Why did we abandon the gold standard?
In: Economics
Historically, gold standards were often abandoned because the rulers wanted the freedom to debate their money to fund a war or another huge political project.
It’s no accident that the Federal Reserve was born right before the US entered WWI and Roosevelt criminalized holding gold right before the US entered WWII. Nixon fully severed the USD tie to gold because the US government was printing money, debasing the dollar, and other countries were starting to demand gold for their US dollars.
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