in 1971, during republican administration, the dollar stopped being backed by gold

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allegedly 17 Oct @ 4:19am

from 1971 the us government started to easily print any amount of money whenever they want and no one can come claim anything back because the dollar wasn't backed by gold anymore.
of course the problem for the us was how to keep the world using the dollar and trust this currency if it isn't backed by gold? well everyone needs oil, forcing oil to be trade in usd ensures demand for usd and the threat of war, few countries who have tried to go to a non usd and gold based system were invaded such as irak and lybia. The dollar became a weapon, use the dollar or you are out of the world financial system.

the world went from a work and savings system to a credit debt system, the illusion of progress is based on debt. Year after year we see how everything gets more expensive in dollars terms and wages don't rise like that. Meaning the dollar is worth less.

When the government prints money, the big and the powerful get it first and use it, acquiring assets. By the time the money gets to the regular people, it's devalued. If you have money in your bank account planning to use it later, it will be worth very little, that's by design. Average young people very unlikely can afford anything during their lives no matter how much they work and the powerful people keep getting richer.

after republican administration, then dems administration kept this measure in place of course. The irony is as of today people who identify as republicans or the right they believe they follow the party of financial responsibility, when in reality both parties are part of the same machine.

it's been about 50 years from this, it's just a matter of time till this paper printing debt system comes to an end, who will come next? a return to some kind of gold back system or something else?

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Showing 1-15 of 50 comments

Gracey Face 17 Oct @ 4:26am

The US dollar was never backed by gold, the idea that it was is just a conceptual thing, you could not just go to the bank and get gold for your dollars. The only entity which could were corporate banks, and they can still trade dollars for natural resources in much the same way (it's how oil leases are bid on for example).

Also nations and corporations aren't forced to use US dollars when they trade oil. That's a strange myth. The dollar is just used as a general benchmark value because it's the primary trade currency.

EASY PETE 17 Oct @ 4:27am

The next thing would be digitised currency with crypto as the replacement for gold

IGX 17 Oct @ 4:37am

Originally posted by allegedly:
from 1971 the us government started to easily print any amount of money whenever they want and no one can come claim anything back because the dollar wasn't backed by gold anymore.
of course the problem for the us was how to keep the world using the dollar and trust this currency if it isn't backed by gold? well everyone needs oil, forcing oil to be trade in usd ensures demand for usd and the threat of war, few countries who have tried to go to a non usd and gold based system were invaded such as irak and lybia. The dollar became a weapon, use the dollar or you are out of the world financial system.

the world went from a work and savings system to a credit debt system, the illusion of progress is based on debt. Year after year we see how everything gets more expensive in dollars terms and wages don't rise like that. Meaning the dollar is worth less.

When the government prints money, the big and the powerful get it first and use it, acquiring assets. By the time the money gets to the regular people, it's devalued. If you have money in your bank account planning to use it later, it will be worth very little, that's by design. Average young people very unlikely can afford anything during their lives no matter how much they work and the powerful people keep getting richer.

after republican administration, then dems administration kept this measure in place of course. The irony is as of today people who identify as republicans or the right they believe they follow the party of financial responsibility, when in reality both parties are part of the same machine.

it's been about 50 years from this, it's just a matter of time till this paper printing debt system comes to an end, who will come next? a return to some kind of gold back system or something else?

Calm down China, worry about your own mess.

allegedly 17 Oct @ 4:38am

Originally posted by Gracey Face:
The US dollar was never backed by gold, the idea that it was is just a conceptual thing, you could not just go to the bank and get gold for your dollars. The only entity which could were corporate banks, and they can still trade dollars for natural resources in much the same way (it's how oil leases are bid on for example).

Also nations and corporations aren't forced to use US dollars when they trade oil. That's a strange myth. The dollar is just used as a general benchmark value because it's the primary trade currency.

if you make major oil exporters to export oil only in us dollar, you are forcing the buyers to use the us dollar

in the 1960s the us started spending too much so several countries were concerned and started exchanging usd for gold. Then in 1971 the us decided to stop it.

Originally posted by EASY PETE:
The next thing would be digitised currency with crypto as the replacement for gold

backed by gold or backed by faith?

