Skip navigation dave rubin Create Avatar image Richard Nixon's Biggest Mistake Wasn't Watergate, It Was This | Presidents Series | Jeffrey Tucker
The Rubin Report
Emma Dog Productions
4.4 • 486 Ratings
🗓️ 19 February 2026
⏱️ 30 minutes
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Summary
Dave Rubin of "The Rubin Report" talks to Jeffrey Tucker about the complicated legacy of Richard Nixon; Nixon's political genius and realpolitik, including opening relations with China and ending the Vietnam War; the long-term economic consequences of abandoning the gold standard, wage and price controls, inflation, and the expansion of big government; how Nixon's personal insecurity shaped policies like the EPA and centralized power; and how Watergate ultimately overshadowed his presidency and defined his historical reputation, and much more.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Nixon inherits this situation. And Fort Knox was being drained. You know, they're banging |
| 0:06.7 | out of the doors. Give us our gold. Give us our gold. Give us our gold. Give us our gold. |
| 0:10.6 | He's dealing with this in 1971 alongside innumerable political problems for himself. |
| 0:17.9 | And so he went to his advisors and said, what can we do? And really, there were two |
| 0:22.2 | choices. You could deflate, cut the budget, live within your means, right? Which could probably |
| 0:29.3 | provoke a recession and tank Nixon's popularity. Or you could just make an announcement. No more gold exchange. The U.S. |
| 0:42.4 | is shutting the window. I think it was August 15th, 1971. It's called the Nixon shock for a reason, |
| 0:49.5 | because the last president you would have expected to untie the dollar from this last tenuous link to |
| 0:56.6 | gold would have been a Republican president. |
| 1:00.3 | Well, and so now what happens after that? |
| 1:04.7 | Well, again, the most horrifying thing you could ever imagine, which he imposed wage and price controls. |
| 1:14.3 | So under penalty of law, |
| 1:16.4 | nationwide wage and price controls, |
| 1:18.8 | to prevent inflation |
| 1:20.9 | that would inevitably result |
| 1:22.9 | from a shutting of the gold window. |
| 1:34.8 | Thank you. shutting of the gold window. I'm Dave Rubin and joining me on this president's week to discuss former President |
| 1:39.4 | Richard Nixon is the founder of the Brownstone Institute and Rubin report regular |
| 1:43.9 | Jeffrey Tucker. |
| 1:45.1 | Jeffrey, my friend, how are you? |
| 1:47.1 | I'm good. |
| 1:47.8 | It's so nice to see you. |
... |
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