserves, so no bank can repay everyone on the same day. Silicon Valley Bank lost over $40 billion of deposits in a single day in March 2023.
Fractional Reserve Banking: How Banks Really Create Money
Fractional reserve banking is a system in which banks keep only a fraction of their customers' deposits as cash or reserves and lend or invest the rest. In practice banks do not lend out deposits: each new loan creates a new deposit. The US reserve requirement has been zero since March 2020.
What Is the Petrodollar? Oil, the Dollar and the Reserve System
The petrodollar is the system in which oil is priced and sold in US dollars, and oil exporters invest their surplus dollars in US assets such as Treasury bonds. It took shape in US–Saudi dealings after the oil shock of 1973–74. No known US–Saudi agreement requires oil to be sold in dollars, and none expired in 2024.
What Happened in 1971? The Day the Dollar Left Gold
On 15 August 1971, President Nixon closed the “gold window”: foreign governments could no longer swap their dollars for US gold at $35 an ounce. He also froze wages and prices for 90 days and put a 10% surcharge on imports. The dollar has been pure fiat money ever since.
The 3 Functions of Money: Medium of Exchange, Unit of Account and Store of Value
Money has three functions: a medium of exchange (accepted in trade), a unit of account (what prices are measured in) and a store of value (it holds its purchasing power over time). Today's money does the first two well, but central banks aim for 2% inflation, so it is designed to fail the third.
Types of Money: Commodity, Representative, Fiat and Bitcoin
There are four main types of money: commodity money, valuable in itself, like gold coins; representative money, a paper claim on a commodity; fiat money, valuable because a government declares it so; and bank money, the deposits banks create when they lend. Bitcoin fits none of them neatly.
What Is Fiat Money? How It Works, and Why It Loses Value
Fiat money is money that has value because a government declares it legal tender and people accept it, not because it can be exchanged for gold or anything else. The dollar, the pound and the euro are all fiat currencies. Since August 1971 the dollar has lost 88% of its purchasing power.
Other People's Debt: Why Your Money Is Backed by Government IOUs (and Bitcoin Isn't)
Every pound, dollar and euro is someone else's liability, and the main asset behind it is government debt. The latest figures — the US alone owes $40.1 trillion — and why Bitcoin, which is nobody's liability, is different.
Why Do Governments Print Money, and Why Not Just Print More?
Governments print money because it is the one levy that needs no vote: it finances deficits, shrinks debts and rescues banks, while the cost arrives later as inflation. They cannot print without limit because each new unit dilutes all the others, and past a point people stop accepting the money at all.
What Is Deflation, and Is It Actually Bad?
Deflation is a sustained fall in the general level of prices, the opposite of inflation. It comes in two kinds: prices falling because money and credit are collapsing, as in the 1930s, and prices falling because production keeps getting cheaper. Central banks fear both, because debts do not shrink when prices do.
Why Bitcoin Is Not 'Crypto'
Bitcoin is a monetary protocol with no issuer, no company, and a fixed supply. 'Crypto' is an industry of tokens with founders, treasuries, and discretionary rules. The difference is not branding — it is structural.