The 50th Anniversary of the Nixon Shock

On August 15, 1971, President Richard Nixon suspended the convertibility of the U.S. dollar into gold. This effectively ended the Bretton Woods Agreement, which had been put in place in the mid-1940s to stabilize the post-WWII economy. Jim Grant, founder and editor of Grant’s Interest Rate Observer, joins host Ed Coyne to look back at this significant event in monetary history. In this lively conversation, Jim and Ed dig into Nixon’s motivations and explore where we are today, 50 years into the fiat currency era.

“Gold’s role is to serve the office and to serve from time immemorial, which is money. It is by no means a perfect and unvarying store of value.”

To hear Jim’s thoughts on gold’s role, listen here: