6 New Bitcoin Educational Resources

By Jon Matonis
Forbes
Monday, May 13, 2013

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jonmatonis/2013/05/13/6-new-bitcoin-educational-resources/

In the fast-moving Bitcoin world, it’s crucial to stay up to date with the latest in educational resources and new media. The last two months have seen an explosion in media attention and a desire for new users to learn as much as possible about the global bitcoin economy. It is within this spirit that I present the latest Bitcoin educational resources to hit the web:

CoinDesk – This London-based resource and news operation aims to be the “Reuters of Bitcoin” according to its founder Shakil Khan. As an angel investor in Spotify and bitcoin startup BitPay, Khan noticed a gap in the news coverage for bitcoin and digital currencies in general when other entrepreneurs constantly questioned him about the bitcoin.

Also just last month, Khan assisted in orchestrating the sale of his mobile news gathering portfolio company, Summly, to Yahoo for approximately $30 million. Now, drawing on the experience of a few editors and freelance writers, CoinDesk largely covers the growing Bitcoin ecosystem for a general, non-technical audience. It still needs an RSS subscriber feed , but it is off to a brilliant start.

The Genesis Block – A welcome addition to the Bitcoin blogosphere, the writing is refreshing and sometimes technical. The Genesis Block claims to be your foundation for all things Bitcoin and they are a news and tutorial site covering mining, trading, economics, and businesses. The authors involved in the project include Phil Archer, Jonathan Stacke and Wayne Parker. Intentional or not, little else is known about the founders however they consistently crank out good content.

Bitcoin Education Project – The full name of this community-built resource is “Bitcoin or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Crypto: The definitive guide to understand what the bitcoin is and why we should care about them.” Started by technology entrepreneur Charles Hoskinson and part of the Udemy network, this online Bitcoin course is one of many educational courses offered by the Udemy marketplace. The free course is organized into several mini-lectures covering Bitcoin basics and extending into specific topics such as wallets, mining, transaction fees, and cold storage. Interesting future content is crowd-funded on the site.

Khan Academy Bitcoin Series – Founded in 2008 by Salman Khan, the non-profit Khan Academy is on a mission to provide a free world-class education for anyone, anywhere. Within the larger Finance and Capital Markets section, and then within the Money, Banking and Central Banks subsection, they currently offer a new 8-part Bitcoin series taught by Zulfikar Ramzan, a world-leading expert in computer security and cryptography. Receiving his Ph.D. in computer science from MIT, Ramzan is currently the Chief Scientist at Sourcefire. Also, the interactive discussion below each lecture is particularly good.

Bitcoin Press Center – Launched by Andreas Antonopoulos as a sensible reaction to the bitter infighting regarding potential press contacts within the community, this resource supports multiple languages and time zones as well as targeted searches of individuals that have expressed a willingness to be available for media interviews. Billing itself as the global media center for Bitcoin and the best way to find a specific Bitcoin expert, the site accepts new nominations for Bitcoin experts with the only criteria being accuracy of their stated credentials and confirmation that they want to be listed.

Let’s Talk Bitcoin – This all-Bitcoin podcast is brand new on the scene and produced by Adam Levine, who has developed a loyal listener following in a short amount of time. Providing current news, topical interviews, and studied analysis, Adam is joined by Let’s Talk Bitcoin co-hosts Stephanie Murphy and Andreas Antonopoulos. The program started with an overly-ambitious daily schedule and is now available on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which hopefully will prevent burnout. Listeners can also send in questions and comments.

Expertly produced and always knowledgeable, this important program is well on its way to becoming the de facto podcast for all things Bitcoin. My only complaint is that the audio hosting has jumped around a lot and it’s not always easy to find the segment that I’m looking for. Despite that, Let’s Talk Bitcoin is required listening and vitamins for your Bitcoin brain.

Patrick Murck Discusses Bitcoin With Financial Crime Specialists

General Counsel at the Bitcoin Foundation and VP of Business Development and General Counsel at CoinLab, Patrick Murck, recorded a podcast on April 26th, 2013 with the Association of Certified Financial Crime Specialists, a group connecting the global financial crime community. The talk was entitled: "Bitcoin’s promise and perils: What financial institutions should know about the new virtual currency."

From the ACFCS website:

Until recently, the virtual currency of Bitcoin may have had almost as many critics, skeptics and naysayers as it had actual users. Much has changed in the past few months. With the value of Bitcoins exploding, its exchanges doing a lively business, and more and more merchants accepting it as payment, Bitcoin now seems close to fulfilling its potential as a widely used, decentralized online currency.

