The End of the Gold Standard: Could It Return?

On August 15, 1971, President Richard Nixon suspended the dollar’s convertibility into gold, ending the Bretton Woods system and cutting the last formal tie between the U.S. dollar and the metal. This documentary traces the story from the 1944 Bretton Woods conference through the Triffin dilemma, the run on American gold, the London Gold Pool’s 1968 collapse, and the secret Camp David weekend that produced the decision. I read the decisive lines from the printed Public Papers of the Presidents, then follow the aftermath through the Smithsonian devaluation to $38 an ounce, the 1973 move to $42.22, and the float that ended the system. I also lay out the competing explanations economists give for why it broke — design flaw, policy, and politics — and correct the popular legend that France sent a warship to collect its gold. Finally, I work through the arithmetic any return to gold would face today, including what $23 trillion of M2 against 261.5 million ounces would imply for the price.

Chapters
0:00 – Cold Open: The Sunday Night Broadcast
0:34 – Bretton Woods, 1944: How the System Worked
1:31 – The Triffin Dilemma and the Squeeze on Gold
2:39 – The Run on American Gold, 1961-1971
4:13 – Camp David and the August 15 Address
5:07 – Fallout: Smithsonian, $42.22, and the Float
6:03 – Why It Broke: Design, Policy, Politics
6:43 – Would the Gold Standard Work Today?

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*Disclosure: This is not financial advice and should not be taken as such. The information contained in this video is an opinion. Some of the information could be wrong. This channel is owned and operated by Portfolio Constructs LLC. Some of the links above are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.