Posted by Lew Rockwell on October 24, 2009 06:23 AM
Hans Hoppe makes the point in Salamanca that historians will look back on August 15, 1971, as the beginning of the end for the US empire. That was the day when Dick Nixon—by dictatorial fiat—severed the final tie between the dollar and gold. Nixon thus inaugurated a world monetary system that was unprecedented in the annals of mankind: pure fiat money, with central banks unconstrained in their money printing. It has lasted 38 years, but is clearly in its death throes, just like the US empire.