One thing that has not changed, however, are the concerns over money laundering and financial crime risks that have swirled around Bitcoin since its inception. To delve into the mechanics of the online currency and explain how it interfaces with financial institutions worldwide, ACFCS is joined by Patrick Murck, General Counsel of the Bitcoin Foundation, on this Financial CrimeCast. He explains the inner workings of Bitcoin, and describes what steps the currency and its exchanges are taking to mitigate financial crime risks.

He also analyzes the impact of recent guidance by the US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network that lays out suggested regulations for virtual currencies for the first time, and explains what financial institutions should know about doing business with Bitcoin users.

Bradley Jansen Discusses FinCEN Regulations and Bitcoin

Yesterday, Adam B. Levine, editor-in-chief of The Daily Bitcoin, interviewed Bradley Jansen for "Let's Talk Bitcoin" about the US Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and their recent guidance on alternative currencies such as Bitcoin. According to Jansen:

"What we've got now is a FinCEN on steroids without clear restrictions from Congress!"

You can listen to the entire interview here:
http://letstalkbitcoin.tumblr.com/post/48738464442/lets-talk-bitcoin-is-a-show-for-users-new-and

Bradley is editor of FreeBanking.org and Director of the Center for Financial Privacy and Human Rights. He comes on at about the nine-minute mark, but the conversation before that leads into the discussion on FinCEN.

Bitcoin Cryptocurrency: Is "Digital Gold" The Future Of Money?

Jim Puplava, President of PFS Group and host of Financial Sense Newshour, welcomes Jon Matonis, an e-Money researcher and Crypto Economist focused on expanding the circulation of nonpolitical digital currencies. Jon explains the definition of "crypto-currency" and discusses Bitcoin, the first true crypto-currency, which he describes as ''digital gold." Jon and Jim discuss the potential of Bitcoin, if it will eventually compete against government monopoly currencies, and if crypto-currencies could in fact become the future of money itself (10/31/2012).

Jon Matonis on Bitcoin CryptoCurrency: Is "Digital Gold" The Future Of Money? The audio file is hosted below or you can download here.

http://www.financialsensenewshour.com/broadcast/insider/fsn2012-1031-1-insider-i8mw5o3.mp3


Articles referenced during the interview:
Bitcoin Foundation Launches To Drive Bitcoin's Advancement (9/27/2012)
Brainwallet: The Ultimate In Mobile Money (3/12/2012)
Key Disclosure Law Can Be Used To Confiscate Bitcoin Assets (9/12/2012)
The Bitcoin Richest: Accumulating Large Balances (6/22/2012)

Jon Matonis Interview on AgoristRadio

On June 3rd, 2011, I was interviewed for the AgoristRadio Cypherpunkd program to discuss some of the larger economic themes surrounding bitcoin, such as the potential for widespread tax-free exchange, the impact on nation-State tax policy and monetary policy, the irrelevancy of international capital controls, the de-politicization of currency, and the end of using money to track identity.

From the web site:

Jon Matonis, an Austrian School economist and author of The Monetary Future blog joins us for a chat with Hiro on the topics of “The Social, Economic and Political Disruptive Technology of Bitcoin”. Jon gives us some of his background and history relating to digital currencies and issues surrounding the New Monetary Future. We spin off on many topics related to the bitcoin ecosystem, news items, the concept of money and the reactions to bitcoin by the State, gold-bugs, old-man-bitter-cypherpunks and more. This is our first episode with Jon and we hope to have him back on a regular basis as there are very few in this world with the background and understanding of what is going on right now and who really GET IT.

Listen to the interview on SoundCloud here.
Emergency Google Drive link is here.
Old disabled link is here.

Global Bitcoin Stock Exchange on AgoristRadio

This AgoristRadio.com episode special guest is Nefario. Buckle your seat-belt Dorothy, cause Kansas is about to go bye-bye. This episode is not for the faint of heart.

Discussion includes the Global Bitcoin Stock Exchange, Ricardian contracts, PGP key signing of contracts, encryption transports, encrypted messages over OTR, issues of criminal organizations attacking this system and the need to take it deep in the darknets, onion routing and geocache, massively distributed p2p hawala systems, and anonymous exchange networks.

Listen to the April 28th, 2011 interview here.

Nefario is also interviewed by Bitcoin Weekly here.

