The world changed on 15 August 1971. After almost a quarter of a millennium broadly tied to gold, the money of the world was cut free. The consequences have been dramatic and far-reaching. The United States is now in the unprecedented position of being the issuer of an unanchored global reserve currency. By contrast, and however reluctantly, the rest of the world is now in the unenviable position of being the forced user of the unmoored US dollar. Developments as disparate and apparently unrelated as the outcome of the Cold War, the accelerating pattern of boom, bubble & bust, and the stunning rise of China stem directly from that historic, and historically recent, decision. Since that seminal night in the White House, we are all hostage to a compellingly incentivised and bewilderingly diverse money creation machine, effectively unhindered from exploiting a stacked heads I win / tails you lose relationship with the rest of society. Contrary to much conventional economic thinking, the accelerating pattern of boom, bubble & bust should be little surprise as the political and monetary authorities in whom we trust are little more than impotent accommodators of an unmoored monetary mayhem beyond their control; a mayhem, in truth, beyond any control.
