It wasn’t quite Monopoly Money until 1972, when President Nixon took the Dollar off the gold standard
/\
I respectfully disagree.
Since 1913 you could not use gold to pay back the FedRes.
You could sell your gold for FedRes notes and pay back the FedRes but that’s not the same thing .
All FedRes notes are/is fiat.
All fiat is monopoly money.
.
Well, I’m no economist, and an amateur historian at best. But imho and fwiw, Nixon did put the final nail in the coffin of the dollar. The process started in 1913, or perhaps earlier. Maybe shortly after the founding with the controversy over continental bond speculation. Governments want to spend money with a lot of zeros after the one, and the urge is irresistible. Never mind what it does to people’s purchasing power. Zeros. Lots of zeros. Right now, I’d be looking to hold some real gold if I could. Not futures. Bullion. And canned goods.
But I have a couple of pieces of old paper that says I can walk into a bank and receive ‘lawful’ money in trade for them.
Has my government moved the goalposts??