Richard Milhous Nixon did some very, very historic things in his storied career.
Many of you probably lived through them…
He was a lawyer, a U.S. representative, a senator, a vice president, the 37th President of the United States, the only president to resign the office, and — years later — resurrect his presidency as a disembodied cartoon head.
He had quite a career is all I’m saying.
Now, I’m not going to sit here and pick apart Nixon’s missteps, like his grotesque, unshaven, sweaty debates against JFK or his desire to tape himself and his staff all the time — despite saying racist and illegal things almost constantly — or that little Watergate escapade.
Nixon’s controversies cloud some very important events that continue to reverberate today…
He oversaw man’s first visit to the moon. He established the Environmental Protection Agency. He even began the “War on Cancer.”
Or how about that Earth-shattering visit to China in 1972, which set the tone for perhaps the most important economic diplomacy of the last century. It was called “the week that changed the world.” And that wasn’t even hyperbole…
This all has a point, because of all the things that Richard Nixon did — there’s one thing that has massive implications for investors — even to this day…
I’m talking about Nixon’s decision to remove the U.S. dollar from the Gold Standard.
The “Nixon Shock” hit the country 48 years to this very day — August 15th, 1971.
Here’s what the President told the country all of those years ago:
I have directed (Treasury) Secretary Connally to suspend temporarily the convertibility of the dollar into gold or other reserve assets, except in amounts and conditions determined to be in the interest of monetary stability and in the best interests of the United States.
Now, what is this action — which is very technical—what does it mean for you?
Let me lay to rest the bugaboo of what is called devaluation.
If you want to buy a foreign car or take a trip abroad, market conditions may cause your dollar to buy slightly less. But if you are among the overwhelming majority of Americans who buy American-made products in America, your dollar will be worth just as much tomorrow as it is today.
The effect of this action, in other words, will be to stabilize the dollar.
Quite the “bugaboo” indeed.
It essentially ended the Bretton Woods system of fixed exchange rates — where foreign currencies were fixed to the dollar, and anchored to gold — set at $35 per ounce. However, as any student of history or finance well knows, other spending during the 1960s — especially on the military — led to the dollar becoming overvalued.
We simply didn’t have enough gold to back it up.
What we had was the full backing of the U.S. dollar — now, simply a piece of paper that is essentially an I.O.U.
Nixon’s shock gave us “freely floating” fiat currencies.
That, in part, has allowed the Fed to add trillions to our balance sheet since the financial meltdown of 2008. Between 2008 and 2015, the Fed’s total assets went from $900 billion to $4.5 trillion.
That would never have happened if our currency was pegged to gold, instead of a balloon filled with marshmallows. We’ve literally printed money for years. And honestly, it’s worked out pretty well — for the short term. But it is starting to look like the pea-shooters are out, and taking aim at that balloon.
Today, we are starting to see the signs of a Fed-drunk market that simply cannot stand on its own. It’s spent far too long at the punch bowl.
President Trump has practically begged for the Fed to continue to lower interest rates to keep the party going. But investors are finally waking up to a very sobering fact…
The party may be over.
Yesterday, the DOW dropped 800 points — which triggered what many have feared: a yield curve inversion, where the 10-year treasury dipped below the yield on the two-year. That doesn’t bode well for stocks, but it is music to any gold bug’s ears.
I’ll go on record to say that fiat currency has certainly had its time to shine, but gold right now has a chance to shine far brighter…
It has already hit new highs in 13 of the world’s top 20 currencies. It’s close to breaking out to a new all-time high in the euro — the world’s No. 2 currency. It is clearly looking like the best possible investment for a very uncertain future.
I’ll be honest — I’m not a gold investing expert.
Thankfully, I know two guys who are some of the best in the business. They’ve done incredibly well while gold was in a bear market for the past decade and they just released a personal conversation that could not possibly have come at a better time…
I’m talking about Nick Hodge and Gerardo Del Real.
They were making triple-digit gains while gold was being treated like, well, Richard Nixon — a disgraced relic of a bygone era. I can only imagine what they can do in a gold bull market.
Nick thinks we’re gearing up for the last gold bull market in history. Once you listen to his conversation, I think you’ll agree…
