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- The Fourth Turning Is Here—And the Dollar Is Collapsing Right on Schedule
The Fourth Turning Is Here—And the Dollar Is Collapsing Right on Schedule
Every great crisis in U.S. history has come with a new currency. This one will be no different.
Chaos follows a cycle—and America has seen this one before.
Historians William Strauss and Neil Howe called it the Fourth Turning—the final, crisis-driven phase of an 80–100 year generational cycle.
With each full cycle ending in a total system reset of political, social, and monetary policies.
And here’s the part most people miss:
Every Fourth Turning in American history came with a currency collapse or transformation.
The Four Turnings Explained
The High – Post-crisis unity and institutional strength
The Awakening – Rising individualism, rejection of authority
The Unraveling – Institutions weaken, cynicism rises
The Crisis – Total systemic breakdown and rebirth
Every single cycle ends in a Fourth Turning—a crucible moment that reshapes everything.
And we’ve seen it many times before.
Three Turning Cycles. Three Currency Resets.
🇺🇸 1. The American Revolution (1770s–1790s)
The colonies fought the British with a collapsing currency: the Continental Dollar, which became worthless by war’s end.
By 1792, the U.S. passed the Coinage Act and launched a new, sovereign currency—the U.S. dollar, backed by gold and silver.
👉 The war for independence ended with monetary independence.
⚔️ 2. The Civil War (1860s)
Lincoln printed Greenbacks—unbacked fiat money—to finance the war.
Afterward, the U.S. restored the gold standard but with tighter federal control over banks and currency through the National Banking Acts.
👉 The Union was preserved, but so was centralized financial power.
🌍 3. The Great Depression & WWII (1930s–1940s)
FDR banned private gold ownership in 1933, then devalued the dollar.
By 1944, at Bretton Woods, the U.S. dollar became the global reserve currency, pegged to gold—while every other major currency pegged itself to the dollar.
👉 America emerged as the world’s financial anchor—but only by rewriting the rules.
Where Are We in the Current Cycle?
🕊 The First Turning (1946–1964) – Post-WWII High
America is confident, united, and booming. Institutions are trusted. The dollar is king.
🔥 The Second Turning (1964–1984) – The Awakening
Civil rights, Vietnam protests, and counterculture movements erupt. Trust in government declines. Inflation spirals.
And in 1971, Nixon killed the gold standard—a quiet default that untethers the dollar from reality.
🧨 The Third Turning (1984–2008) – The Unraveling
Cynicism replaces unity. Markets dominate. Deregulation, debt growth, and geopolitical overreach define the era.
🕳 The Fourth Turning (2008–2030s) – The Crisis
It began with 2008’s global financial meltdown. And since then:
The Fed has printed trillions
Inflation and inequality have exploded
Global powers are moving to de-dollarize
Public trust is collapsing
And as in all Fourth Turnings: the money is breaking.
It’s the Final Phase of the Cycle.
Every time America has gone through a Fourth Turning, the money changed.
Not by accident—but because systemic collapse demands monetary reset.
If you understand this cycle, you stop asking, “Will the dollar collapse?”
You start asking, “What will replace it—and how do I prepare?”
Until next time,
Death of the Dollar