US Mint Gold Bars?

I have never seen an estimate, but someone somewhere probably has an educated guess. A lot was turned in, mostly out of fear or patriotism, but a lot was kept.

 

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All of this discussion is obviously why I didn't major in economics. As I remember the tax brackets got this high because this was the era when we thought paying off the WWII debt was a responsible thing to do.

That all changed in subsequent years with unpopular wars and when politicians discovered we could just finance it and kick the can down the road. We also had LBJ who thought the old "Guns vs Butter" was outdated and we could have both. Lady Bird and the "Great Society" may still kill us all. Thus the $10T debt we have today.

And still we are the best nation on earth in spite of all our faults.

 

Quickly approaching $20 Trillion, $10 trillion was early in the Bush administration.

 

Every nation is probably the best nation on earth at something. Problem is that some of the reason are not as desirable as others. We are certainly the best at running up debt.

 

for Sakata:

The Consumer Price Index is not a perfect measurement, but it's a good general measure of a household's cost of living; it is not particularly useful for forecasting.

The list below shows annual CPI, and change from the previous year from 1929 through the end of the war. By the
end of the Great Depression, generally regarded as 1939, the CPI was still only 0.3 higher than 1932, and the end of circulating gold in 1932. Gold was merely a commodity that had an artificial increase in price, and that had little to do with consumer prices, and imports, which were negligible.

You may also note that from the end of the war until 1982, the cost of living increased more than 5 times [100 / 18.0 = 5.6] but wages increased too. The people most harmed was the cohort born 1890s to 1910s, whose "life savings" of say, $2000, was practically useless in trying to survive.

Social Security bailed out many of our great-grandparents. Without World War II, consumer prices may have languished another decade.

Base Year (1982-1984 = 100)
1929 | 17.2 | 0.0%
1930 | 16.7 | -2.7%
1931 | 15.2 | -8.9%
1932 | 13.6 | -10.3%
1933 | 12.9 | -5.2%
1934 | 13.4 | 3.5%
1935 | 13.7 | 2.6%
1936 | 13.9 | 1.0%
1937 | 14.4 | 3.7%
1938 | 14.1 | -2.0%
1939 | 13.9 | -1.3%
1940 | 14.0 | 0.7%
1941 | 14.7 | 5.1%
1942 | 16.3 | 10.9%
1943 | 17.3 | 6.0%
1944 | 17.6 | 1.6%
1945 | 18.0 | 2.3%
End

Source: https://www.minneapolisfed.org/comm...consumer-price-index-and-inflation-rates-1913

Your conclusions about the impact of the confiscation on households may seem intuitive, but they're wrong.

 

I said nothing about the impact of confiscation on households. I merely said the because the dollar was devalued inflation became necessary: inflation of both prices and wages. Inflation, which is the creation of money out of nothing, is an essential part of Keynesian economics. It only makes sense that if there is more money around then things will cost more.

 

If we are getting into John Maynard Keynes I know I am out of the discussion. What happened to ASE 17-S?

 

The numbers clearly show that prices remained very stable through the end of the Depression, and the same amount of dollars bought more goods, not less...

The numbers of World War II are hard to analyze in a sensible way due to OPA price controls and rationing.

One interesting factoid is that in 1932, it cost 3c to mail a letter, and this 3c remained in effect the next 26 years, until 1958.

This is my final post on this subject; spin it any way you wish.

 

One thing that is being overlooked: The US did not have enough gold to honor the gold certificates should there have been a massive redemption.

 

And nothing has changed. I still cannot honor all its debts.

 

Actually, I may not recall correctly but I think MOST major economies abandoned the gold standard during the great depression both before and after the US did.

and with all this talk of gold standard. Wasn't the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, which created the Federal Reserve Note, only require Gold Reserve at 40% of notes in circulation? not 100% which people seem to think.

And the 1934 Gold Reserve Act only allowed the Prez to devalue the US Dollar by only up to 40%.

which ironically I think is the 40% of gold holdings vs current debt.

Then as noted earlier, the Bretton Woods agreement of 1944 (which was to peg the US Dollar [not gold] to fix it to help curb deflation. Also as a standard for settling debts, so countries would opt for the USD or gold to settle debts) allowed all countries to redeem their dollars for gold ... which many did. Which forced the US to stop that several decades later.

There's so much one could write about this stuff ...

 

I don't recall all the details off the top of my head but it seems that most, if not all, of what you write is correct.

As you say, there is so much that could be written about it. I've already read a lot of which has been written. That is why it is sometime so hard to remember details. G. Edward Griffin's book, all 600 pages of it, is the best summary I have read.

 

I was an Economics major, though a long time ago ... so all the details are in cowwebs.

Yes, please scan 600 pgs to this forum for all of us .. LOL