The dollar was backed by gold until America’s president of the day, Franklin Roosevelt, stepped in with a currency-devaluation scheme that effectively turned the hard dollar into a fiat dollar … which is why Homestake Mining raced sharply higher between 1932 and 1934.
One dollar invested in the Dow just before the Great Depression ravaged the economy fell to less than $0.50 by 1935. That same dollar invested in Homestake Mining, a good proxy for gold, soared to more than $5.50.
