It's been exactly 54 years today... On August 15, 1971, President Nixon appeared on television and declared, "The dollar will no longer be convertible into gold." At that moment, the world economy's settings literally shifted. Every dollar used to be backed by a small amount of gold; now, all that remained was trust (!). This event is known as the "Nixon Shock." With the ties to gold severed, the currency's value became a matter of faith. It sounds complicated, but we can actually think of it this way: The dollar was married to gold, and Nixon filed for divorce.