Forty years ago today, Nixon closed the gold window, so that the dollar could not be redeemed. That created the global system of paper monies which is now in so much trouble.
At the Wall Street Journal, Detlev Schlichter presents Forty Years of Paper Money:
The global paper standard has lasted 40 years but evidence is accumulating daily that its endgame is now fast approaching. The world economy is caught in a deepening financial crisis caused by excessive levels of debt, severe asset price bubbles and overextended banks—all imbalances that are the direct consequence of four decades of unprecedented fiat money creation, of artificially low interest rates and of “lender-of-last-resort” central banking. Monetary policy today—whether by the U.S. Federal Reserve, the ECB or the Bank of Japan—is not much more than an increasingly desperate attempt to postpone via super-low interest rates and periodic debt monetization the painful but unavoidable liquidation of these imbalances. This will not only ultimately prove futile, but will lead to a complete currency catastrophe if pursued further.
I recommend the full article and this economic primer.
