1. Monarchy and Democracy

Starting this week, the Bitcoin Standard podcast will be releasing a recording of the weekly saifedean.com weekly discussion seminar. The seminar is open to anyone taking courses from saifedean.com, and focuses on discussing the material of the courses, as well as more broader discussion of Bitcoin, Austrian economics, and various current affairs. Notes and links can be found on saifedean.com/podcastMain points on Monarchy vs Democracy1.Time preference2.Security of property3.War4.Democracy has perverse selection5.Democracy legitimates government6.Kings don't owe anybody anything7.Rise of civilizations under monarchyRelevant quote from Hoppe: "Traditional monarchies only resemble dictatorships superficially. Instead, dictatorships are a regular outgrowth of mass democracy. Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, and Mao were distinctly democratic rulers as compared to the former Emperors of Russia, Germany, Austria, and China. Indeed, Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, and Mao (and almost all of their smaller and lesser known successors) were outspoken in their hatred of everything monarchic and aristocratic. They knew that they owed their rise to democratic mass politics, and they employed democratic politics (elections, referenda, mass rallies, mass media propaganda, etc.) throughout their reign."Further Readings:Hoppe, Democracy: The God That Failed
Hoppe, Political Economy of Monarchy and DemocracyHoppe, The Myth of National DefenseErik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, Monarchy and WarLeland Yeager, A Libertarian Case for MonarchyOn MicroStrategy's purchase of Bitcoin, see my recent email to my mailing list.Here is the wikipedia page of the founder of Harvard's nutrition department, which contains amazing insights into his and his universty's contributions to the promotion of industrial sludge as food.