document_title: Daft Punk

question_text: when was the last time daft punk went on tour

text: Daft Punk

text: History[edit]

text: 1987–1992: Early career[edit]

text: Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter met in 1987 while attending the Lycée Carnot, a secondary school in Paris.[8][11] The two became friends and later recorded demo tracks with others from the school. This eventually led to the formation of a guitar-based group called Darlin' with Laurent Brancowitz in 1992. Bangalter and Homem-Christo played bass and guitar, respectively, while Brancowitz was brought on board after the two sought an additional guitarist.[12][13] The trio had branded themselves after The Beach Boys song of the same name, which they covered along with an original composition. Stereolab released both tracks on a multi-artist Duophonic Records EP and invited the band to open for stage shows in the United Kingdom.[14] Bangalter felt that "The rock n' roll thing we did was pretty average, I think. It was so brief, maybe six months, four songs and two gigs and that was it."[15] A negative review in Melody Maker by Dave Jennings[16] subsequently dubbed the music "a daft punky thrash."[17] Instead of dismissing the review, they found it amusing.[11] As Homem-Christo stated, "We struggled so long to find [the name] Darlin', and this happened so quickly."[18] Darlin' soon disbanded, leaving Brancowitz to pursue other efforts with Phoenix. Bangalter and Homem-Christo formed Daft Punk and experimented with drum machines and synthesisers.

text: 1993–1999: Homework[edit]

text: In September 1993, Daft Punk attended a rave at EuroDisney, where they met Stuart Macmillan of Slam, co-founder of the label Soma Quality Recordings.[11] The demo tape given to Macmillan at the rave formed the basis for Daft Punk's debut single, "The New Wave", a limited release in 1994.[15] The single also contained the final mix of "The New Wave" called "Alive", which was to be featured on Daft Punk's first album.

text: Daft Punk returned to the studio in May 1995 to record "Da Funk". It became the duo's first commercially successful single the same year. After the success of "Da Funk", Daft Punk looked to find a manager. The duo eventually settled on Pedro Winter, who regularly promoted them and other artists at his Hype night clubs.[13] The band signed with Virgin Records in September 1996 and made a deal through which the duo licensed its tracks to the major label through its production company, Daft Trax.[8][13] Bangalter stated that while the duo received numerous offers from record labels, they wanted to wait and ensure that Daft Punk did not lose creative control. He ultimately considered the deal with Virgin to be more akin to a partnership.[19]

text: In the mid-to-late nineties, Daft Punk performed live without costumes in many places including the United States. In 1996, the duo were featured at an Even Furthur event in Wisconsin, their first public performance in the U.S.[20] In addition to live original performances, they performed in various clubs using vinyl records from their collection. They were known for incorporating various styles of music into their DJ sets at that time.[21]

text: "Da Funk" and "Alive" were later included on Daft Punk's 1997 debut album Homework. In February of that year, the UK dance magazine Muzik published a Daft Punk cover feature and described Homework as "one of the most hyped debut albums in a long long time."[22] According to The Village Voice, the album revived house music and departed from the Eurodance formula.[23] As noted by critic Alex Rayner, Homework brought together established club styles and the "burgeoning eclecticism" of big beat.[24] In 1997 Daft Punk also launched their Daftendirektour to promote Homework in several cities throughout the world. For this tour the duo opted to utilize their home studio equipment for the live stage.[15] As Bangalter stated, "Everything was synched up—the drum machines, the bass lines. The sequencer was just sending out the tempos and controlling the beats and bars. On top of this structure we built all these layers of samples and various parts that we could bring in whenever we wanted to."[14] 25 May 1997 saw them perform at the Tribal Gathering festival at Luton Hoo, England, headlining with Orbital and Kraftwerk.[25]

text: The most successful single from Homework was "Around the World", which is known for the repeating chant of the song's title. "Da Funk" was also included on The Saint film soundtrack. Daft Punk produced a series of music videos for Homework directed by Spike Jonze, Michel Gondry, Roman Coppola and Seb Janiak. The collection of videos was released in 1999 and titled D.A.F.T.: A Story About Dogs, Androids, Firemen and Tomatoes.

text: 1999–2003: Discovery[edit]

text: By 1999, the duo was well into the recording sessions for its second album, which had begun a year earlier.[26][27] The 2001 release of Discovery took on a slicker and distinctly synthpop-oriented style, initially stunning fans of Daft Punk's previous material in Homework. The group states that the album was conceived as an attempt to reconnect with a playful, open-minded attitude associated with the discovery phase of childhood.[14] This accounts for the heavy use of themes and samples from the late '70s to early '80s era on the album. The album reached No. 2 in the United Kingdom, and its single, "One More Time", was a major club and mainstream hit that nearly topped the UK Singles Chart. The song is well known for being heavily autotuned and compressed.[14] The song and album created a new generation of fans mainly familiar with the second Daft Punk release. The singles "Digital Love" and "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" were also very successful in the UK and on the United States dance chart. "Digital Love" was subsequently covered by the bands Kodaline and Hellogoodbye. The song "Face to Face" hit No. 1 on the USA club play charts. A 45-minute excerpt from a Daftendirektour performance recorded at Birmingham, UK in 1997 was also released in 2001, titled Alive 1997.[28]

text: The year 2003 saw the release of the feature-length animated film, Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem. Daft Punk produced the film under the supervision of Leiji Matsumoto, who is their childhood hero.[29] The album Daft Club was also released to promote the film. It features a collection of remixes previously made available through an online membership service of the same name.

