Sunday 4 December 2011

Vive de Gaulle!

Here's a short clip of President de Gaulle, calling for a return to the Gold Standard. In 1965, aided by the great economist Jacques Rueff, he could see clearly that the Bretton Woods Agreement was doomed to collapse, due to the inflationist policies of the US government and the Federal Reserve. That collapse came in 1971, when Nixon 'closed the gold window' and repudiated the debts it could no longer pretend it could cover.


4 comments:

James Higham said...

Resuscitate him?

Trooper Thompson said...

It might take a fair amount of effort, but it would be worth a try, and while we're at it, we could bundle Sarko into the sarcophagus and nail it shut.

Anonymous said...

When the west came of the gold standard it was only a matter of time before the whole economic structure came crashing down,
when the economic cold winds begin to blow who truly trusts money that isnt backed up with gold?

Trooper Thompson said...

Anon,

"when the economic cold winds begin to blow who truly trusts money that isnt backed up with gold?"

Not the bankers, that's for sure. That's why they've got vaults stacked with the stuff, and those bars are in part made from the coins that used to circulate amongst us, before we were convinced that paper was better.