~Nemo me impune lacessit~
In the 1930's OUR Government outlawed posession of gold bullion...
On August 15, 1971, President Nixon announced on TV 3 dramatic changes in economic policy. He imposed a wage-price freeze. He ended the Bretton Woods international monetary system. And he imposed a temporary surcharge (tariff) on all imports. The Bretton Woods system was created towards the end of World War II and involved fixed exchange rates with the U.S. dollar as the key currency - but also a role for gold linked to the dollar at $35/ounce. The system began to falter in the 1960s because of an excess of dollars flowing out of the U.S. which foreign central banks had to absorb. A run on gold in 1968 was stemmed by a patch on Bretton Woods known as the two-tier gold system. All of this was ended unilaterally by the Nixon decision. After a brief attempt to create a modified fixed exchange rate system, the world moved to flexible rates.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRzr1QU6K1oPractically I believe you are correct about Roosevelt but technically was Dick Nixon.Are you sure? I thought FDR did that back then we outlawed the private ownership of gold.
Wart
The Nixon Shock was a series of economic measures taken by U.S. President Richard Nixon in 1971 including unilaterally cancelling the direct convertibility of the United States dollar to gold that essentially ended the existing Bretton Woods system of international financial exchange.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixon_Shock
Last edited by Warthogg; 12-12-2011 at 07:06 PM.
Nope, it was Dick Nixon...
Not sure who made it legal again... I think it was the 1990s, so that would have been the Repub Congress and Klinton that signed it.
Just looked it up. Gerald Ford made it legal to own gold bullion again.
Just a quick aside, Roosevelt's representative at Bretton Woods was a Communist.
International Bank of Settlements*, World Bank, IMF and more was created at Bretton Woods. (Research only if you want to be infuriated.)
Wart
*Now part of the World Bank.
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