MORONIUM STANDARD

n.a made-up term. Moronium standard is possibly a humorous reference to actions taken in 1933 by United States President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945). Roosevelt ordered all gold in the country to be turned over to the US Treasury Department and ended its use as a medium for national exchange, thus taking the country off the gold standard. A standard is something that backs up the value of money. For example, gold has often been used to back up the value of paper money in many countries. This "gold standard" meant that the paper currency was freely convertible into gold (i.e., it could be redeemed in gold).