On Dec 25, 10:11 am, pkbrandon <pkbra...@hickorytech.net> wrote:
> On Dec 24, 12:50 pm, John David Galt <j...@diogenes.sacramento.ca.us>
> wrote:
>
>
>
> > >> pkbrandon wrote:
> > >>> If Federal commitments like T-Bills and the FDIC are not honored, then
> > >>> currency is not likely to have any value either; it's just another
> > >>> Federal promise to pay.
> > > John David Galt wrote:
> > >> I'll bite: to pay what? If you mean gold, that promise ended in 1973.
> > pkbrandon wrote:
> > > Actually, what ended in 1973 was the Silver Certificate (the gold
> > > standard was ended in the '30's).
>
> > Nope. What ended in the '30s was the legality of owning gold in the US.
> > Gold was a controlled substance for 40 years -- and when FDR imposed the
> > rule (by executive order, not law), he did it on a Saturday when the
> > banks were closed, and had federal agents open and raid every safe
> > deposit box in the US, take the gold, and leave paper money in its place.
>
> > But foreign governments continued to be allowed to redeem dollars for
> > gold at the official price of $35/ounce until 1973, when Nixon "closed
> > the gold window".
>
> > Wikipedia is not a reliable source. Harry Browne and Howard Ruff wrote
> > books about it that are.
>
> "Ruff's Little Book of Big Fortunes in Gold & Silver: A Middle Class
> License to Print Money"
> lends all sorts of confidence, man.

This is all rather off topic, but ....
The gold *standard* ended with the foundation of the Federal Reserve
(anathema to John Galt ;-) in 1914.
The fact that the Treasury was willing under some circumstances to
exchange gold for foreign currency does not make it the standard for
the dollar.
The Britannica has a good article on it.