Volitional pragmatism and choice under indeterminacy
Explore how volitional pragmatism reframes choice, belief updating, and public policy under deep indeterminacy and endogenous preferences.
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Institutional Economics
Bitcoin's decentralized protocol and ecosystem trade-offs
Explore how Bitcoin's protocol design reshapes transaction costs, risk allocation, and regulatory leverage through layered decentralization.
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Transaction cost economics as a theory of governance
Explore how transaction cost economics links asset specificity, adaptation, and governance while exposing its empirical and policy limits.
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How transaction costs shape governance
Explore how transaction-specific investment, frequency, and uncertainty shape the choice among markets, contracts, and hierarchy.
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How merchant guilds made rulers’ promises credible
Explore how merchant guilds coordinated boycotts and enforced member compliance to make rulers’ protection promises credible.
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The Limits of Permissionlessness in Bitcoin
The January 27, 2026 episode of What Bitcoin Did features Amiti Uttarwar explaining how Bitcoin’s defining feature—permissionless participation—creates both resilience and hidden coordination costs.
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Bitcoin’s Trojan-Horse Pivot
The April 24, 2025 episode of What Bitcoin Did features Alex Gladstein explaining how institutional and nation-state embrace of Bitcoin accelerates its mission to separate money from government control.
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Economic Thought Evolution and Policy Implications
The January 23, 2025 episode of the Lex Fridman Podcast featuring Jennifer Burns explores the evolution of economic thought—from classical theories and the marginal revolution to contemporary debates over government intervention and market freedom.
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