Nixon addressed the nation when he suspended the convertibility of the US Dollar to gold (while carving out exceptions for cronies), which effectively declared the US to be bankrupt and unable to pay its debts in gold as promised. While he didn’t use those terms in this address, that is the correct term for when you can’t pay what you have promised. He also simultaneously raised taxes on things Americans were importing as he simultaneously cut their purchasing power by devaluing the currency while dressing it up as a “good thing” for the working man in the typical lies of a politician.
Commentary by Etienne de la Boetie2, Founder of the Art of Liberty Foundation and author of “Government” - The Biggest Scam in History… Exposed!
Behind the Paywall This Week: What you can do to help protect the purchasing power of the dollars you earn and save…
Charts and Graphs by wtfhappenedin1971.com
The charts and graphs below from WTF Happened in 1971 are some of the most fascinating I have ever seen. What is most interesting is that the site owner failed to “Lead with the Punchline” and didn’t explain What the F%#$ Happened in 1971.
The short answer is that President Nixon took the country off the final vestiges of the gold standard, creating the widespread economic and societal decline that you see represented in the charts and graphs.
The beginning of debasement started with communist Presidents Woodrow Wilson, who passed the Federal Reserve Act in 1913 and Franklin Delano Roosevelt when he confiscated the people’s gold under “executive order” in 1933, but foreign governments could still purchase and redeem US Government Bonds in physical gold up until 1971.
Why would either President take such steps knowing them to be so harmful?
Our thesis is that after organized crime bankers lobbied and bribed the “government” to pass the Federal Reserve Act, they began using the ability of fractional reserve banking to begin “legally”/illegally counterfeiting U.S. Dollars. By 1933, they could no longer cover the potential redemptions for gold coin, so they had their puppet Roosevelt confiscate everyone’s gold.
Foreign countries and central banks could still convert USD-denominated bonds to gold under the Bretton Woods Agreement of 1944, but ridiculous criminal counterfeiting and debasement continued until foreign countries began to scramble for real gold in a high-stakes game of musical chairs. The charade was over by 1971, when France reportedly sent a warship to swap out its rapidly depreciating fiat paper tickets for real gold.
Here is a summary from Quora:
It was a Sunday, August 16, 1971, and President Richard Nixon suspended convertibility of the US dollar into gold, effectively ending the 25-year Bretton Woods era of fixed currency exchange rates against the US dollar. US gold reserves were facing enormous pressure due to balance of payment concerns, the Vietnam War debt and Great Society programs, and the ensuing monetary inflation. A growing number of countries began to redeem their dollar holdings for gold.
In addition, the German withdrawal from the Bretton Woods agreement sparked panic and a currency crisis. By the end of June 1971, $22 billion in assets had left the US. In July 1971, Switzerland redeemed $50 million for gold and one month later in August, pulled its Swiss Franc from the Bretton Woods agreement. At the same time, France redeemed $191 million for gold by sending a French battleship to New York to take delivery of the gold from the Federal Reserve and to bring back to France.
France sent a warship (some reported it as a battleship, but France had none. It was a destroyer) to New York (other reports indicated it was New Jersey) harbor in early August 1971 with instructions to bring back its gold from the New York Federal Reserve Bank. Etienne Note: The same Quora article reports it was actually a French ASW Instruction Ship called: Ocean. It was reported to be a Battleship by this 2016 Paper on the Incident: A "Barbarous Relic": The French, Gold, and the Demise of Bretton Woods
In August 1971, French president Pompidou sent a battleship to New York harbor to remove France’s gold from the vault of the New York Federal Reserve Bank and to transport it to the Banque de France in Paris. Soon thereafter, gold accounted for 92 percent of French reserves. On August 11, the British requested that the Treasury remove the $3 billion of gold from the U.S. depository of Fort Knox to the New York Federal Reserve vault, where the gold of foreign governments was stored. As Paul Volcker, who was then treasury undersecretary for monetary affairs, put it: “If the British, who had founded the system with us, and who had fought so hard to defend their own currency, were going to take gold for their dollars, it was clear the game was indeed over.”70 When Nixon spoke on August 15, 1971, the U.S. held less than 10,000 tons of gold, less than half of what it once had.
Once the final gold backing was removed, the debasement, collapse and economic warfare against the people that we are witnessing today began in full, as evidenced by the charts and graphs from WTF Happened in 1971 below:
WTF Happened In 1971?
“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
Etienne Note: Hat Tip to Epic Cash’s Max Freeman for bringing this website to my attention
About the Author
Etienne de la Boetie2 is the founder of the Art of Liberty Foundation, the author of “Government” – The Biggest Scam in History… Exposed! and the editor of the Art of Liberty Daily News on Substack and Five Meme Friday, which delivers hard-hitting voluntaryist memes and the best of the alternative media.
He is the author of The Covid-19 Suspects and Their Ties to Eugenics and Population Control/Reduction and Solving Covid - The Covid 19, Eugenics, and Vaccine/Drug Scam Timeline
About the Art of Liberty Foundation
A start-up public policy organization: Voluntaryist crime fighters exposing inter-generational organized crime’s control of the “government,” media and academia. The foundation is the publisher of “Government” - The Biggest Scam in History… Exposed!- How Inter-Generational Organized Crime Runs the”Government,” Media and Academia.
