To Henry, who reminds me that gold is very rare CONTENTS Time Line of Events Preface Introduction CHAPTER El Dorado Comes True CHAPTER A Crash, a Clash, and a “Crime” CHAPTER The Dangers of the Yellow Brick Road CHAPTER FDR Bids Good-bye to Gold CHAPTER The Arsenal of Gold CHAPTER Out of Balance CHAPTER Operation Goldfinger CHAPTER Dueling Apocalypses CHAPTER This Time for Real CHAPTER 10 Legal at Last CHAPTER 11 Goldbugs in Power CHAPTER 12 God, Gold, and Guns Acknowledgments Notes Index TIME LINE of Events 1700s 1788 1792 1799 US Constitution is ratified Article I, section 10 stipulates that no state shall coin money, or “make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts.” The Coinage Act creates a bimetallic, silver-gold standard in the United States The US dollar is defined as equivalent to 24.75 grains of fine gold and 371.25 grains of fine silver, a silver-to-gold ratio of 15 to Due to global market fluctuations in the gold-silver price ratio, gold is used primarily for transactions abroad, and silver primarily for domestic transactions A twelve-year-old boy in Cabarrus County, North Carolina, discovers a 17-pound gold nugget, setting off the Carolina Gold Rush 1800s 1804–1828 1812 1816 1834 1848 1859 1862 1868 1869 1873 1896 1898 North Carolina supplies all the gold for domestic coinage from the US Mint in Philadelphia For the first time, Treasury issues notes (not legal tender) that promise to pay gold or silver at a future date Great Britain puts the pound sterling on a gold standard Congress changes the silver-to-gold ratio to 16 to 1, thereby restoring gold coins to domestic use Gold is found at Sutter’s Mill near Sacramento, ushering in the California Gold Rush Comstock Lode of gold and silver struck in Nevada Congress passes the Legal Tender Acts, creating for the first time paper money (“greenbacks”) that is not convertible to gold or silver A dollar-gold market immediately emerges Gold is discovered in South Africa A ring of investors attempts to corner the gold market, which crashes on “Black Friday” after the US Treasury announces a sale of gold Silver is demonetized, putting the United States on an informal gold standard William Jennings Bryan “Cross of Gold” speech at the Democratic convention in Chicago Gold is discovered in Klondike, Alaska, creating an Alaska Gold Rush 1900s 1900 1913 1914–1919 1925 1931 1933 1934 1939 1942 1944 1954 1960 1961 The Gold Standard Act formally places the United States on a gold standard The Federal Reserve system is established, requiring that Treasury notes be backed 40 percent by gold Most countries (though not the United States) abandon a gold standard to pay for World War I Great Britain restores a “gold bullion” standard, with money redeemable for gold but no circulating gold coins Great Britain defaults on gold payments and abandons gold standard United States leaves the gold standard and makes individual ownership of gold coins and bullion illegal The Roosevelt administration begins day-to-day management of the price of gold The Gold Reserve Act devalues the dollar and returns the United States to a gold bullion standard, setting the price of gold at $35 an ounce War in Europe forces the London gold market to close World War II brings about the closure of all US gold mines The world’s major economies meet at the Bretton Woods conference in New Hampshire to create a new international monetary system, based