Bitcoin Mania on AgoristRadio

This AgoristRadio.com episode special guest is mids, cypherpunk, digital currency fanboy, software engineer, privacy & anonymity software creator and project contributor, eurotrash turned turned AnCap by hanging out in the wrong online chat channels. Yes, its ‘mids’, lowercase ‘M’, cause this guy is L33t.

mids gives us the lowdown on this Bitcoin Mania that is exciting and confusing everyone. mids tells us the Cypherpunk Cryptocurrency invasion has begun.

Issues discussed include: What is Bitcoin? Why is Bitcoin Money? Can a tyrant in government seize the worlds Bitcoins? P2P Software/Network that makes up Bitcoin. Open Source Software. Bitcoin Mining. Past and Current USD value of Bitcoin. OTC Exchangers. Business opportunities in parts of the world for on the ground Over the Counter exchangers. The massive amount of developers creating systems for Bitcoin. The fast growing number of merchants accepting it. And… lots more. Enjoy and look forward to more episodes on Bitcoin and other topics with mids.

Listen to Part 1 - the April 6th, 2011 interview here.

Listen to Part 2 - the April 22nd, 2011 interview here.

EconTalk Interview with Gavin Andresen

On March 15, 2011, Gavin Andresen spoke with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the bitcoin cryptocurrency. The interview can be downloaded here.

From EconTalk:

Gavin Andresen, Principal of the BitCoin Virtual Currency Project, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about BitCoin, an innovative attempt to create a decentralized electronic currency. Andresen explains the origins of BitCoin, how new currency gets created, how you can acquire BitCoins and the prospects for BitCoin's future. Can it compete with government-sanctioned money? How can users trust it? What threatens BitCoin and how might it thrive?

Additionally, there is a thoughtful and ongoing debate about bitcoin on The Mises Institute Forum: Is BitCoin the currency of the future? The forum topic is arranged chronologically, so if you advance to the end of the discussion thread, the more recent entries are displayed.

For further reading/viewing:
"Bitcoin and Fractional Reserve Banking", webisteme, April 2, 2011
"Open source identity: Bitcoin technical lead Gavin Andresen", Rodney Gedda, CIO, March 21, 2011
"Bitcoin – a Digital, Decentralized Currency", Technical interview with Gavin Andresen about BitCoin, OmegaTau podcast 59, March 19, 2011
"What is Bitcoin?", A video by weusecoins.com, March 22, 2011
"Bitcoin and the Current State of Currency", Spark 139, February 27, 2011
"BitCoin CryptoCurrency" (video), Security Now 287, February 9, 2011
"Making Money" (video), Gavin Andresen, Ignite Amherst, February 8, 2011
"Interview: How Bitcoin Created a Decentralized Crypto-Currency", Klint Finley, December 29, 2010
"Bitcoin: Virtual money created by CPU cycles", Nathan Willis, November 10, 2010

EconTalk Interview with George Selgin

On December 6, 2010, George Selgin of the University of Georgia spoke with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about whether the creation of the Federal Reserve in 1913 has been a boon or a bust for the U.S. economy. The interview can be downloaded here.

From EconTalk:

Drawing on a recent paper with William Lastrapes and Lawrence White recently released by the Cato Institute, "Has the Fed Been a Failure?", Selgin argues that the Fed has done poorly at two missions often deemed to justify a Central Bank: lender of last resort and smoother of the business cycle. Selgin makes the case that avoiding bank runs and bank panics does not require a central bank and that contrary to received wisdom, it is hard to argue that the Fed has smoothed the business cycle. Additional topics discussed include whether the Fed has the information to do its jobs well, the role of the Fed in moral hazard, and the potential for the gold standard to outperform the Fed.

For further viewing:
"George Selgin on Free Banking", 8-Part Video Presentation at Loyola University, New Orleans, LA, April 12, 2010

The Case Against the Fed

The Case Against the Fed by Murray Rothbard is brilliantly presented in this 24-part audio format by LibertyInOurTime.

Introduction:



Proceed to Part 1 of 24.

Book Review: End the Fed

The New American has published a flattering and thoughtful review of Congressman Ron Paul's latest book, End the Fed (2009), by Charles Scaliger, who states:

"For the first time in the Fed’s nearly century-long history, large numbers of Americans and not a few political leaders, led by Ron Paul, are waking up to the realities of central banking and the Fed’s role in causing the value of the dollar to depreciate and the economy to oscillate between boom and bust."

