Bitcoin
Bill to Kill US Federal Reserve Was Inspired by Bitcoin Book
US Congressman Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky) caused a stir with Bitcoiners last month after introducing a bill to abolish the Federal Reserve. It turns out that this bill was inspired by a famous Bitcoin book that outlined the evils of central banking.
On a Thursday podcast appearance Discussing the bill with author Tom Woods, Massie said he “learned a few things” after listening to The Bitcoin Standard audiobook by Saifedean Ammunition—concluding that “it’s past time” to bring back legislation to end the Fed.
“The first 80% is not about Bitcoin, it’s about money, it’s about ‘what is money?’” the congressman explained. “He has to define it before you can explain what Bitcoin is, because you can’t assume that everyone knows what money was.”
The 2018 book proposed that Bitcoin could become the world’s most dominant money due to its superior monetary properties – particularly its scarcity, which is reinforced by a maximum supply of 21 million coins. Ammous also links a number of social ills in recent decades to the United States’ abandonment of the gold standard in 1971, including reduced household savings and inflation in housing and asset prices.
Massie’s “Federal Reserve Board Abolition Act” addressed many of the same points, declaring that “retirees see their savings evaporate” under Fed policies that “benefit the wealthy and connected.”
Massie co-sponsored a bill of the same name in 2013, which was originally introduced by former libertarian congressman Ron Paul in 1999.
Although that bill received minimal support from just two co-sponsors eleven years ago, Massie claims that all of Ron Paul’s predictions have come true since then: high inflation, trillions of dollars in print, and a “loss of faith” in institutions. governmental.
To his surprise, Massie said, his 2024 bill received two dozen cosponsors, all Republicans.
The online Bitcoin community also gave Massie his unwavering support. On Thursday, Massie began a conversation with Ammous on Twitter about how they turned against centralized management of the economy, both citing economics professors.
Edited by Ryan Ozawa.