We really should start by looking back at the Democrat President, the "beloved", Franklin D. Roosevelt. Just a few days after he was inaugurated on March 4, 1933, he shut down all the banks (called it a bank holiday). Of course this was helpful in ending the bank runs with the formation of what became known as the FDIC. Then, 5 days into office FDRforced through Congressthe Emergency Banking Act (bill H.R. 1491), with severely limited debate and no roll call taken before vote. It was (forcibly) passed within a single day. This "Emergency Banking Act" gave the POTUS authority to shut down banks (retroactively) and a new authority to "regulate" all banks during "time of war" or a "declared national emergency". It also gave gov't authorization to make illegal the private ownership of gold, and to forcibly confiscate privately held gold. Nice huh? Talk about taking away freedoms and liberties!
A little less than a month later, FDR enacted Executive Order 6102 (The Gold Confiscation Act of 1933), "forbidding the Hoarding of Gold Coin, Gold Bullion, and Gold Certificates". In this act he; declared a national emergency, made ownership of any gold worth more than $100 illegal, forced U.S. citizens to hand over any gold owned by them to the Treasury, in exchange for $20.67 per troy ounce (Gold Reserve Act), and made it so anyone found in violation of the order could be punished by a fine up to $10,000 ($167,700 if adjusted for inflation as of 2010) or up to ten years in prison, or both.
Now that gold was confiscated from the people and made illegal to own, those gov't crooks raised the value of gold to $35 an ounce from $20.67, overnight. This effectively lowered the value of the dollar and increased the international price of gold (that Americans could no longer legally own) by almost 70%, essentially stealing money from American citizens during a depression. [Who said dems are all about helping the people? lol!]
Nixon inherited a costly Vietnam War from Eisenhower when he took office in 1969. This and domestic spending were fueling inflation and foreign markets capitalizing on the value of the dollar against other markets, caused the gold coverage of the dollar to shrink and peopel to lose faith in the ability of the US gov't to pay it's fuckin bills.
What to do? Print more money of course! This further devalued the dollar (duh). So some other countries holding USD called on the US's promise to pay their notes, and demanded gold for their paper. The US gold reserves were taking huge hits, so NIXON (and his advisors), overnight, ended the convertibility of USD to gold (following suit of Germany and Switzerland with their currencies), thereby rescuing America from other foreign fucks trying to gouge our gold. It was the best thing to do at the time, or America would have been broke and fucked.
Keep in mind the people still couldn't legally own gold...until 1974 when Gerald Ford (not a democrat) signed a bill repealing the limited ownership of gold and legalizing the private ownership of gold again.
God, I feel like Will Ferrell on Old School after he answered that debate question against James Carville. LOL! Sorry this got so long. I'm done.