text: 2004–2007: Human After All[edit]

text: Starting on 13 September and ending on 9 November 2004, Daft Punk devoted six weeks to the creation of new material.[30] The duo later released the resulting album Human After All in March 2005. Reviews were mixed, mostly citing its overly repetitive nature and seemingly hasty recording. The singles taken from this album were "Robot Rock", "Technologic", "Human After All", and "The Prime Time of Your Life". The earliest official statement from Daft Punk concerning the album was "we believe that Human After All speaks for itself." A Daft Punk anthology CD/DVD titled Musique Vol. 1 1993–2005 was released on 4 April 2006. It contains music videos for "Robot Rock (Maximum Overdrive)" and "The Prime Time of Your Life" directed by Daft Punk and Tony Gardner, respectively. Daft Punk also released a remix album of Human After All called Human After All: Remixes. A limited edition included two kubricks of Daft Punk as robots.

text: On 21 May 2006, Daft Punk premiered its first directed film, Daft Punk's Electroma, at the Cannes Film Festival sidebar Director's Fortnight.[31] The film does not include Daft Punk's own music, which is a first for the duo considering its previous DVD and film releases (D.A.F.T. for Homework and Interstella 5555 for Discovery). Midnight screenings of the film were shown in Paris theaters starting from the end of March 2007.[32] Initial public comments have since been positive.[33]

text: The Alive 2006/2007 tour began with a sole United States performance at the Coachella Festival in Indio, California in April 2006.[34] Several festival appearances in Europe followed throughout the summer. Two consecutive performances also took place at the Summer Sonic Festival in Japan, held in Osaka and Chiba City respectively. Daft Punk's final performance of the year occurred in the autumn, when they visited South America and played their second U.S. performance at the Bang! Music Festival in Miami, Florida.

text: In June 2007, the duo resumed touring, beginning with an appearance at the RockNess music festival in the United Kingdom. After further shows and festival performances in Europe, the act returned to North America for a full-fledged eight date tour. This reached many markets for the first time on the trek and included a headline festival slot at Lollapalooza in Chicago. A second leg of shows in October followed, consisting of an appearance at the Vegoose music festival in Las Vegas, Nevada and three shows in Mexico. Daft Punk also mixed and composed much of the music for the Louis Vuitton Spring/Summer 2008 Womenswear Full Show on 7 October 2007.[35] In December 2007, the duo returned to Japan to play a trio of dates. This was followed by a series of special shows in Australia, dubbed "Never Ever Land". The dates featured regular tour stalwarts SebastiAn and Kavinsky and were ultimately the fastest selling Daft Punk-related events to date.[36] The tour eventually culminated in Sydney at the Showground Main Arena.

text: Daft Punk released its second live album titled Alive 2007 on 19 November 2007. It contains the duo's performance in Paris from the Alive 2007 tour.[37] The live version of "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" from Alive 2007 was released as a single.[38] Olivier Gondry directed a music video for the single that features footage shot by 250 audience members at Daft Punk's Brooklyn appearance at KeySpan Park, Coney Island.[39]

text: 2008–2011: Tron: Legacy[edit]

text: Following the Alive 2007 tour, the duo focused on other projects. Daft Punk made a surprise appearance at the 50th Grammy Awards on 10 February 2008. The duo appeared with Kanye West to perform a reworked version of "Stronger" on stage at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.[40] For the appearance, Daft Punk utilized four JazzMutant Lemur controllers.[41] A press release specified that this was the first televised live performance by the duo in their career.[40] Bangalter's wife Élodie Bouchez also attended the event.[42] Daft Punk later stated in an EMI-sponsored live webchat that there would be no tour performances for 2008, and that they would instead focus on new projects.[43]

text: A 2008 interview with Pedro Winter revealed that Daft Punk returned to its Paris studio to work on new material. Winter also stepped down from managing the duo to focus attention on his Ed Banger Records label and his work as Busy P.[44] He stated in a later interview that Daft Punk is working with an unspecified management company in Los Angeles.The duo held its Daft Arts production office at the Jim Henson Studios complex in Hollywood.[45] In 2008, Daft Punk placed 38th in a worldwide official poll of DJ Mag after debuting at position 71 in the year before.[46] On 8 February 2009, Daft Punk won Grammy Awards for Alive 2007 and its single "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger".

