Why the US Killed the Gold Standard
“In 1971,” author Lewis Lehrman explained, “both Britain and several other countries decided to encash their huge accumulations of dollar reserves under the Bretton Woods system for gold.
“Of course, President Nixon, in his own way, decided to trump them. He issued an executive order on August 15th, 1971 and said, ‘I’m sorry, we’re not paying our debts. We’re certainly not paying our debts in gold.’
“I’d say there was no democratic consent with respect to President Nixon’s Executive Order of August 15th, ending whatever little vestige of convertibility of the dollar to gold remained.
“This was a decision taken in camera in Camp David by a group of so-called conservative economists and a conservative president, who ran on a free-market program, believing that they had the power not only to suspend the convertibility of the dollar. They also believed that a more prosperous arrangement would come from a pure paper dollar currency. ”
We know how that story turned out…
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