Gold Standard

The US fiat monetary regime not only has given us inflation and boom-and-bust cycles, but it also is the main contributor to the out-of-control government spending and debt accumulation.

The US fiat monetary regime not only has given us inflation and boom-and-bust cycles, but it also is the main contributor to the out-of-control government spending and debt accumulation.

Governments take valuable things like paper and minerals, stamp something on them, and call them money, in the process rendering these things almost worthless. Something is wrong with this picture.

Governments take valuable things like paper and minerals, stamp something on them, and call them money, in the process rendering these things almost worthless. Something is wrong with this picture.

Gold markets have been volatile, to put it mildly, and the drama isn’t over. Unfortunately, governments are so involved in the gold markets that true market prices are hard to find.

Gold markets have been volatile, to put it mildly, and the drama isn’t over. Unfortunately, governments are so involved in the gold markets that true market prices are hard to find.

The bulk of the US gold reserves held in Fort Knox are made up of impure “non-standard” bars that don’t qualify for use in international settlements.

In 1971, when the last formal link between the dollar and gold was severed, more than a monetary system collapsed.

The bulk of the US gold reserves held in Fort Knox are made up of impure “non-standard” bars that don’t qualify for use in international settlements.

Far from being what Keynes called that “barbarous relic,” gold has been important throughout history, and to the present day. Joakim Book reviews The Secret History of Gold: Myth, Money, Politics & Power.