By Egon von GREYERZ
Was Richard Nixon a real gold friend who understood the futility of tying a weakening dollar to gold which is the only currency that has survived in history?
So was Nixon actually the instigator of the movement to FreeGold?
I doubt it. He was just another desperate leader who was running out of real money and needed to create unlimited amounts of fiat money. Although his fatal decision to close the gold window was clearly the beginning of the end of the current monetary system.
But although the decision was fatal, Nixon was clearly not personally responsible. What the world saw in August 1971 was just another desperate leader who realised that he couldn’t stick to the monetary or fiscal disciplines necessary to maintain a sound economy and a sound currency.
In history, Nixon should be seen as the rule rather than the exception. Since every currency has been slaughtered throughout history, one particular leader will also be required to be the executor.
So in 1971, history had elected Tricky Dick to be the inevitable destroyer of the dollar.
I don’t quite know what the definition is of “suspend temporarily” but 50 years seems to be pushing the limit!
And as regards the strength of dollar goes, we all know what happened to the “strength of the currency”! Please see the illustration of the dollar collapse further on in the article.
In my article from December 2018 I talked about the advantage of FreeGold.
There are a few conditions that need to be fulfilled for gold to be an effective store of value. The principle of FreeGold best defines what this means. The website FOFOA (Friend Of a Friend of Another) and its predecessors have been pioneers in defining what FreeGold is:
These are the basic principles –
ALL PHYSICAL GOLD MUST BE:
- FREE from official money systems
- Owned FREE of all other claims
- FREELY traded
If all the above conditions are met, there would be no gold backed currencies, no ability to exchange currency for gold at central banks for a fixed parity and most importantly THERE WOULD BE NO PAPER GOLD OR OTHER GOLD DERIVATIVES.
Gold would neither be lent nor leveraged.
In fact, gold should not be tied to any currency. Gold has reigned supreme for 5,000 years whilst all its competitors in the form of fiat money have collapsed. Nixon probably understood this. The world’s current reserve currency could obviously not be shackled any more by gold. Because gold ignores the follies of megalomaniac sovereign leaders who want to cling on to power at any cost.
That is why governments have a Love – Hate relationship with gold.
ON THE ONE HAND – GOVERNMENTS LOVE GOLD
On the one hand gold signifies stability, wealth and the only currency that has survived in history and maintained its purchasing power. That is why governments around the world allegedly hold 34,000 tonnes of it currently valued at $2 trillion.
As Greenspan said a few years ago:
“If it (gold) is worthless and meaningless, why is everybody (central banks) still holding it?”
ON THE OTHER HAND – GOVERNMENTS HATE GOLD
On the other hand governments hate gold since it reveals their total mismanagement of the economy.
Because as soon as they run out of money, tying the currency to gold creates an extremely inconvenient road block that must be eliminated.
As gold is an inconvenient truth sayer, tying it to the currency prevents governments from holding on to power. So out with gold and sound money and in with credit expansion and fake money that temporarily buys votes.
Printing money and buying votes is not just a frivolous folly, but also an extremely costly exercise that without fail leads to the collapse of the economy and the currency.
