When Nixon put America first and took the dollar off gold
The Story of Money
Manuela Saragosa
4.4 • 409 Ratings
🗓️ 10 June 2026
⏱️ 41 minutes
🔗️ Recording | Apple Podcasts | RSS
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Summary
Today, when people hear the name Richard Nixon, they probably think of Watergate. Few remember another one of his most controversial acts – his suspension of the dollar’s convertibility into gold. The “Nixon Shock” as it became known was a quintessentially America First policy, which shattered the postwar global monetary order. But the US president was far more concerned about juicing the US economy and winning re-election than he was about upsetting America’s closest allies. In this second episode about Nixon’s pivotal decision, Professor Jeffrey Garten tells the story of its aftermath, while hosts Gillian Tett and Robin Wigglesworth explore the parallels with the present-day America First presidency.
Further reading:
Three Days at Camp David: How a Secret Meeting in 1971 Transformed the Global Economy, by Jeffrey E Garten (2021)
Gold and the dollar crisis, by Robert Triffin (1960)
Our Dollar, Your Problem, by Kenneth Rogoff (2025)
Credits: Getty Images, Associated Press, the Richard Nixon Presidential Library
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Hosts: Gillian Tett and Robin Wigglesworth
Producer: Laurence Knight
Executive Producer: Manuela Saragosa
Original music: Breen Turner
Broadcast engineers: Bianca Wakeman and Petros Gioumpasis
Podcast Development: Laura Clarke
Video editor: Kristen Kenyon and Josh Divney at Podcast Discovery
Learn more at www.ft.com/tsom or get in touch at thestoryofmoney@ft.com.
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | What Nixon actually does is he sends John Connolly to try and persuade the same trade partners |
| 0:06.9 | who are feeling so bruised to renegotiate their exchange rates with the dollar. |
| 0:10.6 | How did that go down? |
| 0:11.5 | He basically said it was their problem to figure out. |
| 0:14.4 | And he told them basically, you guys have to revalue your currencies. |
| 0:18.7 | And they said, why is all the adjustment on our side? |
| 0:22.3 | And he said, basically, it's your fault. |
| 0:24.5 | We have been subsidizing you left and right in all kinds of ways for 25 years. |
| 0:29.8 | You owe us. |
| 0:31.0 | We are not devaluing. |
| 0:32.6 | You're going to revalue. |
| 0:34.4 | And that first meeting was a total stalemate. |
| 0:45.3 | Thank you. to revalue. And that first meeting was a total stalemate. Today, in the story of money, |
| 0:49.2 | 2.30 on Friday the 13th. Ooh, ominous. On August 1971. |
| 0:55.9 | The presidential helicopter, Marine One, |
| 0:58.2 | is preparing to take off |
| 0:59.4 | from the South Lawn or the White House |
| 1:01.0 | in Washington, D.C. |
| 1:02.7 | On board is the President of the United States |
| 1:05.1 | Richard Milhouse Nixon, |
| 1:07.3 | along with a select group |
| 1:08.7 | of his most trusted, |
... |
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