45年前，也就是1971年8月15日，美國總統理查德·尼克松宣布不再采用此前30多年一直主宰美元乃至全球貨幣價值的貨幣體系。對大多數美國人來說，這條被稱為“尼克松沖擊”的消息實際上并無沖擊力。越南戰爭消耗了美國的資源，國際貨幣市場投機盛行，美國在20世紀70年代出現了歷史上最高的赤字。

尼克松在新經濟政策講話中表示：“在過去七年中，平均每年都會出現一次國際貨幣危機。那么誰從這些危機中獲利了呢？不是勞工階層，不是投資者，不是真正的財富創造者。獲利的是那些國際貨幣投機者。他們大發危機財，因而在制造危機方面起了推波助瀾的作用。最近幾周，這些投機者正在全力攻擊美元。一國貨幣的實力取決于其經濟實力，而美國經濟目前仍是世界最強的。相應的，我已經命令財政部長采取必要措施來保護美元，抵御這些投機者。”

采取什么措施呢？“暫時停止將美元兌換為黃金。”

尼克松宣布此項決定時，《時代》周刊解釋了為何會采取這樣的行動：

“美國政府表示，將不再用聯邦黃金儲備兌換外國人持有的美元，從而切斷了美元和黃金的聯系。1944年，也就是現行貨幣體系在新罕布什爾州布雷頓森林鎮確立以來，美元一直是國際上唯一跟黃金掛鉤的貨幣。從技術上講，黃金是國家用于償還債務的資產。但實際上，按照從布雷頓森林會議發展而來的國際貨幣基金組織（IMF）的118個成員國制定的規則，美元其實是國家之間進行債務結算的匯兌媒介。這個體系得以運行是因為美國財政部承諾以35美元1盎司的價格將美元兌換為黃金。這項承諾讓IMF成員國相信，無論什么時候想把用于償債的美元兌換成黃金，這些成員國只需要向美國財政部開口。

過去10年中，美國在七個年頭里出現了國際收支逆差，這造成美國黃金儲備穩步下降。看到1971年上半年的國際收支情況時，尼克松知道需要采取重大措施。美國商務部在一周前公布，1971年上半年美國國際收支逆差達到創紀錄的116億美元。按照這樣的速度，年底這個數字將達到320億美元。外國人持有的美元是美國黃金兌換能力的三倍。同時，由于開始對美國掌控經濟的意愿和能力失去信心，他們的黃金需求越來越大。為防止聯邦黃金儲備遭到擠兌，尼克松宣布美國不再承擔美元換黃金的義務。

這就意味著美元不再等同于黃金。因此，外國人被迫不惜代價地在貨幣市場拋售美元。由于全球美元供給已經過剩，這些賣家的期望不會太高。這實際上已經令美元貶值。”

盡管尼克松特別說明這是“臨時”措施，實際上已經沒有回頭路可走。在隨后的幾十年里，美國和世界經濟一直在沒有黃金提供幫助的情況下起起伏伏。不過，甚至是在幾十年以后，黃金依然吸引著眾多所謂的“拜金者”。（財富中文網）

譯者：Charlie

審校：詹妮

It was 45 years ago, on Aug. 15, 1971, when President Richard Nixon announced that the decades-old monetary system that had controlled the U.S. dollar—and thus the world’s currency values—for more than three decades just wasn’t working anymore. To most Americans the news, known as the “Nixon shock,” wasn’t actually shocking. War in Vietnam had drained America’s resources, world currency speculation was rampant and 1970s saw the?biggest deficit?thus far in U.S. History.

“In the past seven years, there has been an average of one international monetary crisis every year,” Nixon said in his?speech?outlining his new economic policy. “Now who gains from these crises? Not the workingman; not the investor; not the real producers of wealth. The gainers are the international money speculators. Because they thrive on crises, they help to create them. In recent weeks, the speculators have been waging an all-out war on the American dollar. The strength of a nation’s currency is based on the strength of that nation’s economy—and the American economy is by far the strongest in the world. Accordingly, I have directed the Secretary of the Treasury to take the action necessary to defend the dollar against the speculators.”

That action? To “suspend temporarily the convertibility of the dollar into gold.”

When Nixon announced what was coming, TIME explained?why the move was on its way:

“Washington cut the dollar’s tie to gold by serving notice that it will no longer cash in foreign-held dollars for gold bullion held at Fort Knox. Ever since 1944, when the present monetary system was devised at Bretton Woods, N.H., the dollar has had a special and internationally unique relationship to gold. Technically, gold is the asset by which nations pay their debts to one another. But practically, under the rules of the 118-nation International Monetary Fund, which evolved from the Bretton Woods conference, dollars are actually the medium of exchange through which nations settle those debts. The system was made possible by a promise from the U.S. Treasury to redeem dollars for gold at $35 an ounce. Because of that promise, IMF member nations had been assured that whenever they wanted gold in exchange for the dollars that they held as payment of debts, all they had to do was ask the Treasury Department in Washington.

U.S. gold reserves have dwindled steadily as a result of the nation’s balance of payments deficits in seven out of the last ten years. When Nixon got a look at the figures for the first six months of this year, he knew that drastic action was necessary. Last week the Department of Commerce released those figures: the U.S. ran a record first-half deficit of $11.6 billion. At that rate, the deficit would be $23 billion by year’s end. Foreigners held three times as many dollars as the U.S. was capable of redeeming in gold, and they were demanding more and more gold because they were losing confidence in the U.S.’s will or ability to whip its economy into order. To prevent a run on Fort Knox, the President thus declared that the nation would no longer exchange dollars for gold.

That meant that the dollar was no longer as good as gold. Thus foreigners had to sell their dollars in money markets for whatever they could get. Since a surfeit of dollars was sloshing around the world already, they could not expect to get much. In effect the dollar had been devalued.”

There was, essentially, no going back, despite Nixon’s “temporarily” caveat. In the decades that followed, the U.S. and world economies would rise and fall and rise and fall, without the help of gold. Even decades later, however, the?lure of gold?still calls to many so-called goldbugs.