on a dollar convertible to gold London gold market reopens Gold market spikes, pushing prices above $35 an ounce and indicating a US balance-of-payments crisis Major central banks form “Gold Pool” to control private market transactions American citizens are prohibited from owning gold abroad as well as at home 1965 1967 1968 1971 1974 1975 1980 1981 1986 1990 American government officials begin secret plans for “Operation Goldfinger” to dramatically increase US gold production South Africa produces the first Krugerrand coin UK devalues the pound sterling, causing large outflows of gold from the United States Congress narrowly votes to lift the “gold cover” for US currency The United States stops buying and selling gold with individuals The world’s largest economies agree to a “two-tier” market, with one value for privately traded gold and a fixed value for transactions between central banks The London gold market closes for two weeks Richard Nixon “closes the gold window,” devaluing the dollar by making it no longer redeemable for gold On December 31, it becomes legal for Americans to buy and own gold for the first time in forty years Krugerrand becomes available for purchase in the United States US Republican Party platform calls for a “dependable monetary standard—that is, an end to inflation,” interpreted as the first pro–gold standard party pledge in decades US Gold Commission, chaired by Treasury Secretary Donald Regan, convenes to study gold’s role in the US monetary system US Mint introduces American Eagle Gold Bullion Coin, minted with gold mined in the United States After a decade of remarkable growth, the US gold industry becomes the second-largest producer in the world after South Africa 2000s 2007 2012 China surpasses South Africa as the world’s largest gold producer US Republican Party platform invokes 1981 Gold Commission and proposes a similar commission to investigate possible ways to set a fixed value for the dollar The party’s 2016 platform repeats the same pledge PREFACE the United States would be so careless as to avoid an examination of its money The country that produced the wealthiest society in the world, the seat of the largest stock and bond markets, the granddaddy of the consumer society that has enveloped much of the planet—at home and abroad, America is synonymous with its dollar and the unabashed pursuit of it As powerful and ubiquitous as the dollar may be, however, America’s relationship to its own currency has throughout its history been uneasy, rocky, and divisive nearly to the point of insurrection What is the dollar worth, according to whom, and how should that value be measured? These seemingly fundamental questions have never been settled to universal satisfaction even through four centuries of American financial history From the very origins of the nation in eighteenth-century political fervor to the twenty-first century’s presidential debates, we continue to argue about the dollar with the often implicit understanding that far more than a piece of paper is at stake The question of American money is wrapped up in patriotism, in the nation’s self-worth, and in America’s standing in the world, a standing that never feels as confident or sturdy as the imperial reach of the dollar and the American military machine might imply In modern America the dollar is a way of projecting strength into the world, and therefore many Americans