“In summation, the Bank of England effectively went off the gold standard in 1914 and only returned in 1925 on a gold bullion standard, which it abandoned in 1931. The U.S. abandoned the gold standard in 1917 but restored it in 1922 and abandoned it again in 1934. Britain and the U.S. adopted a gold-exchange standard in 1922 and abandoned it in 1971 to go on a fiat dollar standard.

Since 1914, both currencies have lost more than 95% of their value relative to gold. The fiat standard installation process has been a long one, but it has had these hallmarks: gold confiscation, price increases, price controls, central planning, inflationary credit expansion, booms and busts, and the aspiration to export inflation by trying to dump fractionally backed currency on foreign regimes.”

~ The Fiat Standard
by Saifedean Ammous