Nixon had to stop exchanging dollars for gold as President Johnson had inflated the economy by printing money to pay for his Vietnam War and The Great Society. Charles Degaulle had realized this and was draining the American gold reserve by converting France’s paper dollars into gold at the pre-inflated price. Had Nixon not taken us off the gold standard then Degaulle would have bankrupted the United States.
Once the US was off the gold standard every Congress and Administration just printed money to solve their problems and kick the can down the road. The road appears to have ended and the can has lodged in the woods where it can’t be easily kicked further.
Not blather at all. And true, to some degree. And yet, Nixon could have dealt with the problem differently, using a “bank holiday” type of approach. That is, he could have allowed the gold window to be opened a few ten thousand of $’s a day per money holder.
That is to say, comme ca, that De Gaulle was doing the post WWII world a favor by example, and Europe the US an everyone else would not be in the straights we are now in, had they dealt HONESTLY with the problem.
Making money wholly fiat was dishonest.