Free Republic

Fifty years ago this August, United States President Richard Nixon went on TV right before Bonanza, a popular western series starring Canadian Lorne Greene, and shocked the world. Nixon unhitched the U.S. dollar from the value of gold. The move changed the global monetary system almost overnight. The eventual result was the floating international exchange rates we still use today.

The following is adapted from a speech delivered on February 16, 2011, at a Hillsdale College National Leadership Seminar in Phoenix, Arizona. TO BEGIN, consider one of the most important measures of property, the kilogram. It’s a measure of mass or, for non-scientific purposes, weight. According to the papers last week, a global scramble is under way to define this most basic unit after it was discovered that the standard kilogram—a cylinder of platinum and iridium that is maintained by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures—has been losing mass. You may think that this is impossible. Of all the...

BEIJING (Reuters) - China should increase the proportion of gold in its foreign exchange reserves to ensure the safety of its overall portfolio, an official Chinese newspaper said on Tuesday. The commentary, which was written by an academic and appeared in the overseas edition of the People's Daily, also said that a bigger holding of gold was a crucial building block for the yuan to become an international currency.

King Dollar Forced To Abdicate Currencies / US Dollar Oct 23, 2009 - 04:12 PM By: Peter_Schiff For the most part, the value of the dollar is given cursory attention by the financial media. Typically, its movements are assigned an importance on par with much less determinative metrics such as natural gas futures and construction permits. It's only when major milestones are reached that anyone really takes notice of the dollar. We are living through one of those times. The great dollar rally of 2008-2009 has come full circle. When the financial crisis exploded in its full ugliness in mid-2008,...

A strong currency reflects booming commodity exports and sound public finances. But not everyone is cheering. IT HARDLY came as a surprise when, on September 21st, the Canadian dollar crossed a symbolic threshold and overtook its American counterpart in value for the first time since 1976. Since January 2002, when Canadians needed C$1.61 to buy a greenback, the loonie (so nicknamed after the aquatic bird depicted on the dollar coin) has been pushed up by world demand for Canada's commodities. Yet even hard-bitten currency traders cheered out loud as the loonie inched towards parity, and then beyond. David Watt, a...

The current account deficit widened to its highest level ever in January.As the deficits grows, due to loose monetary policy and overspending, so do the worries about the US dollar and economy. Here's an interesting link to a negative economic assesment from respected Swiss economist Dr. Marc Faber ("Dr. Doom"). Dr. Faber is famous for correctly predicting asset bubbles, such as the that led to the 'Asian Flu'.

The Canadian dollar surged to a 13 1/2-year high Monday - gaining almost a full U.S. cent - as a sharp increase in crude oil prices fired up gains against the U.S. greenback. The loonie was trading during the day as high as 85.74 cents US, up 0.9 of a cent from Friday's close of 84.84 cents U.S. It later closed at 85.57 cents US, up 0.73 cent,. "This is the highest we've been since the month of January 1992," said George Davis, chief foreign exchange technical analyst with RBC Capital Markets. "The market is starting to refocus on...

Pound surges to five-year high against US currency. Buffett also said to be betting against greenback ________________________________________________ The pound surged against the dollar yesterday amid speculation that Warren Buffett and George Soros, the world's most famous speculators, are betting the US currency will plummet. Sterling powered to a five-year high against the dollar for a second day as concerns over the US current account deficit continued to outweigh evidence of a rebounding economy. Traders believe selling the dollar is a one-way bet, and some latched on to rumours that speculators were building "short" positions on the dollar - betting it...