insist that the dollar must stand for something besides itself; the dollar ought to guarantee an enduring promise; the dollar should be, as President John F Kennedy first said (and many after him), as good as gold The idea of money “as good as gold” is simple, immediately grasped, and quintessentially human; gold coins became a standard of exchange at least as far back as 1500 BC, and the United States, like most nations, used gold and silver coins as money for much of its early commerce Gold has many qualities that one would hope to associate with money: it is indestructible, it is rare, and it is beautiful to behold And yet, gold for Americans is anything but simple From the very beginnings of our national life, it has seemed impossible for Americans to look at gold dispassionately The metal—and its seductive hint of boundless wealth—tap into a psychological wellspring that reaches beyond any purely physical qualities Gold brings with it a spiritual dimension, a nonrational totem that stands for strength, control, and even adoration We seek the immutable characteristics of gold in the same way that religions posit the divine and everlasting qualities of God and an afterlife, as if gold can somehow connect us to eternity and protect us from the vagaries of actual human existence The problem is that monetary gold can’t those things Fixing our money to gold and amassing great stacks of it is no more a guarantor of sustained economic health than a witch doctor’s potions And, as with religion, what gold believers can often resemble, in the eyes of the less devout, madness and destruction From the earliest days of the American republic, gold blinded men from seeing the financial realities around them And it brought with it all manner of fraud and false hope, gold by-products that are still with us today To slice through the hype of gold, we need to see our own history clearly It is not enough to evoke the past, because gold mania carries its own nostalgic historical hues Yes, gold can make Americans spectacularly wealthy, and the twentieth century’s restrictions on owning it were justly NO ONE TRYING TO UNDERSTAND fought and overturned Beyond that, however, lie many prejudices about gold, some debatable and some dangerous To avoid gold’s false paths, we need to argue with the past, to test the assumptions that are too often and too casually passed uncritically This book, I hope, is that argument ONE NATION UNDER GOLD size of, 15–16, 28, 286, 289, 292, 299 suspicions against, 272–73, 316, 318, 333, 342 and war, see war Grant, Ulysses S., 37–40, 41–44, 46–48, 54, 113 Graves, Richard L., 160–64 Great Britain, see Britain Great Depression, 82–83, 87–91, 95, 111–12, 114, 128, 159, 287, 318, 322 Great Recession (2008), 8, 307, 311, 318, 329, 335 Great Society, 214 Greenback Party, 55 greenbacks, xii, 6, 14, 31–35, 39, 42, 48, 49, 52, 56, 58, 72, 80, 95, 113, 119, 321, 344 Greenspan, Alan, 217, 259, 286, 294, 299–300, 329 Grier, Robert C., 49, 51 Gruening, Ernest, 167–69 Haberler, Gottfried, 231 Haldeman, H R., 239, 240, 241, 242, 245 Hamilton, Alexander, 14, 31 Hammond, Bray, 35 Harkin, Victor, 272 Harrison, Benjamin, 57 Harrison, George, 93, 104 Hauptmann, Bruno, 106 Hayek, F A., 263, 328 Hazlitt, Henry, 220 Heinze, Fritz, 77 Helms, Jesse, 278, 281, 284–92, 298 Hepburn v Griswold, 49–51 Hill, David Bennett, 66 Hilton, Larry, 333 Hofstadter, Richard, 67–68 Hoover, Herbert, 