Floating War

By Curtis Hendrickson

In 1971 President Richard Nixon announced the foreign-held American dollars

would no longer be convertible into gold-Graeber, Debt.
Chapter twelve of Graebers book Debt: The First 5000 Years he examines the
effects of the removal of the dollar from the gold standard internationally. In an attempt
to pay for the Vietnam War, Nixon had ended a policy that had been enacted since 1931.
Graeber explains that The consensus among historians is that Nixon had little choice..
He then explains that just like all Capitalist wars it was financed by deficit spending. As
a result of Nixon decision to floating the dollar, currency outside of the U.S. was
redeemable at a rate of $35 dollars an ounce, the value of gold shot up. At its top value,
the worth of gold was $600 an ounce in 1980. Graeber then discusses the fact that
because of Nixons removal of the dollar from the gold standard internationally we saw
the beginning of a new financial era, one that nobody understands. While he proceeds to
tell a story about conspiracy theories he heard while growing up in New York, rumors of
the United States and the entire worlds gold reserves are contained in secret vaults
underneath the city. Workers underground are said to be transferring gold from one vault
to another, with no knowledge of whom the vaults belong to as they only have numbers
on them. These rumors illustrate Americans ignorance in regards to understanding of
our banking system and who controls the American dollar.

The fact is the gold is stored at the Federal Reserve and held within a massive
vault underground on Manhattan Island.
As of 2015, the vault housed approximately 508,000 gold bars, with a combined
weight of approximately 6,350 tons. The vault is able to support this weight
because it rests on the bedrock of Manhattan Island, 80 feet below street level and
50 feet below sea level.- newyorkfed.org, Storing The Gold.
The Gold is brought from street level by elevator 80 ft down and then moved to one of
the vaults 122 compartments, assigned to depositing countries or official international
organizations. The vaults are in fact numbered to conceal the identity of the owners, thus
preventing any workers otherwise known as gold stackers from knowing who is paying
whom. Undoubtedly this would be highly valuable information, with countries from
around the world transferring funds to one another, the transactions could be insightful as
to who was funding certain militaries etc. The reality of the situation is so grandiose it
would be hard determine which elements are true or false.
Since the days of Thomas Jefferson the banking system has seemed to inspire
peoples creativity or as Graeber puts it paranoid fantasies involving conspiracy
theories. Its the main contributing factor as to why it took so long to establish an
American Central Bank. The very idea of banks being able to magically produce money
out of thin air is one example of a concept reflecting the United States finances being
governed by populism. However, since the dollar was removed internationally from the
gold standard it seems this has only perpetuated the mythical power the dollar has.
It seems that because of the ignorance or lack of understanding of the populace
regarding the real value of the dollar, it is easier for the government to fund wars. Nixon
floated the dollar in order to pay for the war, more precisely to pay for the explosives
dropped onto Vietnam.

Warfare is therefore distinct from other kinds of hostile or violent behavior

because war is made by organized collectivities rather than by individuals, and for
collective ends rather than merely personal ones. To define war in this way has the very
fundamental implication that the causes of war must lie in the nature of these
collectivities and not in the individual.- SIMON HARRISON, Encyclopedia of Social
and Cultural Anthropology
The declaration that the dollar was being taking off the gold standard, enabled the
United States to continue funding the war. Arguably the only reason the dollar has held
its relative value is because of the military might of the United States. The entire
monetary global banking structure is built upon the dollar. With the most powerful
military in the history of mankind, its hard not to suspect that the wars the United States
has involved itself in may have been purely economic in purpose.

Work Cited

1.
DEBT : The First 5000 years
By David Graeber
2011 David Graeber
First Melville House Printing: May 2011
Publisher: Melville House Publishing
145 Plymouth Street
Brooklyn, New York 11201
mhpbooks.com
Access Date : 5/2/16

2.
Encyclopedia of social and cultural anthropology
War, Warfare,
pages 843-844
By SIMON HARRISON
1996, 1998, 2002 Routledge