New at Monthly Review
- Monthly Review Volume 64, Number 1 (May 2012) The Editors
- The Endless Crisis John Bellamy Foster
- The poor are no longer with us; These bills are long unpaid Marge Piercy
- Marx’s Ecology and the Understanding of Land Cover Change Ricardo Dobrovolski
- Petroleum and Propaganda John W. Farley
- Who Killed Che? James D. Cockcroft
- A Red Robin? Albert Ruben
- Monthly Review Volume 63, Number 11 (April 2012) The Editors
New at MRzine
- Susie Day, Living in Two Cities: Tarif and Evelyn Warren" May 22, 2012
- Samir Amin, "Socialism in the 21st Century" May 19, 2012
- Edgar Nkosi White, "The Montserrat Drum" May 18, 2012
- Costas Panayotakis, "Democracy Imperiled: The Greek Political Crisis" May 17, 2012
- Gustin L. Reichbach, "A Judge's Plea for Medical Marijuana" May 17, 2012
- Thomas Sablowski, "Impoverishing Europe" May 16, 2012
- Victor Grossman, "Some Good News, and Lots of Bad News, from Germany" May 15, 2012
- Mosireen, "Egyptian Workers Speak Out" May 12, 2012
Climate & Capitalism
- The Royal Society’s tunnel vision on population and poverty May 23, 2012
- The petroleum-powered propaganda machine May 21, 2012
- We will not let this pipeline cross our land! May 20, 2012
- Get the Shell out! Indigenous activists expose dirty oil business May 17, 2012
- The UN’s ‘Green Economy’ plan is a destructive illusion May 16, 2012














The Bells are Tolling for the Dollar
The Empire has ruled the world through economy and deceit rather than force. At the end of WWII, it had attained the privilege of minting the convertible hard currency, the monopoly over the nuclear weapon and the possession of most of the gold in the world while it was the only large-scale producer of manufactured equipment, consumer goods, food and services worldwide. However, there was a limit to the printing of paper money: the gold standard at a regular price of 35 dollars a troy ounce. This was the situation for over 25 years, until August 15, 1971, when an executive order issued by President Richard Nixon led the United States to unilaterally call off that international arrangement thus defrauding the world. I’ll never tire out of repeating it. That was how it threw on the world economy its military buildup and war adventure expenses, especially the Vietnam War, which according to conservative estimates cost no less than 200 billion dollars and the lives of over 45 thousand American youths.… | more |