82–83, 84–85, 96, 100, 108, 114–15, 132, 148 Hoover administration, 87, 88, 89, 91, 95–96, 98, 100, 102, 248 Hornig, Donald, 166, 181, 184–85 Hosmer, Craig, 188–89 Huckabee, Mike, 312 Hughes, Charles Evans, 119, 124, 125 Hughes Tool Company, 154 Hull, Cordell, 88 Humphrey, Hubert H., 208, 233–34, 267 Hunt, H L., 152 Hunt brothers, 307 Ickes, Harold L., 113 immigration, and gold rush, 21–22, 23 India, 264, 265, 335 Industrial Revolution, 33, 34 International Development Association (IDA), 263–66, 268, 292 International Gold Bullion Exchange (IGBE), 305–6 International Monetary Fund (IMF), 131, 133, 149, 152, 174, 177, 179, 198, 207, 211–13, 228, 233, 236, 275, 279, 283–84, 290, 292, 323, 336, 355 investors: in commodities, 275 nongold vehicles for, 215–16, 224, 225, 249, 307, 312, 331 see also gold; gold market isolationism, 109, 128, 133, 308 Jackson, Andrew: and Democratic Party, 6, 14, 68 on hard money, 31, 34, 35, 48, 51, 68 and national banks, 16–17, 106, 218, 290, 336, 342 and populism, 55 and Supreme Court, 124 Jackson, Henry “Scoop,” 169, 180 Jackson, Robert, 112–13 James True Associates, 216 J Aron & Company, 300 Javits, Jacob, 206–7 Jefferson, Thomas, 14 John Birch Society, 216, 272–73, 308 Johnson, Andrew, 39, 41, 50, 51 Johnson, Harold, 255, 257 Johnson, Lyndon B., 154, 166, 169, 172, 197, 202, 211, 214, 223, 230, 329 Johnson administration, 167, 169–71, 177–82, 186, 189–93, 197–98, 200–211, 213–15, 227, 232, 235, 249 Jones, Jesse, 103 Jones, John P., 53–54 Jordan, Jerry, 293 Kemp, Jack, 267, 291, 308–9 Kennecott Copper Corporation, 187–88 Kennedy, John F., xvi, 144, 147–48, 153–54, 171–72, 176, 179, 230, 232, 233, 249 Kennedy, Joseph P., 126, 172 Ketchum, Bill, 267 Keynes, John Maynard, 130, 327 Kissinger, Henry A., 232, 264 Klondike (Alaska), gold rush in, xii, 5, 71, 154 Knickerbocker Trust, 77 Knox, Frank, 95, 108 Korean War, 132 Kruger, Paul, 276, 279 Krugerrand coins, xiii, 176, 276–81, 283, 294, 297, 298, 300–302 Laffer, Arthur, 296, 299, 326 Landis, James M., 122 Larouche, Lyndon, 294 Laxalt, Paul, 162–65, 286 Leach, Jim, 278, 328 Legal Tender Acts, xii, 30–35, 48, 50 Legal Tender cases, 49–52, 113, 118, 123, 344 Lehrman, Lewis, 295, 297 Lend-Lease Act, 129 Liberty Bonds, 6–7, 101, 114, 118 Lincoln, Abraham, 1, 29, 31, 49, 50, 321, 344 Lindbergh, Charles, 106 Linderman, Henry Richard, 346 Lippmann, Walter, 125 Littlefield, Henry, 74 London gold market: closure and reopening of, 211, 213 and devaluation of the pound, 199 “gentlemen’s understanding” with, 150 gold sales through, 157 and price of gold, 141–47, 152, 214 London Gold Pool, xiii, 151, 195, 199–200, 205, 207–8, 212–13 Lugar, Richard, 303 Lusitania, 78 MacLean, Angus, 119 Madison, James, 15 Magnuson, Warren, 169 Mansfield, Mike, 208–9, 248 Marine Diamond Corporation, 184 markets, effects of news on, 47–48 Markey, Edward, 280 Marshall, John, 124 Martin, William McChesney, 151, 181, 197, 208, 209 Marxism, 218, 219 Mason, Richard Barnes, 21 McAdoo, William G., 79 McCaffrey, Neil, 218 McCarran, Pat, 134, 136 McClure, James, 258, 263, 265, 267 McCracken, Paul W., 231, 235, 237 McCulloch, Hugh, 18 McCulloch v Maryland, 16 McFadden, Louis, 100 McGovern, George S., 169, 209, 234, 248 McKinley, William, 69–70, 72 McNamara, Robert S., 206, 264 McReynolds, James C., 125, 133 Meltzer, Allan, 231, 294 Mexico: immigrants from, 22 US war with, 1, 6, 28, 29 Meyer, Eugene I., 84, 100 Military Airborne Command, 