the graph is a little bit deceptive; Before Nixon, dollars were more-or-less tied to the value of gold; sometimes more, sometimes less, and yeah, you can poi

the graph is a little bit deceptive; Before Nixon, dollars were more-or-less tied to the value of gold; sometimes more, sometimes less, and yeah, you can point at the "greenback" and a few other times we left the reservation, but... more or less, before nixon, the dollar had something to do with gold. After Nixon, that went out the window. Now, some of you like the gold standard... me, I don't, but whatever you think about the gold standard, you can't really compare the interest rate on gold-backed currency to the interest rate on currency that isn't backed by gold. They are qualitatively different things. Go back and look at the graph from, say, 1968 to now, and, well, it shows that we know a lot less than we think we know, or at least we have a lot less history to draw lessons from than we think we do.