Stop Blaming Nixon. The Real Villain of 1971 Is the Baby Boomer Generation.
The 1971 economic split is often blamed on Nixon’s decision to end the gold standard. But a closer look reveals a demographic bombshell: the Baby Boomer generation entered the workforce en masse at the same moment, flooding the labor market and crushing wages. Monetary policy is a convenient scapegoat, but the real driver of inequality was a population shock that no policy could have prevented.