1971, I remember it well. It was plain to see Nixon had always been unsuitably too dishonest for any position of leadership or trust.
Modern civilization was built on the transition from barbarism during which the gold standard had been established for centuries.
Remember modern man adopted the precious metals standard in pre-historic times. i.e. Prehistoric Man. So it's been around a long time.
Investors just as shrewd as today recognized that all wealth arises from natural resources to begin with, and their scientists and geologists had millennia to identify and procure the most universally rare long-lasting element that could be accumulated and passed down the most reliably that people would actually pay for. But of course they would need to pay in some other way.
Different regimes over the millennia, both the few that are historically recorded and the remaining majority of advanced civilizations that will never be known, have had greater or lesser degrees of barbaric greed that were still endemic because of their cultural traditions, and this has always had a disparate effect on their relationship with precious metals, especially gold in particular.
It was not unique in different parts of the world for the doctrine to become all gold belongs to the king, whether gradually over time or by occasional edict.
In 1913 circulating legal tender US dollar bank notes were centralized & privatized, separated in a way from the government mint which remained the sole source of gold dollars.
The complementary silver standard had been removed politically in earlier decades. Silver dollars were therefore theoretically backed by gold. Just act like silver is not the other precious metal that civilization was built on, nobody will notice.
In 1933 began the recall of all gold & gold dollars to the king. No more circulation under penalty of law.
In exchange, the substitute bank notes were given a curated strength & stability for the remaining lifetime of the victims. Still tied to gold.
After 1960, silver moved up in price relative to stable gold, so the mint had a reason to remove silver from US coins by 1964, with even copper soon to follow.
This seemed to be a precautionary effort in case a cold war might need to be waged using currency salvos.
But once oil skyrocketed even more threatingly there was pressure to devalue the currency to pay for it, so the dollar was going to need to be debased beforehand. The misfortunates of 1933 were no longer a strong force and inflation was run up the flagpole without as much skepticism as there should have been. So inflation it was.
In exchange Americans would be once again allowed to own gold, but only if they could afford to purchase it after it had skyrocketed which almost no average American could even consider with the pricing pressures everywhere else.
Going forward from 1971 we're just going to act like gold had not been the standard of wealth and commerce since civilization began, if not since the dawn of modern man.
I would estimate that's a serious break with tradition.
As we can see, the other shoe dropped and the recall was completed.
Modern civilization was built on the transition from barbarism during which the gold standard had been established for centuries.
Remember modern man adopted the precious metals standard in pre-historic times. i.e. Prehistoric Man. So it's been around a long time.
Investors just as shrewd as today recognized that all wealth arises from natural resources to begin with, and their scientists and geologists had millennia to identify and procure the most universally rare long-lasting element that could be accumulated and passed down the most reliably that people would actually pay for. But of course they would need to pay in some other way.
Different regimes over the millennia, both the few that are historically recorded and the remaining majority of advanced civilizations that will never be known, have had greater or lesser degrees of barbaric greed that were still endemic because of their cultural traditions, and this has always had a disparate effect on their relationship with precious metals, especially gold in particular.
It was not unique in different parts of the world for the doctrine to become all gold belongs to the king, whether gradually over time or by occasional edict.
In 1913 circulating legal tender US dollar bank notes were centralized & privatized, separated in a way from the government mint which remained the sole source of gold dollars.
The complementary silver standard had been removed politically in earlier decades. Silver dollars were therefore theoretically backed by gold. Just act like silver is not the other precious metal that civilization was built on, nobody will notice.
In 1933 began the recall of all gold & gold dollars to the king. No more circulation under penalty of law.
In exchange, the substitute bank notes were given a curated strength & stability for the remaining lifetime of the victims. Still tied to gold.
After 1960, silver moved up in price relative to stable gold, so the mint had a reason to remove silver from US coins by 1964, with even copper soon to follow.
This seemed to be a precautionary effort in case a cold war might need to be waged using currency salvos.
But once oil skyrocketed even more threatingly there was pressure to devalue the currency to pay for it, so the dollar was going to need to be debased beforehand. The misfortunates of 1933 were no longer a strong force and inflation was run up the flagpole without as much skepticism as there should have been. So inflation it was.
In exchange Americans would be once again allowed to own gold, but only if they could afford to purchase it after it had skyrocketed which almost no average American could even consider with the pricing pressures everywhere else.
Going forward from 1971 we're just going to act like gold had not been the standard of wealth and commerce since civilization began, if not since the dawn of modern man.
I would estimate that's a serious break with tradition.
As we can see, the other shoe dropped and the recall was completed.
We're still paying for it in some other way.