New American: Just a few days before then-President Richard Nixon announced he was “closing the gold window” on August 15, 1971, the British ambassador came to Washington to demand that the U.S. Treasury redeem some $3 billion worth of paper dollars Britain was holding in exchange for gold. With more than $45 billion in Federal Reserve notes outstanding worldwide and only $10 billion in gold to back them up, Nixon called 15 advisors for a secret meeting to decide what to do.
“They will throw their silver into the streets, And their gold will be like refuse;
Their silver and their gold will not be able to deliver them In the day of the wrath of the Lord … ” Ezekiel 7:19
Out of that meeting came Nixon’s announcement:
Prosperity without war [the Vietnam war was winding down] requires action on three fronts: we must create more and better jobs; we must stop the rise in the cost of living; [and] we must protect the dollar from the attacks of international money speculators….
The … indispensable element … [is] to stop the rise in the cost of living….
Homemakers find it harder than ever to balance the family budget. And 80 million American wage earners have been on a treadmill … your paychecks were higher, but you were no better off.
So, Nixon took actions that exacerbated and accelerated the very problem he announced he was solving:
I have directed [Treasury] Secretary [John] Connally to suspend … the convertibility of the dollar into gold.
He soothed any concerns people might have Read More
