History of the Gold Standard (w/ Grant Williams)

Real Vision co-founder Grant Williams and a host of experts walk through the history of the gold standard and the potential for a return to gold-backed currencies. After its “temporary” suspension by President Nixon in 1971, many people thought gold as money would go away, but its value has endured. This video is excerpted from a piece published on Real Vision on January 26, 2018 entitled “Gold: The Story of Man’s 6000 Year Obsession - Episode 1.”

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About Gold:
A collection of interviews and documentaries focusing in on the famous store of value. The series takes a 360-degree view of the precious metal by examining gold's role in history and its proper place in modern investment portfolios. It interviews experts in diverse fields including mining, investment management and bullion storage.

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History of the Gold Standard (w/ Grant Williams)
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Transcript:
For the full transcript visit: https://rvtv.io/2QykOyF
This idea of the preservation of purchasing power is central to the notion of buying
gold as a store of wealth. And it's been a proven strategy which has transcended history. As mankind has
debased hundreds of paper currencies over the centuries, gold has remained as the anchor at the heart of
the financial system. And the reasons for that are the unique properties which made it money in the first
place. Gold's durability, portability, fungibility, and divisibility have combined to make sure that it's
maintained its purchasing power, outlasting every fear alternative for almost 6000 years.
Through booms and busts, through war and famine and through mankind's constant ability to debauch
undervalue fiat alternatives. While the dollar has been the world's reserve currency for 40 years, that hasn't
always been the case. The British pound, the Spanish peseta, and even the Portuguese escudo at one point
in history were all as mighty in their time as the dollar is today. Throughout history, the civilizations needed
to finance expansion, they were constrained by their gold reserves. The Romans physically clip their coins
with using the amount of gold and silver, and thereby reducing the wages paid to their armies, until such
point that the soldiers refused to fight.
For the majority of the last 200 years, the world has been on a gold standard of some sort. But we live in
the first period in recorded history of a purely fiat currency regime. That regime began when Richard Nixon
broke the dollar's linked to gold in 1971.
Today, the absence of any link to gold has allowed governments to increase debt to completely
unsustainable levels. When society can no longer service this ever-expanding debt mountain, a return to a
gold standard of some sort is almost inevitable.
We've all lived in a purely fiat monetary system since Richard Nixon's supposedly temporary suspension of
the dollar's convertibility into gold. And because of that, the idea of a return to a gold standard of some
sort is seen as both unthinkable and unworkable. The gold standard has been blamed for the Great
Depression. And many prominent politicians and economists have claimed that a gold standard will be
impossible in today's world.
The question is why? What was the gold standard? And why does the very idea of its reinstatement stir up
such passion in the hallowed halls of governments and central banks?