"If we do not soon abolish the Federal Reserve and return to sound money, we will likely experience national insolvency and an end to our dwindling political liberties. End the Fed is, simply put, a must-read for every American who can spell his name."

Listen to George Selgin discuss Ron Paul's bill H.R. 1207 and the audit of the Fed on Wisconsin Public Radio's The Joy Cardin Show (August 14, 2009). Selgin advocates an audit of the Fed as an initial reform, followed by constitutional restraints on the Fed, then abolishing the Federal Reserve System and replacing it with laissez-faire free banking.

Also, listen to U.S. Representative Ron Paul discuss the ongoing destruction of the U.S. Dollar on Jay Taylor's Turning Hard Times Into Good Times Internet radio program (April 7, 2009).

For further reading:
"Ron Paul Q&A: Audit the Fed, Then End It", Sudeep Reddy, September 16, 2009
"Ron Paul and the Federal Reserve", Thomas Greco, September 1, 2009
"The Fed on the Defensive", Gary North, August 29, 2009
"End the Fed? A not-so-crazy idea", George Selgin, August 3, 2009
"Bernanke Fights Audit Threat to the Fed", Forbes, July 21, 2009
"Auditing the Fed will Audit the State", George F. Smith, July 1, 2009
"Ron Paul's Competing Currencies", Peter Brimelow, January 29, 2008
The Case Against the Fed, Murray N. Rothbard, 1994

Early Austrian Economics and The Austrian Case for the Free Market Process

These excellent audiobooks are available from Audible.com. The first one, Early Austrian Economics, features Carl Menger (1840-1921) and Eugen von Bohm-Bawerk (1851-1914) rejecting the classical and Marxian ideas that value can be measured objectively rather than subjectively.

The second audiobook, The Austrian Case for the Free Market Process, features Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973) and Friedrich Hayek (1899-1992) who were perhaps the foremost defenders of the free market and limited government during the mid-twentieth century ascendancy of Keynesian economics.

Lawrence White on Free Banking

Professor Lawrence H. White presents "Free Banking" at Universidad Francisco Marroquín in Guatemala on June 24, 2009 in this video provided by New Media. Considered one of the leading scholars on alternative monetary systems, he is the author of The Theory of Monetary Institutions (1999) and Free Banking in Britain: Theory, Experience, and Debate, 1800-1845 (1984). White will be joining the faculty at George Mason University in the fall of 2009.

White also spoke with Dr. Mike Beitler of Free Markets radio on May 7, 2009. He discussed free banking versus central banking, lack of central banking in Panama, fractional reserve banking, and other monetary topics.

For further reading:
"The Federal Reserve System’s Influence on Research in Monetary Economics", Lawrence H. White, August 2005

Book Review: Good Money

The Mises Institute published a review of George Selgin's 2008 publication, Good Money: Birmingham Button Makers, the Royal Mint, and the Beginnings of Modern Coinage, 1775-1821. Professor Selgin tells the fascinating story of the important yet almost unknown episode in the history of money—British manufacturers’ challenge to the Crown’s monopoly on coinage.

In the 1780s, when the Industrial Revolution was gathering momentum, the Royal Mint failed to produce enough small-denomination coinage for factory owners to pay their workers. As the currency shortage threatened to derail industrial progress, manufacturers began to mint custom-made coins, called “tradesman’s tokens.” Rapidly gaining wide acceptance, these tokens served as the nation’s most popular currency for wages and retail sales until 1821, when the Crown outlawed all moneys except its own.

Good Money not only examines the crucial role of private coinage in fueling Great Britain’s Industrial Revolution, but it also challenges beliefs upon which all modern government-currency monopolies rest. It thereby sheds light on contemporary private-sector alternatives to government-issued money, such as digital monies, cash cards, electronic funds transfer, and (outside of the United States) spontaneous “dollarization.”

George Selgin is Research Fellow at the Independent Institute and BB&T Professor of Free Market Thought at West Virginia University. His research covers a broad range of topics within the field of monetary economics, including monetary theory, monetary history, macroeconomic policy, and the history of monetary thought.

