Stacking News/Blog

Gold & silver face another potentially WILD week! 🥇🥈 FOMC Minutes, Treasury auctions, US housing and manufacturing data, China’s economy, and Iran/Hormuz risks could all move precious metals. With three Fed officials pushing for a rate hike at the last meeting, Wednesday could be especially volatile. Here are the biggest gold & silver watchouts for August 17–23, 2026.

Chapter V: The Fiat Era and the Great Bull Market 38. The Nixon Shock of 1971 Ended Dollar Convertibility into Gold On August 15, 1971, President Richard Nixon suspended the conversion of foreign official dollar holdings into gold. The decision effectively closed the gold window and ended the central mechanism of Bretton Woods. Gold’s annual average price was approximately $40.80 in 1971. It averaged around $58 in 1972, exceeded $97 in 1973, and averaged roughly $159 in 1974.

How Wars, Monetary Regimes, Mining Booms, Financial Crises, and Government Policy Reshaped the Precious Metals Market Gold and silver do not trade in a historical vacuum. Their prices reflect changing perceptions of money, credit, political stability, inflation, industrial demand, mining supply, and confidence in governments. A bullion chart is therefore more than a record of daily market activity. It is a condensed history of monetary systems. That history is not always simp