196 Mills, Ogden L., 83 mining: environmental destruction in, 22, 304, 336 and land ownership, 20–21 and strikes, 240–41 see also gold mining; silver Mises, Ludwig von, 220 Moley, Raymond, 88, 93, 94 money, see currency Morgan, J Pierpont, 59–60, 63, 70, 75, 77–78, 323 Morgenthau, Henry, 88, 102–3, 112, 120–22, 128, 130 Morrill, Justin, 33 Muskie, Edmund S., 234 National Banking Act (1863), 14 National Cordage Company, 57 National Recovery Act, 111 National Review, 216, 218 National Taxpayers Union, 292 Neutrality Acts (1935), 128 Nevada, xi, 21, 22, 304 New Deal, 89, 93, 105, 107–8, 119, 126, 153 Newman’s Silver Shop, Reno, 161 Newmont Mining Corporation, 137, 304 newspapers, “fake news” in, 54–55, 107 New York Mercantile Exchange, 249–50 New York Times, 43, 50, 120, 121, 189 Nixon, Richard M., 146–47, 226 “benign neglect” of, 231–33 closing the gold window, xiii, 227, 229–31, 236, 243, 244–49, 294–95 resignation of, 268–69 and wage-price freeze, 40, 235, 237, 238–41 Nixon administration, 235–45, 249, 256–57, 260, 262–66, 268, 270, 279, 281, 308 Norman, Montagu, 104 Norman v Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company, 117 North Carolina, gold rush in, xi, 4–5, 287 Nortz v United States, 118 Obama administration, 312, 313, 316, 318 Objectivist, The, 217, 259 O’Leary, Paul M., 346 OPEC, 264 Operation Goldfinger, xiii, 167, 170–71, 180–93, 196, 304 Overstreet, Jesse, 72 Pacific Coast Coin Exchange (PCCE), 224, 250–53, 314 Pacific Mail Company, 24 Paine, Thomas, 220 Panic of 1837, 17 Panic of 1857, 27–28 Panic of 1893, 57–58, 114, 322, 327 Panic of 1907, 77–79, 322 paper money, see currency Par Value Modification Act (1972), 258 Patman, Wright, 256, 258 Patterson, Floyd, 155 Paul, Ron, 294–95, 296, 310, 316–17, 326 Pearson, Drew, 139 Pelikan, Robert, 357 Pentagon Papers, 230 Perry v United States, 118, 124 Pick, Franz, 156–57, 216, 224, 250–51 Pizarro, Francisco, Polk, Frank, gold statue by, 140, 162 Polk, James K., 1–2 Pompidou, Georges, 261 populism, 55, 61, 64, 76, 113, 126–27, 133, 134, 308, 320, 322, 329–30, 332–33 Populist movement, 55, 75, 80, 108–9, 347 Populist Party, 74, 80 Porter, Sylvia, 253 precious-metal trading, 307 presidential elections: of 1832, 17 of 1896, 65–70, 73 of 1912, 80 of 1932, 84–85, 95 of 1952, 137–38 of 1960, 143–47, 148, 171, 238 of 1964, 257 of 1968, 231, 234 of 1972, 233–34, 238, 248 of 1976, 283, 285 of 1980, 291, 292, 298 of 2012, 317–18 and inaugurations, 87 presidential powers, 47, 91, 99, 101, 105–6, 116, 204 progressivism, 67–68 Project Plowshare, 186–92 Project Sloop, 188–90, 191 Proxmire, William, 284, 299 Public Credit Act (1869), 39 Pullman Strike (1894), 58 Putin, Vladimir, 326 railroads: bankruptcies of, 57, 58 expansion of, 48 financing of, 23–24, 76, 114, 117 investors in, 27, 38 Ralston, William, 346 Ramaphosa, Cyril, 281 Rand, Ayn, 217, 259, 286, 299 Ratner, Sidney, 113 Reagan, Ronald, 281, 286, 291, 294, 298, 299, 309, 329 Reagan administration, 296, 298–99, 301–2, 307–8, 309 “Reagan Revolution,” 308 Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC), 102–3, 104–5 Rees, Thomas, 266 Regan, Donald, xiv, 292–93, 294, 299 Republican Party: conservative arm of, 132, 138, 216, 257, 267, 272–73, 285–87, 299, 308, 334 and conspiracy theories, 272, 316 and economic orthodoxy, 108–9, 114, 152, 292, 299 and 1898 elections, 71 and FDR, 105–6, 108 and Fox News, 312–13 free-market, 235, 288, 289 and gold cover, 210 