THE DAY THE DOLLAR DIED

by James Craig Green


If today is your fortieth birthday, CONGRATULATIONS! You were born the day the dollar died - August 15, 1971. That's the day my Commander-In-Chief, President "Tricky Dicky" Nixon, removed the last gold backing from the dollar. This was the final nail in the coffin for the U.S. Dollar, setting the stage for the final four-decade blowoff of the World's Reserve Currency. Of course, silver coins were already gone from circulation, proving Gresham's Law ("bad money drives out good").

From NIXON'S 1971 ANNOUNCEMENT (4-minute video), you can see how presidential knowledge of economics hasn't changed much in forty years, including blaming speculators, foreign competition and promoting the protectionism which Adam Smith called mercantilism in The Wealth of Nations.

As a young Air Force lieutenant coming back to the states from overseas in the summer of 1971, I bought my first brand new car, a Toyota Corolla, for $2200. It was still illegal for Americans to own bullion gold, courtesy of President Roosevelt, the nation's previous savior, a quarter-century before.

As Detlev Schlichter points out in today's Wall Street Journal (Europe) article FORTY YEARS OF PAPER MONEY, your entire life has been a prelude to today's economic crisis. If you think Bush, Obama or their predecessors had or will have a clue to what is going on, think again. As the Bush-Obama so-called "stimulus" policies continue to harm the economy, America's non-stop escalating debt continues to eat it alive.

Peter Schiff on Zero Interest Rates

On Friday, Peter Schiff, in his Euro Pacific article THE FIX IS IN, provides more insight into the failed policies of the Federal Reserve, in particular the great damage to the economy of holding interest rates artificially low, which is all the current Washington Wizards can think of. Here's an important excerpt:

I believe that ultra-low interest rates are among the biggest impediments currently preventing genuine economic growth in the US economy... the Fed has actually lengthened the time Americans will now have to wait before a real recovery begins.

RIP, my old dying dollar friend. I remember when a dime got me into a movie, a Coke was a nickel and a five dollar bill said "Silver Certificate."