Saifedean Ammous

Saifedean Ammous, born on October 24, 1980, in Nablus, Palestine, is a Palestinian-Jordanian economist and author. His early life included periods in Saudi Arabia and Brazil before he settled in Ramallah in the West Bank in 1990. He completed his high school education at Ramallah Friends School in 1998. Ammous pursued higher education at the American University of Beirut, earning a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering. He then obtained a Master’s in Development Management, specializing in Applied Development Economics, from the London School of Economics. His academic journey continued with a PhD in Sustainable Development, with a focus on Development Economics and Policy, from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. During his PhD studies, he served as Head Teaching Assistant for Professor Jeffrey Sachs and was a member of the Biofuels Working Group led by Nobel Laureate Professor Joseph Stiglitz.

Ammous commenced his academic career as an assistant professor of economics at the Lebanese American University in Beirut, holding this position from 2009 to 2019. His initial research was centered on development economics, resource economics, and energy. Over time, he developed a critical perspective on fiat money systems and conventional economic policies, which led him to advocate for Austrian economics and Bitcoin. In 2018, he authored “The Bitcoin Standard: The Decentralized Alternative to Central Banking,” a book that has been translated into 39 languages and is widely recognized for its explanations of Bitcoin’s economics. This was followed by “The Fiat Standard: The Debt Slavery Alternative to Human Civilization” in 2021, available in 12 languages, which further examines the consequences of fiat currency. In May 2023, he released “Principles of Economics,” a textbook aligned with the Austrian school tradition. His works have collectively sold over a million copies globally. He also hosts “The Bitcoin Standard Podcast” and teaches various online economics courses on his platform, Saifedean.com. He has also been appointed as an economic advisor to the government of El Salvador, the first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender, advising President Nayib Bukele.

His online platform, Saifedean.com, offers four online economics courses, access to his books, and forum membership. He also conducts weekly discussion seminars. His courses cover Principles of Economics I, Principles of Economics, The Bitcoin Standard, The Fiat Standard, and Hard Questions on Hard Money. He boasts over 7,500,000 podcast downloads and has taught more than 4,000 students. Testimonials for his work come from notable figures such as Michael Saylor, CEO of MicroStrategy, and Russel Okung, NFL Super Bowl Winner. He has consistently advocated for sound monetary principles and has been a vocal critic of central banking and Keynesian economics.