Praise for Good Money

“George Selgin’s story of how private enterprise solved a monetary problem that threatened seriously to retard the Industrial Revolution is a splendid piece of historical analysis. He has done an incredible job of unearthing all of the details of what went on in Britain in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. It is a fine example of historical research.” —Milton Friedman, Recipient of the 1976 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics

“Almost all previous research and publication in the two contingent fields of the history of coinage and the metal industries has formed a dichotomy between two different groups of specialists: economic historians and numismatists. . . . A great strength of this book is that Selgin has mastered both bibliographies and integrated the fields. Two further aspects of the work, which enhance its academic status, lie in the extensive deployment of primary sources (particularly the Boulton archive, the Boulton and Watt papers and the records of the Committee of the Privy Council on coin) and the wide range of themes covered. . . . The prominent sub-plot in Selgin’s book breaks surface in the introduction, the conclusion and in the robust defence of ‘genuine’ private commercial tokens. He is clearly at one with Herbert Spencer (and The Independent Institute, a promoter of private enterprise and co-publisher of the book), in challenging—or at least questioning—the claims of the state to what has always been one of the earliest, most universal, and most ruthlessly enforced public monopolies. In exploring these issues, Selgin reveals much about the dynamic of the British economy in this period and the fractious relationship between private enterprise and the apparatus of the state.” —Economic History Review

Watch George Selgin present his book's core thesis at the Austrian Scholars Conference, March 14, 2009.

Lew Rockwell interviews George Selgin on "Libertarian Coinage".
Listen to George Selgin discuss the book on a radio interview.

George Selgin on Free Banking

Professor George Selgin of West Virginia University talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about free banking and competitive note issue on November 17, 2008. Selgin is also the author of The Theory of Free Banking and Less Than Zero: The Case for a Falling Price Level in a Growing Economy.

Selgin will return to the University of Georgia in the fall of 2009.

Interview with e-gold CEO

Douglas Jackson, a pioneer in the digital gold currency business, sat down with a radio journalist in 2007 to discuss the benefits and operational details of the e-gold system.

Why Fractional Reserve Banking Is More Libertarian than the Gold Standard

The Foundation for Economic Education has made this insightful and provocative audio available from Jeffrey Rogers Hummel, "Why Fractional Reserve Banking Is More Libertarian than the Gold Standard" (July 15, 2008). The debate has a colorful history within the Austrian School tradition as evidenced by the papers below for further reading. I agree with economists White, Selgin, and Hummel that the existence and practice of fractional reserve banking is neither anti-Libertarian nor anti-Austrian.

Dr. Jeffrey Rogers Hummel is an economic historian with expertise in the American Revolution and the Civil War. A dedicated teacher and gifted scholar, Dr. Hummel is the author of Emancipating Slaves, Enslaving Free Men: A History of the American Civil War (1996). Dr. Hummel has also been published in many academic journals, including the Journal of Economic History, Texas Law Review, and Journal of Austrian Economics. In 2001-2002 he was honored as the William C. Bark National Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.
After receiving his B.A. in history from Grove City College, Dr. Hummel went on to become a tank platoon leader in the U.S. Army in the 1970s. He later received a Ph.D. in history with a minor in economics from University of Texas at Austin. Today Dr. Hummel is a faculty member in the Department of Economics at San Jose State University, where he lectures on both economics and history.
For further reading:
"The Case Against the Fed Book Review", Randy Radic, May 19, 2009
"100 Percent Reserve Money: The Small Change Challenge", George Selgin, March 2009
"Hayek's Plan for Private Money", Robert P. Murphy, July 18, 2005
"Legal Tender Laws and Fractional-Reserve Banking", Jorg Guido Hulsmann, Summer 2004
"Should We Let Banks Create Money?", George Selgin, Summer, 2000
"Banks Cannot Create Money", Jorg Guido Hulsmann, Summer 2000
"Why Private Banks and Not Central Banks Should Issue Currency, Especially in Less Developed Countries", Lawrence H. White and George Selgin, April 19, 2000
"In Defense of Fiduciary Media-or, We are Not Devo(lutionists), We are Misesians!", George Selgin and Lawrence H. White, 1996
"Free Banking and the Free Bankers", Jorg Guido Hulsmann, 1996
"A Critical Analysis of Central Banks and Fractional-Reserve Free Banking from the Austrian School Perspective", Jesus Huerta de Soto, 1995
"Fractional versus 100% Reserve Banking", Morris J. Markovitz, June 1988
"The Case for a Genuine Gold Dollar", Murray N. Rothbard, 1985
"Gold and Free Market Banking" (video), Lawrence H. White, "The Gold Standard: An Austrian Perspective" Conference held in Washington, DC, November 16-17, 1983
"Gold versus Fractional Reserves", Henry Hazlitt, May 1979
"The Gold Standard and Fractional-Reserve Banking", Joe Cobb, September 1975

