The government actually went off the gold standard in two stages. The first stage was where the average citizen could no longer take his treasury notes in and redeem them for gold. Foreign governments could still redeem the notes for gold but our government had a "gentlemens agreement" with most other major countries to "not" ask for gold redemption (because in reality they knew there were already more obligations than what they could back with their available gold). This was a time when many other countries had economies that were reeling after war and they were glad to get the infusion of dollars into their economies because their own currencies were so weak. They basically let the US export inflation to give their economies liquidity. We were a creditor nation with a current account surplus.

The gold window was closed for good to foreign governments by Nixon on advice from his treasury secretary because the obligations were becoming so great and so little gold comparably (the printing presses had been running overtime during Johnson's "Great Society" and Vietnam was costing more and more) that if one of the "gentlemen agreements" broke ranks and ask to actually have our notes redeemed in gold, there would be a run on the gold window. There was a very secret meeting held at night among Nixon's advisers and the next morning it was announced we would go off the gold standard. Foreign governments were not happy but not much they could do about it. We were the worlds most powerful nation and we defaulted. This was the second occasion when we devalued the dollar by about a third. Private gold was required to be sold to the government for the then rate of $20 per ounce and then once they had all they could get, they raised the price of gold.

We have no gold standard to go off of this time so we can't thumb our noses at foreign governments. We are a debtor nation with no savings to speak of. The outcome will be different this time.

John