UNDER CONSTRUCTIONThe new moneywithmara.com is growing. Some pages are still being built.

The textbook / Chapter 1 · The Evolution of Money

1971: the day the dollar changed

On a Sunday night in August, the President went on TV and cut the last tie between the dollar and gold. He called it temporary. It's been 55 years.

“I have directed Secretary Connally to suspend temporarily the convertibility of the dollar into gold…”
President Richard Nixon, televised address, August 15, 1971. Read the full speech (The American Presidency Project).

August 15, 1971 · planned at Camp David

Three announcements in one night

  1. The gold window closes.Foreign governments can no longer trade their dollars for U.S. gold. The Bretton Woods promise of $35 an ounce is over.
  2. A 90-day freeze on prices and wages.“I am today ordering a freeze on all prices and wages throughout the United States for a period of 90 days.”
  3. A 10% tax on imports.“An additional tax of 10 percent on goods imported into the United States,” called a temporary measure.

Federal Reserve History, “Nixon Ends Convertibility of U.S. Dollars to Gold and Announces Wage/Price Controls”; Nixon's address via The American Presidency Project.

What changed

Before and after

Before · 1944 to 1971
  • The dollar is tied to gold at $35 an ounce.
  • Other currencies are pegged to the dollar.
  • Foreign governments can swap dollars for gold.
After
  • No gold behind the dollar: it's fiat.
  • Dec. 1971: a new set of fixed rates around a devalued dollar (the Smithsonian Agreement). It didn't last.
  • Feb. 1973: another devaluation. March 1973: major currencies float.

U.S. Office of the Historian, “Nixon and the End of the Bretton Woods System, 1971–1973”.

Don't trust, verify

An ounce of gold, then and now

About 118× as many dollars for the same ounce.

$35: the Gold Reserve Act of 1934 price that Bretton Woods kept. $4,124.55: LBMA afternoon fix, Oct. 8, 2026, as reported by Bernama. The Treasury still values its own gold at $42.222 an ounce, a price set by law in 1973 (U.S. Treasury Fiscal Data).

“Your dollar will be worth just as much tomorrow as it is today.”Nixon, the same speech

$8.26what it takes in 2026 to buy what $1 bought in 1971Minneapolis Fed CPI: 1,004.8 (2026 est.) ÷ 121.7 (1971)

Mara's take · Mara writes this

What “temporarily” cost savers, and what it has to do with Bitcoin, in my words. Labeled as my interpretation.

Follow the moneyGold windowBretton WoodsFiatDevaluationReserve currencyThe money timelineChapter 1