In their impossibly good book Money, Markets, and Sovereignty (2009), Benn Steil and Manuel Hinds make the point that over the last four thousand years, the only period in which humanity has not consistently based its currency in metal, specifically gold, is the last forty. That’s right. Ever since President Richard M. Nixon announced forty years ago today, on August 15, 1971, that the U.S. would no longer officially trade dollars for gold, we have been enjoying a new era of human history.
Quoted from “August 15, 1971: A Date Which Has Lived In Infamy”
And more here.
I linked to the history of the Nixon Shock earlier but here it is again to share with all your friends who say, “Well, the people in government are the experts. They have information we don’t and I’m sure they make their decisions wisely based on things you and I simply don’t understand.”
Oh. People don’t say things like that so much any more, do they? Thank God!