Aug. 15, 2024 (EIRNS)—Today is the 53rd anniversary of the fateful Aug. 15, 1971 televised policy speech by President Richard Nixon which announced the end of the fixed-rate international financial system, and the beginning of the era of runaway speculative destruction of the world economy. We take a step back from our daily updates on the strategic situation—which continues to devolve rapidly towards threatened thermonuclear war—to focus renewed attention on the cause of the global military, financial and cultural crises, which Lyndon LaRouche uniquely forecast over a half-century ago.