text: In reply to message66054: On June 5, 1933, the United States went off the gold standard, a monetary system in which currency is backed by gold, when Congress enacted a joint resolution nullifying the right of creditors to demand payment in gold. The United States had been on a gold standard since 1879, except for an embargo on gold exports during World War I, but bank failures during the Great Depressionof the 1930s frightened the public into hoarding gold, making the policy untenable. This was of course the act of FDR who has been called a democrat socialist.