As anyone who has studied history can tell you, gold has played an important role in helping people protect their wealth for millennia. The United States of America has a special relationship with gold, and many economists and financial experts even credit gold with promoting the tremendous economic growth that the republic experienced throughout the 20th century. This is because, for a long time, the dollar was actually directly related to gold through the “gold standard”.
What is the “Gold Standard”?
Back when America used what was known as the “gold standard,” any citizen could, in theory, bring their dollar to a national bank and trade their dollars for their equivalent worth in gold. This helped make the dollar exceptionally stable for quite some time, allowing businesses and individuals to plan ahead with confidence that their wealth would remain untouched by the potential ravages of inflation.
Over the course of the 20th century, however, politicians gradually chipped away at the gold standard in order to allow themselves the freedom to print more money — and in 1971, Richard Nixon scored the final blow, eliminating the gold standard entirely. As you can probably guess, the value of the dollar has slowly and steadily lessened since that happened. Today, the dollar’s buying power is a mere 16% of what it was worth back in 1971.
Meanwhile, gold closed out the 1970 financial year at the price of $38.90 per ounce. As of April, 2017, gold is worth roughly $1,200 per ounce. This represents an increase of more than three thousand percent!
Today’s world is full of uncertainty — and the unbacked dollar is unlikely to go up in value. Investing in gold is one of the most surefire, tried-and-true methods of protecting your hard-earned savings against inflation, poor stock market performance, economic instability, and other economic dangers. To learn more about how you can invest in gold, visit Red Rock Secured online today!
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