gold populism in, 329–30, 332 and gold price, 303 and gold standard, xiii–xiv, 42, 64, 70, 71–72, 82, 83, 108, 136, 138, 291–300, 302, 308–9, 311, 317, 319–21, 326, 328–29 and libertarian ideals, 259 and monetarism, 293, 309 and 1952 campaign, 137–38 and 1960 campaign, 146–47 and 1968 campaign, 234 and 1972 campaign, 233–34 and 1980 campaign, 291–92, 298 “Old Right” in, 308 party identity, 48–49 and postwar economic growth, 131–32 and “Reagan Revolution,” 308 on restoring the past, 332 and silver, 56, 64 and Tea Party, 318, 331, 333 and 2012 campaign, 317–18 Reuss, Henry, 236, 279 Rickards, James, 324, 325 Rickenbacker, William F., 218–19 Roberts, Ellis H., 72–73, 75 Rockefeller, David, 272 Rockefeller, John D., 75, 77, 86 Rockefeller family, 272 Rogers, Will, 106 Romney, Mitt, 317 “Roosa bonds,” 179 Roosevelt, Franklin D.: comparisons with, 214, 243, 244, 248–49, 269, 289 and elections, 85, 87, 91, 135, 148 and gold-clause cases, 112, 113, 116, 118, 121, 123–25, 284, 323 and gold confiscation, 86, 88–99, 107, 216, 314 manipulating the markets, 120–21, 125–26, 152 and monetary policy, 126–28, 132, 133 opposition to, 107–9 and preludes to World War II, 129 and Supreme Court, 112–13, 121, 123 taking US off gold standard, xii, 87–109, 112, 116, 215 Roosevelt, Theodore, 75, 78 Root, Elihu, 79 Rostow, Eugene, 186, 248 Rostow, Walter, 207 Roth, William, 307, 308 Rothbard, Murray, 293, 295, 342 What Has Government Done to Our Money?, 217–18, 219–20, 224 Rothschild, N M., 141, 142 Rothschild banks, 59, 65 Rousselot, John, 273 Rueff, Jacques, 295 Rusk, Dean, 211 Sachs, Alexander, 116, 123, 185–86, 187, 190 Safire, William, 239, 244 Salant, Walter S., 104 San Francisco, and gold rush, 18–19 San Francisco earthquake and fire, 77 Schiff, Jacob, 76 Schlesinger, Arthur M., Jr., 105 Schwartz, Anna J., 98, 293, 295 Scott, Paul, 242 Seaborg, Glenn, 190–91 Searls, Fred, Jr., 137 Second Bank of the United States, 14, 16, 25 Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), 122, 250–52, 307 Segermark, Howard, 284–85, 287, 288 Seyd, Ernest, 54 Sherman Silver Purchase Act (1890), 56 Shreve & Company, San Francisco, 162, 163 Shultz, George P., 235, 241–43, 261, 263, 264, 299 silver: coins, 13, 52–53, 177, 215, 218–19, 249–53, 262, 336 and Comstock Lode, xi, 52 demonetization of, xii, 52–54, 72, 216 and gold exchange rate, 33 gold vs., 58, 63–72, 113 government subsidy of, 168 market for, 215–16, 249–50, 305, 307 production of, 52, 55, 107 and western states, 55, 56, 72, 100, 126, 132 silver movement, 55, 56, 65, 74 silver standard, 53–55 Simon, William P., 262–63, 265, 268, 272–73, 276, 284, 285, 287 Six-Day War, 198 Skousen, Mark, 218 slavery, 12, 35, 41 “Smith, Adam,” 253 Smith, Fred B., 182–83 Smith, Frederick, 133 Smith, Jerome, 306 Smith, Martin, 100 Smithsonian Agreement (1971), 258, 260 Smoot, Dan, 152 Snell, Bertrand, 94 Snowden, James Ross, 346 Solarz, Stephen, 280–81, 301 Sorenson, Theodore C., 171 South Africa: apartheid regime of, 236, 278–81, 301–3 Boer War in, 6, 75 gold discovered in, xii, 71 as gold producer, xiv, 129, 143, 145–46, 168, 184, 207, 213, 236, 276, 279, 300–304, 335 Krugerrands, see Krugerrand coins US sanctions against, 302–4 Southard, Frank, 152–53 Soviet Union: and Cold War, 134, 141, 174–75 gold in, 130, 168, 174, 276, 365 gold sales by, 143 Spain, “pieces of eight,” 13 Spaulding, Elbridge, 31–32, 33 Specie Resumption Act (1875), 56 Starlifters (C-141s), 