Historical Defaults on the Dollar

The podcast discusses four key events that are considered defaults on the US dollar: the 1913 Federal Reserve Act, the 1933 confiscation of gold, the 1965 Coinage Act, and the 1971 closing of the gold window by Nixon. Each of these events marked significant changes in the way the US government handled currency and monetary policy, resulting in a shift away from gold and silver backing. The Federal Reserve Act centralized control of the money supply, sold as a means to stabilize the economy, but it failed to prevent economic downturns, leading to public disillusionment. The confiscation of gold during the Great Depression was seen as a blatant government default, as it stripped citizens of their wealth in exchange for increasingly devalued paper currency.