The Gold Standard

An Alternative History of the Twentieth Century

De: Saifedean Ammous

Narrado por: Saifedean Ammous

What would the twentieth century have looked like on a gold standard? What would have happened to the state without its money printer? What would have happened to prices, wages, living standards, capital markets, politics, energy production, technology, and education?

In The Gold Standard, internationally bestselling author Saifedean Ammous answers these questions with a unique alternative history that is one-third history, one-third novel, and one-third economic analysis.

In 1911, French aviation pioneer Louis Blériot partners with the Wright brothers to build the Blériot Transport Corporation (BTC)—an airplane-based decentralized peer-to-peer gold-settlement network. Dismissed by economists and the press as a doomed eccentricity, BTC alters world history in 1915 when it offers Europeans the chance to escape central bank war inflation by exporting their wealth to neutral countries. The result is a global financial panic that bankrupts the world’s major central banks and destroys their currencies. The World War comes to an abrupt end, and the fiat money experiment is strangled in its crib.

A new world order emerges around a free-market decentralized gold standard, and an entirely different twentieth century unfolds. Hard-money savings make capital plentiful and cheap, accelerating technological progress and increasing energy production. The death of central banking and the rise of a free market in banking force financial institutions to become safer and more responsible. Governments become accountable service providers, while citizens become customers who expect—and receive—better service at a lower cost year after year.

Much more unfolds in this gripping, serious, and thought-provoking story written in Ammous’s trademark engaging style.

©2025 The Saif House (P)2025 The Saif House

I will miss the utopia

I may not agree with everything in terms of likely hood or probability on the unfolding of events of this alternative history - speculation is biased - but the overall picture painted here is sad to leave behind, because it is so much better than the reality we live in...but hopefully it paints a picture of how the future will develop once hyperbitcoinization is achieved - and until that those who strive for a hard money world are given the margin trade goldbugs would have had pre WW1 in this book.

Saifidean is our generation’s Murray Rothbard

An alternative history of 20th century with sound money.. super interesting way of approaching the subject. Thanks Saif