Dewell Marketing

On August 15th, 1971 then President Richard Nixon decided to unplug the dollar from the gold standard supposedly to stop currency speculators from wrecking the currency. This was a temporary measure according to his speech announcing this move.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t remember that “temporary” measure ever being rescinded, and as far as I can tell, Tricky Dick did a better job of wrecking the dollar, and subsequently the economy, than any speculators could have ever done.

What Nixon did was not free us from speculators; he freed the government from any fiscal restraint allowing it to borrow any amount it wanted at will. Now we have trillions of dollars worth of debt sitting in other country’s treasuries waiting to come home to roost – to a destroyed hen house.

The most recent infantile political posturing over the debt ceiling can be traced back to that momentous day in 1971 when the President of the United States, sworn to uphold the Constitution and protect our country from enemies, foreign and domestic, became one of those enemies.

Thanks Dick!

Thanks to Chris Mortenson for blogging about this and bringing it to my attention. Here’s his whole post:
Happy 40th Birthday, Fiat Dollar!