Swarthout’s Reviews > Ages of American Capitalism: A History of the United States > Status Update

On behalf of a nationalist economic agenda, seeking a restoration of world U.S. manufacturing supremacy, Nixon had in fact brought forth a new day without precedent in world economic history: an international monetary system of fiat money—state-issued currencies backed only by the imprimatur of governments, whose relative values were determined by open market trading.

In May 1970, New York construction workers, members of a particularly racist and corrupt union, assaulted “hippie” antiwar protestors, culminating in a 100,000-large hard hat rally of Nixon supporters. An aide noted to the president “their admiration for your masculinity."

As Keynes would write, “When the capital development of a country becomes a by-product of the activities of a casino, the job is likely to be ill-done.”