Gold is Dead, Long live Gold: How Congress gave up its Control of the Dollar

In 1971 President Nixon abolished the monetary role of gold in the world. The authority to do so was given to him inadvertently in 1968 when Congress gave up its control of the dollar-gold relation. Congress abolished then the gold reserve backing US currency because President Johnson wanted all gold to back the American international commitment to convert paper dollars to gold. Using voting data and discussions in Congress, and the upheavals of the Vietnam War, the goal is to explain why the Democrat-controlled Congress barely granted Johnson’s request, even as speculators challenged that commitment with a huge run on gold.