40 years ago today former President Nixon was fighting inflation and overwhelming war costs and with that he ended the last remnants of the gold standard. At that time Nixon claimed he was defending the dollar but his critics said it was one of the most damaging decisions in modern economic history. Are we feeling the effects of this decision four decades later? Lew Rockwell, chairman of Ludwig von Mises Institute, tells RT who's to blame for the death of the dollar.
Lew commented, "Well there is a reason that Nixon is known as "Tricky Dick." … 
"What this innaugurated was for the first time in the history of the world, money that was purely discretionary could be printed up by the central bank, in our case the Federal Reserve, just ad infinitum. That is exactly what has happened. That is what Richard Nixon intended. He wanted a lot of inflation to reelect himself. ... What he did was he brought about the death of the dollar. ... This is probably the most long-lasting terrible thing he did and we are all now suffering from it – the whole world is suffering from it.
"What we need is a free-market gold standard. … You cannot trust the politicians. A government gold standard is not the answer. … Ron Paul I think very correctly suggests as a baby-step toward a sound money system by allowing competing currencies. … I think there is no question that gold would out compete everything else as money – just as it has for thousands of years."
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