redux: only two things scare me, and one is nuclear war. the other is macroeconomics.
If Goldfinger's plot to make all the gold in Fort Knox radioactive for fifty years had succeeded, would it really have mattered? Goldfinger made his ploy at world domination in late December 1964. Nixon took us off the Bretton Woods gold standard on August 15, 1971. That means that Goldfinger would have only had around 66 months to make his plan work. Most of us get our cars paid off quicker than that. So, let's just say it had really happened...
Ignore the historical fact that much of Fort Knox's gold had been moved to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York by 1964. Then assume the value of Goldfinger's reserves in Auric Enterprises would have initially increased had Bond not saved Fort Knox. There's a fundamental macroeconomic problem with what happens next. The Bretton Woods gold standard essentially allowed foreign governments to sell their gold to the U.S. Treasury at the fixed rate of $35 per ounce. Because the value of all the other gold in the world would have artificially increased had Goldfinger succeeded, the United States would have had trouble purchasing gold at the paltry $35 rate and suffered from initial recession and the severe inflation due to the almost worthless dollar. But here's where Goldfinger gets in trouble...
Because during the 1960s the United States was still a net exporter, the rest of the world would then begin to suffer from purchasing problems due to the low value of the U.S. Dollar but still high demand for U.S. goods. The U.S. would slowly catch up due to being able to unload lots of worthless dollars on the world economy. Auric Enterprises' own reserves would then begin to lose value due to the international economic slowdown, not to mention interest rates that would probably have hit historic lows. Because of low interest rates and the decreasing value of gold worldwide, the United States within just a few years would have been able to begin financing the purchase of gold again at $35/ounce. Almost certainly this would all happen within that 66 month time period. So, all Goldfinger would have done would have been to cause a slight economic hiccup for the West. Oh, and lets not forget how many "worthless" U.S. dollars would have been put in hock throughout the world to finance the Vietnam War, unloading even more of the junk on the world economy.
It's transparent flaws like this that absolutely ruin the Bond movies for me.
Ignore the historical fact that much of Fort Knox's gold had been moved to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York by 1964. Then assume the value of Goldfinger's reserves in Auric Enterprises would have initially increased had Bond not saved Fort Knox. There's a fundamental macroeconomic problem with what happens next. The Bretton Woods gold standard essentially allowed foreign governments to sell their gold to the U.S. Treasury at the fixed rate of $35 per ounce. Because the value of all the other gold in the world would have artificially increased had Goldfinger succeeded, the United States would have had trouble purchasing gold at the paltry $35 rate and suffered from initial recession and the severe inflation due to the almost worthless dollar. But here's where Goldfinger gets in trouble...
Because during the 1960s the United States was still a net exporter, the rest of the world would then begin to suffer from purchasing problems due to the low value of the U.S. Dollar but still high demand for U.S. goods. The U.S. would slowly catch up due to being able to unload lots of worthless dollars on the world economy. Auric Enterprises' own reserves would then begin to lose value due to the international economic slowdown, not to mention interest rates that would probably have hit historic lows. Because of low interest rates and the decreasing value of gold worldwide, the United States within just a few years would have been able to begin financing the purchase of gold again at $35/ounce. Almost certainly this would all happen within that 66 month time period. So, all Goldfinger would have done would have been to cause a slight economic hiccup for the West. Oh, and lets not forget how many "worthless" U.S. dollars would have been put in hock throughout the world to finance the Vietnam War, unloading even more of the junk on the world economy.
It's transparent flaws like this that absolutely ruin the Bond movies for me.
posted by mjw at 11/03/2006 03:48:00 PM
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