Gracey Face 17 Oct @ 4:42am

Originally posted by allegedly:
if you make major oil exporters to export oil only in us dollar, you are forcing the buyers to use the us dollar

That's not what happens.

Originally posted by allegedly:
in the 1960s the us started spending too much so several countries were concerned and started exchanging usd for gold. Then in 1971 the us decided to stop it.?

That's also not what happened. You could always and still can convert the US dollar for gold. The difference was that before 1971 corporate banks could NOMINALLY convert the US dollar for gold at set conversion rates from federal gold reserves, the issue being that these conversion rates were never "accurate" and were not updated anywhere near quickly enough. This lead to the fixed conversion rate being dropped.

steven1mac 17 Oct @ 4:45am

Most governments today operate in similar fashions. The problem is if you stuck to a currency based on a physical object, eventually it will be owned by a small group of people, causing the economy to seize as new sources of materials will be insufficient to keep the economy going. Being able to produce money out of thin air prevents this from happening, and as long as it is done at a slow enough pace, will keep it going while at the same time keep people working trying to achieve finical wealth. Generational wealth will still exist, however due to the decrease in the value of money, it will have to be propped up by creating business and jobs, so even the rich have to work to stay ahead.

The problem arises when too much money is printed at once, causing massive inflation over the short term. However some countries can leverage that to their advantage, undercutting their own economy in the short term, but being able to produce goods at cheap enough to eventually undercut most other countries causing the production to move to your country.

Ulfrinn 17 Oct @ 4:47am

Originally posted by allegedly:
Originally posted by Gracey Face:
The US dollar was never backed by gold, the idea that it was is just a conceptual thing, you could not just go to the bank and get gold for your dollars. The only entity which could were corporate banks, and they can still trade dollars for natural resources in much the same way (it's how oil leases are bid on for example).

Also nations and corporations aren't forced to use US dollars when they trade oil. That's a strange myth. The dollar is just used as a general benchmark value because it's the primary trade currency.
if you make major oil exporters to export oil only in us dollar, you are forcing the buyers to use the us dollar

in the 1960s the us started spending too much so several countries were concerned and started exchanging usd for gold. Then in 1971 the us decided to stop it.

Originally posted by EASY PETE:
The next thing would be digitised currency with crypto as the replacement for gold
backed by gold or backed by faith?

All currency is backed by faith. Even gold. The only value gold has is what people believe it has.

Vote ☑ 17 Oct @ 4:52am

Venezuela has a lot of oil. Hmmm.

allegedly 17 Oct @ 4:58am

Originally posted by steven1mac:
Most governments today operate in similar fashions. The problem is if you stuck to a currency based on a physical object, eventually it will be owned by a small group of people, causing the economy to seize as new sources of materials will be insufficient to keep the economy going. Being able to produce money out of thin air prevents this from happening, and as long as it is done at a slow enough pace, will keep it going while at the same time keep people working trying to achieve finical wealth. Generational wealth will still exist, however due to the decrease in the value of money, it will have to be propped up by creating business and jobs, so even the rich have to work to stay ahead.

The problem arises when too much money is printed at once, causing massive inflation over the short term. However some countries can leverage that to their advantage, undercutting their own economy in the short term, but being able to produce goods at cheap enough to eventually undercut most other countries causing the production to move to your country.

of course any currency would be ok with a slow printing rate. Even gold is inflated about 2% every year and there's no problem with gold.
when you can print money out of thin air, to solve any problem eventually the government starts printing any amount whenever they want, it's too temping.

Originally posted by Ulfrinn:
Originally posted by allegedly:
if you make major oil exporters to export oil only in us dollar, you are forcing the buyers to use the us dollar

in the 1960s the us started spending too much so several countries were concerned and started exchanging usd for gold. Then in 1971 the us decided to stop it.

backed by gold or backed by faith?
All currency is backed by faith. Even gold. The only value gold has is what people believe it has.

there's an effort to get gold out of the ground, while printing any amount usd is just a click.

