The ‘Temporary’ Rule From 1971 That Never Ended

It's August 1971, and you're a guard at the gold vault of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York: eighty feet below the street, a ring of keys, and a flashlight the size of a baseball bat. You guard more gold than anyone on Earth. Then, on a Sunday night, the President interrupts a cowboy show and switches off the link between the dollar and gold. "Temporarily." This is the end of the gold standard explained simply — with jokes, cloakroom tickets, a beach ball and a piggy bank named Penny. Why was the whole world's money tied to $35 an ounce? Why did France send a ship for its gold? What happened at Camp David — and why is a "temporary" suspension from 1971 still in place? ⏱ Chapters 0:00 So you guarded the world's gold in 1971 0:52 The vault under Manhattan 2:00 Why gold? (and the 1933 gold ban) 2:48 Bretton Woods, 1944: $35 an ounce 3:55 As good as gold 4:28 The leak and the Triffin dilemma 5:20 The London Gold Pool 5:51 De Gaulle wants gold 6:33 The pile shrinks 7:16 August 1971: a run on America 7:56 Camp David 8:30 Sunday night: the Nixon shock 9:27 Blame the speculators 9:57 The reaction 10:34 Smithsonian, 1973 and the end of Bretton Woods 11:25 Your vault gets fuller 11:46 The seventies: stagflation and $850 gold 12:26 Volcker returns 12:49 So what is a dollar now? 13:19 Legend vs reality 14:13 3 lessons from 1971 14:43 So… how did you do? 📚 Sources • Federal Reserve Bank of New York — "Gold Vault" (depth, cylinder door, compartments, 1973 peak, book value) • Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis — "The World's Goldkeeper" (1991) • Federal Reserve History — "Creation of the Bretton Woods System"; "Nixon Ends Convertibility of U.S. Dollars to Gold and Announces Wage/Price Controls" • Richard Nixon, Address to the Nation, 15 August 1971 (The American Presidency Project, UC Santa Barbara) • Wikipedia: Bretton Woods Conference; Nixon shock; Triffin dilemma; Executive Order 6102 • LBMA, The Alchemist No. 102 — "50 Years On, Who Killed Gold Money?" • U.S. State Department, Foreign Relations of the United States 1964–68, Vol. VIII, doc. 36 — de Gaulle's press conference, 4 February 1965 • TIME (15 January 1965) — "Money: The Gold War" • Congressional Research Service IF13109 — the U.S. gold stock today • NPR Planet Money (2011) — the 1980 gold peak and inflation Some figures are rounded. Quotes reported second-hand are marked as reported. 🖼 Images (public domain, via Wikimedia Commons) • Vault, Federal Reserve Bank of New York (1924) • The Mount Washington Hotel, Bretton Woods — Detroit Publishing Co. postcard (NYPL) • Camp David (February 1971) — White House Photo Office, National Archives • U.S. Bullion Depository, Fort Knox (1939) • Gold bars — photo, public domain Characters, drawings and animation: original. Real people appear only as simple labelled stick figures. This video is for education and entertainment. It is not financial advice. #FinancialHistory #GoldStandard #NixonShock