195–96, 199 Stassen, Harold E., 138 states: banks chartered by, 17, 25, 30 and hard money, 35, 333 powers of, 12, 15–16, 33, 35 Steagall, Henry, 94 Stein, Herb, 244 Stephens, Don and Barbie, 222, 223 Stewart, William, 346 Stockman, David, 291 stock market crash (1929), 82–83 Stone, Harlan, 119 Strange, Susan, 151, 326 Sumner, Charles, 33 Supreme Court, US: on banking, 16 Dred Scott decision, 27, 52 gold-clause cases, 111–13, 116, 117–27, 289 on income tax, 52 Legal Tender cases, 49–52, 113, 118, 123 and New Deal, 126 number of justices in, 51, 113, 120 Swiss banks, 143, 146, 152, 210, 221–22, 325 Switzerland, on gold standard, 96, 325 Symms, Steven, 286 Taft, Robert A., 137–38, 308 Taney, Roger B., 49 taxation, 15, 28, 29, 242, 274, 292 Tea Party, 318, 331, 333 Teller, Edward, 186–87 terHorst, Jerry, 269 Thaler, Richard, 327 Third Great Awakening, 2, 23 Thomas, Elmer, 120 Thompson, Fred, 312 Thurman, Allen G., 54 Thurmond, Strom, 210 Toronto Stock Exchange, 158 Trading with the Enemy Act (1917), 90, 91, 99, 243 Treasury, US: changing the rules, 137, 249 closing the gold window, 247 and contraction policy for greenbacks, 39, 56 establishment of, 17 and Fort Knox, 111, 128 and gold-clause cases, 112, 117–18, 122, 125, 285, 287, 290–91 and gold confiscation order, 93, 96–99, 102 and gold cover, 208–9 gold outflow from, 57, 59, 84, 150, 175, 193, 196, 199–200, 207, 227, 272 gold purchased by, 102–3, 107, 149, 212 gold reserve of, 56–57, 71–73, 75, 79, 81, 82, 83, 115, 121, 127, 206, 209, 227, 259, 273, 322–23 gold sold by, xii, 40, 43, 46, 155, 212, 271, 273, 300 gold window of, 150 independence of, 32 and international markets, 122, 213, 275 minting coins, see US Mint notes issued by, xi, xii, 30, 34 and Operation Goldfinger, 182–83, 185 and panics, 322 and private gold ownership, 215, 256, 260, 263, 270, 298 “Trent Affair,” 30 Triffin, Robert, 175–76, 327–28 Trowbridge, Alexander, 203 True, James, 108–9 Truman, Harry S., 136 Trump, Donald J., 3, 317 Trust Company of America, 78 Udall, Stewart, 181 United Nations (UN), 278 United States: agrarian interests in, 35 balance-of-payment problems of, xiii, 144, 149–54, 171–75, 177–80, 198, 201–4, 206, 209, 227, 231–32, 326 dollar, see currency; US dollar drought in (1930), 83 gold consumption in, 335 as gold producer, see gold mining growth vs party loyalty in, 48 industrial cities in, 35 post–Civil War unity of, 40–41 and preludes to World War II, 129 public debt, 34, 41–42, 132, 264, 286, 329 trade deficit, 229–30, 237, 276 troops abroad, 150 United States Mail Steamship Company, 25 United States of America v One Solid Gold Object in Form of a Rooster, 163–65, 286 Updike, John, Rabbit is Rich, 278 US dollar: and Bretton Woods system, 131 defined, xi, 56 delinking gold from, 179, 192, 200, 206–7, 208–15, 223, 227, 229–31, 235, 247–48, 323 devaluation of, xii, xiii, 93, 101, 116, 127, 132, 216, 237–38, 247, 258, 260 fixed value for, xiv, 3, 121 floating against other currencies, 6, 228, 235, 241 as global reserve currency, 319 “good as gold,” 172 government management of, 99, 101, 105, 115, 121, 126 inflation of, 133, 177 as medium of exchange, 214 metallic basis for, 3, 6, 334 US Mint: gold coins from, xiv, 53, 278, 282, 298, 300, 302, 331, 333–34, 335 role of, 52 Utah Precious Metals Association, 333 Van Buren, Martin, 17 Vanderbilt, Cornelius, 25 Vietnam War, 7, 171, 172, 178–79, 201, 203, 205, 206, 209, 214, 232, 234–35, 