I have reminded several people about FDR taking the gold, but people just don't seem to understand when you are about to devalue the dollar, you go where the money is. Remember the reason robbers rob banks is that's where the money is. FDR knew he was about to print money for 10 years so he took the gold. If you are smart and buy gold as it increases in value, then you have become EVIL in today's terms, so we can take money from the rich and give it to the unions. The Fed is printing $600 billion in 6 months to buy debt. That is multiples worse than FDR did. When gold hits $3k-$5k an ounce, can Obama resist the commie juices that must be flowing? As you said, Hitler, Lenin, and Mussolini couldn't, it just too tempting a target. You evil speculators owe it to the "working" people.
Great minds think alike, but think about this - In your scenario, gold hits “$3k-$5k”. Couple questions. What’s oil doing? Wheat? Corn? Coffee?
How about the dollar itself against other currencies?
Next, FDR paid depositors $20 for every $20 in gold. THEN, he revalued gold (eventually) at $35 - so he could “print” more money. There isn’t any gold standard today, nobody has any gold today to speak of, so how does your modern 2.0 confiscation work?
There isn’t a standard fixed value to re-value against, so what’s the point?
If you figure they truly just want to outright steal it with no compensation, then your premise is we wrong - we are on a Lead standard, or will be very shortly.
And they already _have_ Fort Knox, some 8,000 tons. I gotta turn over my fillings now?
At a time when most people still trusted the government a huge percentage of privately held gold was not turned in. My grandmother kept hers, and gave it to her grandchildren 30 years later with a warning story about evil politicians like FDR.
Now try to imagine how much LESS the voluntary cooperation with a "turn in your gold" order would be. Near zero.
Now try to imagine the police action needed to try to confiscate peoples gold by using legal police methods. Warrents issued on sworn testimony, etc. A complete non-starter.
Now try to imagine the Feds deputizing the local police to go get gold from suspected hoarders. In my limited experience the ratio of Gold Hoarders to Gun Nuts is 1:1.
Contemplate the phrase "line in the sand" and think about how you would react to news of jackboots going door-to-door.
In short, your idea that they can do it again is silly. It makes me chuckle!