Ulfrinn 17 Oct @ 5:11am

Originally posted by allegedly:
Originally posted by steven1mac:
Most governments today operate in similar fashions. The problem is if you stuck to a currency based on a physical object, eventually it will be owned by a small group of people, causing the economy to seize as new sources of materials will be insufficient to keep the economy going. Being able to produce money out of thin air prevents this from happening, and as long as it is done at a slow enough pace, will keep it going while at the same time keep people working trying to achieve finical wealth. Generational wealth will still exist, however due to the decrease in the value of money, it will have to be propped up by creating business and jobs, so even the rich have to work to stay ahead.

The problem arises when too much money is printed at once, causing massive inflation over the short term. However some countries can leverage that to their advantage, undercutting their own economy in the short term, but being able to produce goods at cheap enough to eventually undercut most other countries causing the production to move to your country.
of course any currency would be ok with a slow printing rate. Even gold is inflated about 2% every year and there's no problem with gold.
when you can print money out of thin air, to solve any problem eventually the government starts printing any amount whenever they want, it's too temping.

Originally posted by Ulfrinn:
All currency is backed by faith. Even gold. The only value gold has is what people believe it has.
there's an effort to get gold out of the ground, while printing any amount usd is just a click.

There's an effort to get water out of the ground, guaranteed if it stopped flowing it'd immediately be worth more than it's weight in gold. Gold has been a useless metal throughout most of history outside of an artificial value placed on it by the belief that it has value to others. It's fully faith backed.

Only very recently has it gained some real value in electronics, prior to that, the only real difference it had when compared to lead was that it was shiny.

#10

Drain 17 Oct @ 5:18am

You have money and currency confused. These are not the same. The gold is the money, which cannot be printed. USD is the currency, which can be printed.

#11

allegedly 17 Oct @ 5:21am

Originally posted by Ulfrinn:
Originally posted by allegedly:
of course any currency would be ok with a slow printing rate. Even gold is inflated about 2% every year and there's no problem with gold.
when you can print money out of thin air, to solve any problem eventually the government starts printing any amount whenever they want, it's too temping.

there's an effort to get gold out of the ground, while printing any amount usd is just a click.

There's an effort to get water out of the ground, guaranteed if it stopped flowing it'd immediately be worth more than it's weight in gold. Gold has been a useless metal throughout most of history outside of an artificial value placed on it by the belief that it has value to others. It's fully faith backed.

Only very recently has it gained some real value in electronics, prior to that, the only real difference it had when compared to lead was that it was shiny.

right, water is very important, if we don't drink it we die. Water is very cheap to get, there are lakes, rivers and even underground water flowing is cheap easy to get. There are no lakes of gold or rivers of gold, I think you can understand the effort.

#12

allegedly 17 Oct @ 5:32am

Originally posted by Drain:
You have money and currency confused. These are not the same. The gold is the money, which cannot be printed. USD is the currency, which can be printed.

yes I agree

Originally posted by Vote ☑:
Venezuela has a lot of oil. Hmmm.

if I understand correctly they have been using usd for trade so the us government is basically ok with them

#13

Gracey Face 17 Oct @ 5:44am

Originally posted by allegedly:
Originally posted by Vote ☑:
Venezuela has a lot of oil. Hmmm.
if I understand correctly they have been using usd for trade so the us government is basically ok with them

Again, you do not know what you are talking about. Countries are not forced to use the USD to trade oil, they use whatever currency is appropriate. Bolivar for Venezuela. They just state their trades in USD values because the USD is the international default currency due to Breton Woods. And Venezuela stopped doing this a decade ago and started stating trades in Chinese Yuan instead in protest at American sanctions, China now purchase 90% of Venezuela's oil exports and Venezuela has even started to allow Chinese companies to lease oil fields in the country, such as Concord Resources Corporation (sounds like something from Dead Space). Just that their export values are still listed in terms of USD in news media because that's what everyone is familiar with.

#14

Triple G 17 Oct @ 5:59am

Originally posted by Gracey Face:
The US dollar was never backed by gold, the idea that it was is just a conceptual thing, you could not just go to the bank and get gold for your dollars.

You could exactly do that - with like every currency. The bills were basically papers which give You the right to receive the gold at a bank, while the coins would have their own value in metal.

Of course there´s no need to get the gold, because the bill is lighter in the wallet, and easier to pay with.