264 Volcker, Paul A., 227–31, 235–37, 242–43, 245–46, 261–62 Wallace, George, 234 Wanniski, Jude, 291 war: economic effects of, 7, 28–30, 34–35, 81–82, 130–32, 201, 325 funding for, 6–7, 31–33, 34, 40, 119, 321–22 Warburg, James, 101, 108 Warburg, Paul M., 91 Ward, Barbara, 205–6, 207, 211, 223 War of 1812, 28 Warren, George, 88, 89 Washington, George, 11–12, 13 Watergate, 231, 239, 242, 264, 272 Weidenbaum, Murray, 293, 299 Weiner, Anthony, 313–14 Weiss, Samuel, 270, 274 Whig Party, 2, 14 White, Harry, 130 Whitney, William C., 65 Wilson, Harold, 195, 198, 205, 211, 223 Wilson, Thomas, 164 Wilson, Woodrow, 70, 80 Woodin, William H., 92, 93, 103 World Bank, 131, 133, 263–65, 284, 336 World War I: economic effects of, 81–82 funding for, 6–7, 101, 114 gold standard abandoned in, xii, 81–82 World War II: economic effects of, xiii, 80, 130–32, 325 looted gold in, 130 postwar economic growth, 131–32, 144 preludes to, 80, 127, 128–29 US as arsenal of democracy in, 129–30, 175 war debts of, 129–30 Wyatt, Walter, 93 Wylie, Chalmers P., 294 OTHER BOOKS BY JAMES LEDBETTER Unwarranted Influence: Dwight D Eisenhower and the Military-Industrial Complex The Great Depression: A Diary (coeditor) Dispatches for the New York Tribune: Selected Journalism of Karl Marx Made Possible By : The Death of Public Broadcasting in the United States Starving to Death on $200 Million: The Short, Absurd Life of the Industry Standard ABOUT THE AUTHOR James Ledbetter is the editor of Inc magazine and Inc.com He was previously the opinion editor of Reuters and has also worked on staff at Slate, Time, and the Village Voice He is the author or editor of five previous books including, most recently, Unwarranted Influence: Dwight D Eisenhower and the Military-Industrial Complex His writings on politics, business, and media have been published in The New Yorker, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Quartz, American Prospect, Industry Standard, Mother Jones, the Nation, New Republic, and dozens of other publications He lives in New York City with his wife and son Copyright © 2017 by James Ledbetter All rights reserved First Edition For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to Permissions, Liveright Publishing Corporation, a division of W W Norton & Company, Inc., 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10110 For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact W W Norton Special Sales at specialsales@wwnorton.com or 800-233-4830 Book design by Lisa Buckley Production manager: Anna Oler JACKET DESIGN BY YANG KIM PHOTOGRAPH: ASBE / GETTY IMAGES ISBN 978-0-87140-683-5 ISBN 978-1-63149-396-6 (e-book) Liveright Publishing Corporation 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y 10110 www.wwnorton.com W W Norton & Company Ltd 15 Carlisle Street, London W1D 3BS ... America’s history, gold literally was money—and therefore ignited some of the most contentious political battles the nation has ever seen The metallic basis for the dollar was one of the most heated... with gold And yet for Americans, gold s appeal is more specific, more grounded in the national experience Gold carries for Americans a sense of national pride and birthright Gold mining on the American. .. monetary gold was, for example, the defining basis of Andrew Jackson’s Democratic Party When the Northern states needed to fund the Civil War, they issued for the first time nationally sanctioned