In 1944, the US led other countries in putting together the Bretton Woods system, in which most currencies were pegged to the dollar, and the dollar was pegged to gold.

In 1971, however, the US defaulted on this system, rendering the dollar no longer redeemable for or fixed against gold. After that, all currencies rapidly fell vs gold, and along wit

An important, but often overlooked, aspect of the Bretton Woods system was that most of the member countries had moved large amounts of their gold reserves to the United States and received dollars in exchange, at a rate of $35 per ounce. The rationale was that the U.S. dollar would be the global currency for trade and central banks would trade thr

Gold's rise to ever higher prices has coincided with — and some would say, been driven by — a loss of faith in fiat money as doubts have grown about the basic economic competence of the world's most important governments and economic institutions, since the near-catastrophic meltdown of the financial markets in September 2008.