We publish The Daily News, a free survey of the best of the alternative media, censored videos, and documentaries, and the Daily News Digest, a once-per-day-summary of the Daily News as a premium service for paid subscribers of any Art of Liberty Foundation Substack and Five Meme Friday - a free weekly e-mail or Telegram summary of the best of the alternative media, censored truth videos, and at least five hot, fresh, dank liberty memes every week, and “Government,” Media, and Academia Exposed! - A Telegram summary of the best mainstream and alternative news stories proving our thesis that all three are being hierarchically controlled by inter-generational organized crime interests. You can read our 2023 Annual Report here.
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Behind the Paywall This Week:
What you can do to help protect the purchasing power of the dollars you earn and save…
Behind the Paywall
Etienne Note: This is the same advice I gave “Behind the Paywall” on March 23rd, 2023. I have updated the article (and added to it) but you can see from the strikethrough prices how well you would have done in taking my advice last year!
Boycott the Money Center Banks in Favor of Credit Unions - If your bank is a corporate member of the Council on Foreign Relations or the World Economic Forum then you have the wrong bank. Choose smaller banks not involved in funding crooked politicians and ESG. Pick credit unions when possible.
Use Physical Cash
Why we should pay with cash everywhere we can with banknotes instead of a credit card! - Adapted from Wren Hope Rose’s Viral Fedbook Post
- I have a $50 banknote in my pocket.
Going to a restaurant and paying for dinner with it. The restaurant owner then uses the bill to pay for the laundry. The laundry owner then uses the bill to pay the barber. The barber will then use the bill for shopping.
After an unlimited number of payments, it will remain a $50, which has fulfilled its purpose to everyone who used it for payment, and the bank has jumped dry from every cash payment transaction made...
- But if I come to a restaurant and pay digitally - Credit card and bank fees for my payment transaction charged to the seller are 3%, so around $1.50, and so will the fee of $1.50 for each further payment transaction or owner (re laundry) or payments of the owner of the laundry shop, or payments of the barber etc.....
Therefore, after 30 transactions, the initial $50 will remain only $5 😫 and the remaining $45 will become the property of the banks 🏦 thanks to all digital transactions and fees.
Small businesses need your help, and this is one way to help ourselves too.
Pull small cash draws out at a time and use that instead of tap, credit, etc.
When this is put into perspective, imagine what each retailer is paying every month in fees at 3% per transaction through their POS machine.
If they have, for example, $50,000 in sales & 90% are by Card, they are paying $1500 in fees in ONE Month. $18,000 in a year! That comes out of their income every month.
That would go a long way to helping that small business provide for its family!🏦♥️"
Etienne’s Addition:
There are even more reasons to pay with cash:
Cash lets business owners keep more of what they make from the lying, thieving, stealing government, which allows them to spend more on their families, church, charities, and other small businesses in the community.
The reduction in the organized crime government’s income, in theory, leaves fewer funds available for war, domestic spying, propaganda, indoctrination and all of their other crimes, waste, fraud and abuse BUT, unfortunately, they end up just “borrowing”/printing the money, which is inflationary and stealing the value out of everyone else’s money.
If everyone were spending more in physical cash, then everyone would have more cash on hand in the event of a “bank holiday” and less for the banks to steal in a “bail-in” (See below for a definition of a “bail-in”) or lose in a collapse.
Use CryptoCurrencies
Cryptocurrencies are non-dollar-denominated money alternatives that compete with US dollars and other “government” issued fiat paper/digital currencies as a store of value and medium of exchange. Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Dash are some of the best-known examples, but there are other privacy-centric alternatives, such as Epic Cash and Monero, that are not tracking every currency on a public blockchain, as is Bitcoin.
The organized crime banksters like pushing the price up and down with their piles of fiat paper and digital dollars they use to make crypto look “iffy” and volatile. This will continue until a cryptocurrency acquires enough widespread adoption and liquidity, similar to the US Treasury market, where billions can flow in and out without dramatically affecting the price.
Cryptocurrencies offer several advantages for users and merchants in both good times and during a banking crisis or dollar devaluation.
1. Your funds are safe from confiscation - Because cryptocurrencies are stored in a cryptographically secure wallet where you hold the keys, YOU are the bank. There is no middleman able to turn over your funds to the IRS, state tax “authorities” thieves, or for the banks to steal in a “bail-in.” For the uninitiated, a “Bail-In” is a banking industry-created euphemism for when a troubled bank is allowed “by law” to seize a percentage of depositor funds. This has already happened in Greece and Italy, AND Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) officials have already been caught on video discussing the option of bail-ins for potentially troubled US banks.
2. You are diversified from the $USD. - While cryptocurrencies are denominated and easily spendable in dollar amounts, they are not $US dollars. They essentially trade similarly to foreign exchange on international markets. In the event of a dollar devaluation (or collapse), they could theoretically weather the storm in a “flight-to-quality.”
