THE SITUATION ROOM · SCHOOLROOM

The Vienna School

A six-module curriculum on Austrian economics — the analytical lens that makes everything else in this room make sense.

Most readers arriving here are Bitcoin-curious but unfamiliar with the 150-year tradition that explains why sound money matters in the first place. Work through these six modules in order — 15 to 25 minutes each — and the rest of the Situation Room will read differently. Every chart will have a frame around it. Every policy headline will have a translation.

BEGIN MODULE 01 FREE · NO ACCOUNT REQUIRED

The curriculum

6 OF 6 MODULES LIVE

MODULE 00

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Human Action

You praxeologised before breakfast. The method behind everything that follows.

MODULE 01

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The Origin

Vienna, 1871. A line of thought begins.

MODULE 02

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Subjective Value

Why a glass of water is worth more than a diamond.

MODULE 03

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Sound Money

Gold, the printing press, and the long con.

MODULE 04

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Time Preference

Capital, interest, and the structure of production.

MODULE 05

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The Knowledge Problem

Why no committee can run an economy.

MODULE 06

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Why Now

A 150-year framework finds its asset.

The Machine Room

6 MODULES · BANKING MECHANICS

Know the machine before you condemn it. How money is actually created and moved — commercial vs central bank money, why loans make deposits, how rates really move, what QE swaps, and where the system broke. A separate wing; it doesn’t count toward graduation.

MODULE 01

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Two Kinds of Money

Your balance is an IOU, not a vault.

MODULE 02

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Loans Create Deposits

The loan makes the money. The Bank of England agrees.

MODULE 03

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The Rate Machine

Setting rates is herding, not dialling.

MODULE 04

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QE Without the Mythology

An asset swap — and still damning.

MODULE 05

· OPEN ACCESS

The Plumbing

Where the real fragility lives.

MODULE 06

· OPEN ACCESS

When the Machine Breaks

Repo 2019, SVB, and the gilt crisis of 2022.

Rival Schools

3 AUTOPSIES · STEELMAN THEN DISSECT

Each rival stated in its strongest form first — better than most of its own advocates put it — then taken apart joint by joint. You cannot honestly reject a school you never understood. A separate wing; it doesn’t count toward graduation.