Bradley in DC
08-01-2007, 10:39 AM
http://www.payvand.com/news/07/aug/1000.html
. . . Let's not forget Saddam's threat to the dollar. It's simple to understand why he had to be eliminated. As Congressman Ron Paul puts it, the 1944 Bretton Woods agreement solidified the dollar as the preeminent world reserve currency, replacing the British pound. Due to the American political and military strength, and due to its huge gold reserve, the world readily accepted the dollar (defined as 1/35th of an ounce of gold) as the world's reserve currency.
However, the U.S. printed more dollars for which there was no gold backing. But the world was content to accept those dollars for more than 25 years with little question--until the French and others in the late 1960s demanded it fulfill its promise to pay one ounce of gold for each $35 they delivered to the U.S. Treasury. This resulted in a huge gold drain that brought an end to a very poorly devised pseudo-gold standard. On August 15, 1971, Nixon closed the gold window and refused to pay out any of the remaining 280 million ounces of gold; but not without devising a new system for the dollar hegemony to spread. . .
. . . Let's not forget Saddam's threat to the dollar. It's simple to understand why he had to be eliminated. As Congressman Ron Paul puts it, the 1944 Bretton Woods agreement solidified the dollar as the preeminent world reserve currency, replacing the British pound. Due to the American political and military strength, and due to its huge gold reserve, the world readily accepted the dollar (defined as 1/35th of an ounce of gold) as the world's reserve currency.
However, the U.S. printed more dollars for which there was no gold backing. But the world was content to accept those dollars for more than 25 years with little question--until the French and others in the late 1960s demanded it fulfill its promise to pay one ounce of gold for each $35 they delivered to the U.S. Treasury. This resulted in a huge gold drain that brought an end to a very poorly devised pseudo-gold standard. On August 15, 1971, Nixon closed the gold window and refused to pay out any of the remaining 280 million ounces of gold; but not without devising a new system for the dollar hegemony to spread. . .