Use Gold, Goldbacks and Physical Silver
Goldbacks are a new form of currency that makes gold flexible and spendable. Each note varies in size and thickness and contains a fixed amount of 24K Gold. This bill series honors New Hampshire and is popular with the Free State Project.
Gold and Silver are monetary metals with a 5,000+ year history of serving as money. The banksters themselves settle their debts using gold and silver through the Bank of International Settlements. Gold and Silver are not debt instruments like physical and digital dollars and can’t be devalued through the printing press. There are coin shops and gold brokers in almost every city on the planet that does the business of exchanging gold and silver for local currencies.
Cryptocurrencies offer a number of advantages for users and merchants in both good times and during a banking crisis or dollar devaluation.
1. Your funds are safe from confiscation (but not theft) - Because you are storing some of your wealth in physical gold and silver in your own home or business, your funds are safe from tax collection and bank “bail-ins” but less protected from “freelance socialism” (I.E. Theft), so you must take precautions to hide or securely store precious metals.
The U.S. Mint’s Bullion Coins are denominated in dollar amounts I.E. the one-ounce silver eagle is denominated as $1, and the one-ounce gold walking liberty is $50 even though the actual value is the spot price of silver/gold ($21.92 and $1918.66 $27.73 and $2326 respectively as of this writing March 15th,2023 April 8th, 2024 in addition to $10-15+ premiums you will need to pay PER COIN)
2. You are diversified from the $USD. - While Goldbacks and U.S. bullion coins like the American Eagle series are denominated in amounts like $1, $5, etc. that is not their actual value. The value fluctuates with the price of gold on the international market. A $1 US Goldback has 1/1000th of an ounce of 24K gold in gold (about $1.91 $2.32 at spot price) and retails for about $4 $5.06. The lowest price I have seen for bulk purchases is $366 for 100 $1 Goldbacks (March 23 price… good luck now...
“Junk Silver” Coins are pre-1965 U.S. Quarters, Dimes, and Half-Dollars that were 90% Silver. They are still widely available today and are used for barter and as a hedge against inflation. They trade for the amount of physical silver in each coin which varies from day to day but is easily calculable using online calculators like the one at Coinflation.com. For example, a pre-1965 mercury or Roosevelt dime is worth about $1.57 $2.00 in pure silver, while a pre-1965 quarter is worth about $3.94 $5.01 as of March 15th, 2023 April 8th, 2024 . Expect to pay a few percentage points when buying and lose a couple when selling them at a coin shop or dealer.
How to Use Gold/Goldbacks and Silver to Help Protect Your Community from a Dollar Devaluation / Currency Collapse
1. Use Gold/Goldbacks and Silver for Gifts, Tips, and Barter - The more $ USD alternatives circulating and held in your community, the better diversified the community will be to a $US dollar devaluation or collapse.
I am the owner of a technology consulting firm, and for years I gave my clients engraved silver Christmas tree ornaments starting when silver was about $9 an ounce. Silver soared to $50 an ounce at one time (today, it is $21.92 $27.73), and my clients remembered and appreciated the prescience of the gift. When was the last time a business gave you a Christmas gift that appreciated in value?
2. I buy one-dollar Goldbacks in packs of 100, which I distribute as tips to restaurant servers, valets, and hotel maids. With the restaurant servers and valets, I ask if they want Gold or Paper, which leads to an interesting discussion, and they always want Gold. With hotel maids, I will leave some cash and some Goldbacks.
3. Instead of toxic GMO and sugar candy at Easter, I put silver bullion coins and junk silver coins in Easter eggs for my nieces and nephews, knowing that I am diversifying them out of the US Dollar while simultaneously giving them a lesson in investing and precious metals.
4. I started giving my kids their $ 10-a-week allowance in Bitcoin when Bitcoin was $230 a coin after a chance dinner with crypto angel investor Roger Ver in 2015, who eloquently explained what was happening in the space.
5. I am in a mutual aid society, and the members frequently trade and barter with each other using junk silver and precious metals.
6. When exhibiting at conferences and Liberty events, I sell my book “Government” - The Biggest Scam in History… Exposed! for physical silver, Goldbacks, and crypto in addition to the rapidly depreciating fiat paper tickets of a bankrupt empire.
Vote with Your Dollars –
Boycott, divest & buy local/small: Break the chains! Economic boycott and divestment are your strongest weapons: Don’t buy from the banker’s monopoly companies! Don’t pay for their movies, games, and entertainment. Even though you can get anything you want from a mason in two days with free shipping… DON’T… If you can avoid it.
Don’t Believe Anything the “Government” or Media Says About (almost) Anything – With a proven history of lying to the population on everything from the Gulf of Tonkin to Kuwaiti Babies tossed out of Incubators to the scam of “The Covid,” the “government” and their accomplices in the Mainstream Media have proven they can’t be trusted on anything. If the “government” wants you to drink fluoride, the unfiltered toxic waste of the aluminum and phosphate fertilizer industry… don’t. If they want you to walk through a weird machine at the airport… opt out… If they want you to swab the back of your brain to test for a “virus”… don’t…
