You don't consider the U.S. being on the gold standard until 1933 to be the reason for the stabilization until then? And Nixon closing the gold window in 1971 to be the reason for the stabilization until that point? Look what happened to the price after that. Now look at how the US$ is getting flushed down the toilet. Printing dollars like they're toilet paper will do that to a currency. The US$ is in the process of ceasing to be the world's reserve currency.


Done.

Jim - tried posting a reply twice so far on this today and both disappeared into cyberspace when i hit the submit button ! what's up ?

hmmmmmmmm........... is clark fries in charge of editing ? <EG> sorry inside joke there- jim will recall him well i believe ! promise no more pissing matches here from me

Nick

Nonsense. The devaluation of a currency (in this era) is not affected by how many paper bills are printed. Paper money is economic pocket change of very little consequence.

Certainly 1933 and 1971 changed the game, but I don't believe they did so in the way the gold bugs claim. And I don't believe gold has anywhere near as much relevance to the world monetary supply and stability as it once did. (Not saying that's good or bad, it just is.)

At this point, little matters except getting rid of the most destructive administration the "civilized" world has seen for many a decade. (The only thing Heinlein got right in making "Huff" a curse word was the number of letters.) The major cause of all the instabilities right now is that the US has gone from being (with warts) the rock of world stability to the sort of dangerous, unpredictable and slightly mad beast it was in the first flush of power nationalism, before the wars. When the rock shifts, everybody's house creaks.

Nine more months. Nine more months and we'll have this flaming wreck on the ground where we can deal with the faults.

Figuratively, then. I was referring to the total money supply rather than the output of the printing presses. US Treasuries are the main component of the new money supply I believe. Oh, and look at who buys them. Alo, check out how many times recently a Treasury auction has come close to having no takers. That would be interesting.