A Brief History of the US Dollar Gold Standard

From 19 forty four to 19 71 sovereign currencies were simply different weights of the dollar, redeemable for actual gold at a rate of 35 dollars an ounce. The entire system depended on the beneficence of the us. Government and its willingness to not overspend, increasing the ratio of dollars to underlying gold. Things came to a head when the us. Spent extravagantly on president linden johnson's great society and the vianom war. In august 19 71, france called america's bluff and despatched a battleship to retrieve their gold. President richard nixon knew the us. Could not honor its commitments and defaulted on the promise that had

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