"I don't believe we shall ever have a good money again before we take the thing out of the hands of government, that is, we can't take it violently out of the hands of government, all we can do is by some sly roundabout way introduce something that they can't stop." - F.A. Hayek 1984

(kinda) A great website to share if you have no idea how to explain the downfall of the US economy.

Edit: Thanks to everyone who provided insight on this website. I’ve had this in my bookmarks for a very long time and was curious how it held up.

  • @Blue_Morpho
    121•8 months ago

    While there is no doubt that the Nixon shock and gold standard had huge effects in 1971, that website pushes a goldbug agenda that isn’t supported by other sources.

    For example the labor productivity gap didn’t start until after 1979. Which is no surprise given that 1980 was the start of Reagan pushing his trickle down economics.

    https://www.epi.org/productivity-pay-gap/

    • oo1
      21•8 months ago

      yeah, Bretton-Woods - was so much more about a broader scope of bank regulation - to try control and stabilise investment and capital creation for the good of domestic businesses (ideally small businesses) across all international members of B-W.

      Throwing all that regulation away - essentially led to over-concentration of unregulated financial power with little to no incentive (or requirement) for them to work in the domestic interests - all the great stuff that comes from that (and it really is great - for some people).
      Couple that with the small govt-ism that came in in the late 70s and there’s not even a state investment sector to prop up growth during recessions.

      Its one of those things where they experiment with something really important and before it’s even been tested for long enough, they whip out the safety net.
      “We won’t need that anyway once the banks are deregulated - they’ll fly in and catch us when we fall - they’re very fine people .” At least they’ll catch us for long enough to sort out foreclosure/eviction and make sure borrowers take all the risk of asset price movement.

      Pretty much jack-all to do with gold - that was done with in the 20s pretty much in all but name.