Book Review: When Washington Shut Down Wall Street

The Economic History Association owns and operates the EH.net website, which published a book review of When Washington Shut Down Wall Street: The Great Financial Crisis of 1914 and the Origins of America's Monetary Supremacy (2007) by William L. Silber. A podcast interview with the author is also available. William Silber is Marcus Nadler Professor of Finance and Economics at the Stern School of Business, New York University. The author or editor of eight books, he has served as Senior Economist with the President's Council of Economic Advisors and as a member of the Economic Advisory Panel of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

From the Publisher

When Washington Shut Down Wall Street unfolds like a mystery story. It traces Treasury Secretary William G. McAdoo's triumph over a monetary crisis at the outbreak of World War I that threatened the United States with financial disaster. The biggest gold outflow in a generation imperiled America's ability to repay its debts abroad. Fear that the United States would abandon the gold standard crushed the value of the dollar on world markets. Without a central bank in the summer of 1914, the United States resembled a headless financial giant.

William G. McAdoo stepped into the breach with bold and courageous action. He shut the New York Stock Exchange for more than four months to prevent Europeans from selling their American securities and demanding gold in return. He smothered the country with emergency currency to prevent a replay of the bank runs that embarrassed America during the Panic of 1907. McAdoo launched the United States as a world monetary power by honoring America's commitment to the gold standard, while every other country, except for Britain (the reigning financial superpower), abandoned it at the outbreak of the Great War. In 1914 the gold standard conferred the monetary stamp of approval. McAdoo also provides a blueprint for crisis control that merits attention today. His recipe for smothering a crisis emphasizes the importance of an exit strategy. An exit plan allows policymakers to bludgeon the crisis with a sledgehammer, while minimizing collateral damage.

Archival material and contemporary newspaper accounts recreate the drama of McAdoo's plan to sustain American financial honor. His accomplishments during 1914 place him alongside Paul Volcker and Alan Greenspan as Great American financial leaders. McAdoo, in fact, nursed the Federal Reserve into existence as the 1914 crisis waned and served as first Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board by virtue of his position as Treasury Secretary.

Comments on the Book

Niall Ferguson, Harvard University, author of Colossus: William Silber has performed two sterling services with this fascinating and original book. He has illuminated the hitherto neglected financial crisis of 1914, an event that deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as the Crash of 1929 in the history of Wall Street. But he has also come up with some bold and compelling answers to two burning questions that are of more than purely historical interest: How should monetary policymakers cope with a really big and unexpected political shock? And how does one international reserve currency come to be overtaken by another? I cannot praise this book too highly. It is rare that one author so skillfully unites the disciplines of finance and history.

Peter L. Bernstein, author of The Power of Gold: Silber tells a compelling tale proving the power of the law of unintended consequences. The financial crisis of 1914 was a major turning point in American economic history, an outcome nobody could have predicted as massive amounts of gold sailed to Europe, banks shook at their foundations, and the nascent Federal Reserve System was only just going into operation. What a story!

Business History Review from Harvard Business School also published a review by Maury Klein.

For further reading:
"Ccompetitive Currencies, Legal Restrictions, and the Origins of the Fed: Some Evidence from the Panic of 1907", Steven Horwitz, 2001

Follow the Money: New Payment Systems Used by Cybercriminals

A fairly remedial presentation on digital currency issuers and money transfer enforcement was given at the RSA Conference by the Department of Justice on April 11, 2008. Listen to DOJ presenters Howard Cox and Kimberly Kiefer Peretti for the law session, "Follow the Money: New Payment Systems Used by Cybercriminals".

Gold: The Once and Future Money

Publisher Wiley Business Finance has released a new book, Gold: The Once and Future Money (2007) by Nathan Lewis. "In this delectable tome, Nathan Lewis describes the booms, busts, the bubbles, and the crises in the economies of dozens of countries, from centuries ago to the present day. It is a romp through history, illuminating along the way money in all its forms -- from wampum and shells to silver and gold -- and details the catastrophic effects of inflation, deflation, floating currencies, and every kind of tax a government functionary could dream to impose on an economy," says Addison Wiggin, author of The Demise of the Dollar.

Jim Puplava interviews the author on an interesting podcast.

Brian Doherty of Reason magazine also interviews the author in a piece titled "A New Golden Age?" where Lewis suggests re-linking the dollar to gold.