US withdrawal from Afghanistan - your thoughts?

[Zeke_21]

It was FDR in March of 1933 who took the United States off the gold standard. Then on June 5, 1933, Congress enacted a joint resolution nullifying the right of creditors to demand payment in gold.

FDR banned the ownership of gold, except for jewelry. Whether that is abandonment of a gold standard idk, but you may be correct. I think gold certificates were no longer being printed after 1933. Silver certificates stopped being printed in 1964.

The 1946 the Bretton Woods System was enacted and there were fixed exchange rates where foreign governments could sell gold to the US.

In any event Nixon abandoned that in 71. I've always taken that as being the end of the gold standard and move to a complete fiat based USD.

 

[Zeke_21]

I do agree with the change is coming sentiment. Not likely soon but one day. Gold and silver is a maybe after all it has been around a long time. The trouble is it is not (easily) portable. Crypto is a mess - there is no way it will become a standard any time soon. The issue there is that the crypto currencies are being treated as stock market investments at the moment - that's not a currency - that is speculation that resembles a bubble.

It is far more likely that the the next dominant currency will be the currancy of the most powerful economic entiy on the planet. Some say the Euro but now that we know the well to do countries have been papering over the weaknesses of the not so well of countries I don't see that inspiring confidence. That leaves China's Yuan. That type of switch will be very disruptive. I don't see how it will be done. I don't see how to hedge against such a thing. Perhaps that brings us back to gold an silver...

IMO it will be a battle for dominance between the Digital Yuan and USD Coin. China has already made the move to digital and the vast majority of their citizens use their smartphones as a payment method as opposed to the US where debit and credit cards are the main source of purchases.

There is a ton of speculation in crypto, but you have to separate store of value products like bitcoin from the world of fintech and smart contracts. I think the crypto space is like the internet in 1999. Lots of speculation and many players will not survive, but in 2001, if you said people would be doing most of they shopping online you would have been laughed at...

The Federal Reserve while quiet and guarded about its statements on fintech, crypto and other products is behind the scenes moving towards the USD coin. The US possesses the global reserve currency and oil is priced in USD so any move away from that is bound to be very disruptive., so its going to have to be carefully implemented.

I think it will happen sooner than many think.