Dollars, Devaluations, And Dildos

One of the interesting things about having a blog is checking the visitor log. If a blog has been around for a few years and has an active comment section, it gets lots of hits from people doing Google searches for all sorts of things. That's particularly true if the porn and erectile dysfunction spammers have plastered posts that are several years old, which is definitely the case here. Since the visitor log shows where those Google searches originate, it gives an interesting global snapshot. For example, I've found that a disproportionate number of searches for variations of "sex toys" and assorted graphic nastiness comes from the more culturally repressive parts of the Middle East.

I checked the visitor log yesterday and saw this entry:

fed.frb.gov (Federal Reserve Board)
District Of Columbia, Washington, United States
19th November 2008
www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLG,GGLG:2005-43,GGLG:en&q=%22John Connolly Going off Gold 1971%22
cunningrealist.blogspot.com/2008/10/rumblings.html

In other words, someone at the Federal Reserve did a Google search for this exact phrase: "John Connolly Going off Gold 1971." That search led to this post of mine, because that post included a relevant reader comment.

Interestingly, in the few minutes just before the Fed employee searched for that phrase, the price of gold surged.

If you don't know the background on that search, here's the Wiki entry:

In 1971, Republican President Nixon appointed the then Democrat Connally as Treasury Secretary. Connally that year famously told a delegation of Europeans worried about exchange rate fluctuations that the dollar is "our currency, but your problem." Secretary Connally defended a $50 billon increase in the debt ceiling and a $35 to $40 billion budget deficit as an essential "fiscal stimulus" at a time when five million Americans were unemployed. He unveiled Nixon's program of raising the price of gold and formally devaluing the dollar—finally leaving the old gold standard.

Graphic thoughts at the Fed these days, apparently.