There is nothing in this long post that I did not already know. Nor am I trying to disagree with any of it. Perhaps it’ll be informative for the others on the thread, even if it’s not a subject most people are dying to read about.
I did take quite a bit of economics in college, had a double major in math and chemistry. Went back for additional degree In Finance, Accounting, and economics.
I Worked as Bank Auditor, internal accounting, Certified Treasury Officer, and Certified Financial planner. I have also read Milton Friedman’s Writings, but never had a chance to discuss them with him.
I am not a total illiterate on the subject.
As I said, I think it’s more or less semantics used by people other than economists.
For Example, below you’ll see an excerpt from this day in history:
“On June 5, 1933, the United States went off the gold standard, a monetary system in which currency is backed by gold, when Congress enacted a joint resolution nullifying the right of creditors to demand payment in gold.”
And here’s an excerpt from Bloomberg:
“To bring the economy out of the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt took the U.S. off the gold standard in 1933.”
Then there’s this from the Richmond Fed:
When did the United States go off the gold standard?
“H.J. Res. 192, approved by President Roosevelt on June 5, 1933, provided that obligations payable in gold or specific coin or currency are contrary to public policy, and that those obligations could be discharged dollar for dollar in legal tender.
Because the dollar was no longer freely convertible, one could consider that the United States was no longer on the gold standard at that time.
If, however, one considers the gold standard as a monetary system in which the unit of money is backed by gold even if the monetary unit cannot be converted into gold, one could argue that the United States went off of the gold standard on August 15, 1971 when President Nixon announced that the U.S. dollar would no longer be convertible into gold in the international markets.”
And of course almost nobody specifies whether they are talking about gold species standard, gold bullion standard, or gold exchange standard - No they just say the gold standard.
So like I said, it’s semantics to a great extent. So if someone says Roosevelt took us off the gold standard, that’s fine with me, and I don’t feel the need to list all the crap he did and didn’t do or tell them they are wrong.
Same with Nixon, as I’ve read elsewhere, that technically he didn’t take us off the gold standard, that was a process that started in 1910 and really most of it happened under FDR, until Nixon defacto ended it.
Well, one could argue with that point of view, and certainly I’ve seen arguments pro and con - but I wouldn’t.
For me it’s fine if someone says Nixon took us off the gold standard, or if they say he ended the Breton Woods agreement. Makes me no never mind.
I do think it’s important for people to know that both Nixon and FDR had issues with the gold standard, and a little bit about what those problems were.
However, 1-3 sentences on each is more than enough for most people I run into. Obviously YMMV
We should have seen it move out into the economy and be available for spending during the last eight years, but it didn’t seem to trickle out. It should have appeared in a higher inflation rate because productivity was down. Work hours were down. We saw a lot of smoke and mirrors being played with numbers from the government statistics. . . especially the inflation indicators. Yet unless they were REALLY hiding a huge rise in prices somewhere as those more dollars chased fewer goods and services, then those pump priming dollars were going somewhere else than into OUR economy. (Some was certainly in higher healthcare costs due to Ocare) Do you think that money was going off shore like I do?