"Before the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932, gold coins had circulated freely in the United States as legal money, and gold bullion was owned by banks and other private entities. *In early 1933, as part of the New Deal, the U.S. Congress enacted a package of laws which removed gold from circulation as money, and which made private ownership of gold in the U.S. (except for coins in collections or jewelry such as wedding rings) illegal.* All gold in circulation was seized by the government in exchange for dollars at the fixed rate of $20.67 per ounce. Owners of gold bullion in the U.S. were also required to trade it for other forms of money. All of this left the government of the United States with a large amount of gold metal, and no place to store it."
From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Bullion_Depository
Apparently it wasn't until Gerald Ford that this policy was reversed?
What was the New Deal economic logic behind making private ownership of gold illegal, and asking folks to hand it over to the govt. at a fixed exchange rate?
Thanks!
-B.