Podcast: HISTORY This Week

Title: Killing the Gold Standard

url:https://www.history.com/history-this-weekLinks to an external site.

Runtime: 27 minutes approx.

This is a podcast about the history of the gold standard, and the decision of the USA president Franklin Roosevelt to take the USA off of the gold standard in response to the Great Depression. This podcast will make it sound like the USA was the first to do so (it was not), but this decision was an important one in the history of the gold standard.

Assignment:

Listen to the podcast and answer these questions

- The decision to stop backing every dollar by an amount of gold was a large one. How do you feel about fiat currency? Does it give you confidence in its value, or would you prefer it to hold intrinsic value and have it be tied to another commodity? What might be some of the strengths and limitations of either (fiat versus intrinsic value)?