text: Later in February 2009, a website stated that a "hidden" tour had been set for 2009. An event for 13 February 2009 in Shanghai, China was mentioned in the website. It was later revealed to be a hoax unaffiliated with Daft Punk and a scam to sell tickets for a nonexistent event.[47][48] Representatives of the band announced that Daft Punk had no tour plans for 2009, but stated that the duo was looking forward to performing in China during their next world tour "in 2010 or 2011".[49] The announcement also stated that all of Daft Punk's shows are and would be posted on their official MySpace page, and that the page can therefore be used to verify validity.[49]

text: Daft Punk provided eleven new mixes featuring its music for the video game DJ Hero. The duo also appears in the game as a pair of playable characters, along with a unique venue. The duo appears wearing its Discovery-era helmets and Human After All-era leather attire. Daft Punk's playable likenesses are absent from the sequel DJ Hero 2, which includes a remixed version of the song "Human After All".

text: At the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con, it was announced that the duo composed 24 tracks for the film Tron: Legacy.[50] Daft Punk's score was arranged and orchestrated by Joseph Trapanese.[51] The band collaborated with him for two years on the score, from pre-production to completion. The score features an 85-piece orchestra, recorded at AIR Lyndhurst Studios in London.[52] Joseph Kosinski, director of the film, referred to the score as being a mixture of orchestral and electronic elements.[53] The members of Daft Punk also make a cameo appearance as disc jockey programs wearing their trademark robot helmets within the film's virtual world.[54] The soundtrack album of the film was released on 6 December 2010.[55] A deluxe 2-disc edition of the album was also released that includes a poster of the duo from the film. Additional bonus tracks are also available through various online vendors. An official music video for "Derezzed", with a running time of less than two minutes, also premiered on the MTV Networks on the same day the album was released.[56] The video, which features Olivia Wilde as the character Quorra in specially-shot footage, along with images of Daft Punk in Flynn's Arcade, was later made available for purchase from the iTunes Store and included in the DVD and Blu-ray releases of the film. Walt Disney Records released a remix album of the score titled Tron: Legacy Reconfigured on 5 April 2011.[57]

text: In 2010, Daft Punk were admitted into the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, an order of merit of France. Bangalter and Homem-Christo were individually awarded the rank of Chevalier (knight).[58] On October of that year, Daft Punk made a surprise guest appearance during the encore of Phoenix's show at Madison Square Garden in New York City. They played a medley of "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" and "Around the World" before the song segued into Phoenix's song "1901". The duo also included elements of their tracks "Rock'n Roll", "Human After All", as well as one of Bangalter's side projects, "Together".[59]

text: 2011–2015: Random Access Memories[edit]

text: Soma Records released a previously unpublished Daft Punk track called "Drive" that was made while the duo was still with Soma Records and recording "Rollin' and Scratchin'" and "Da Funk". The track was included in a twentieth anniversary multi-artist compilation of the Soma label.[60] In October 2011, Daft Punk placed 28th in a "top-100 DJs of 2011" list by DJ Magazine after appearing at position 44 in the year before.[61] On 19 January 2012, Daft Punk ranked No. 2 on Mixmag's Greatest Dance Acts of All Time, with The Prodigy at No. 1 by just a few points.[62]

text: Daft Punk worked on their fourth studio album, Random Access Memories in collaboration with musicians Paul Williams and Chic frontman Nile Rodgers.[63][64][65][66] In May 2012 it was also announced that Italian musician Giorgio Moroder had collaborated with the duo, recording a monologue about his life in a vocal booth containing microphones ranging from 1960 to present day.[67] Chilly Gonzales stated in an interview that he had performed material for the duo's project in a one-day session: "I played for hours and they’re gonna grab what they grab and turn it into whatever." He also said that the album would be released "next spring".[68] In October 2012, Daft Punk provided a fifteen-minute mix of songs by blues musician Junior Kimbrough for Hedi Slimane's Yves Saint Laurent fashion show.[69] The duo also placed 44th in DJ Magazine's annual Top 100 DJs list.[70]

text: In January 2013, Homem-Christo revealed that Daft Punk was in the process of signing with Sony Music Entertainment through the Columbia Records label, and that the album would have a spring release.[71] A gradual promotional rollout was later launched featuring billboards and television spots,[72] leading to the reveal of the album title and the release date of 21 May 2013.[73] On 3 April, the official Random Access Memories website launched The Collaborators, a series of documentary videos about the album.[74] Later that month, a video preview for the song "Get Lucky" featuring Rodgers and Pharrell Williams was played at the 2013 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.[75] The radio edit of the song was released as a digital download single one week later on 19 April 2013.[76][77] "Get Lucky" became Daft Punk's first UK No. 1 single on 28 April 2013 remaining at number one for 4 weeks[78] (as of 24 May) and the Spotify music streaming website reported that the song is the most-streamed new song in the service's history.[79] At the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards, Daft Punk debuted a trailer for their single "Lose Yourself to Dance," and presented the award for "Best Female Video" alongside Rodgers and Pharrell.[80]

text: For the 56th Annual Grammy Awards, Random Access Memories was awarded the Grammy for Best Dance/Electronica Album, Album of the Year and Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical, while "Get Lucky" received the Grammy for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance and the Record of the Year. Daft Punk performed at the ceremony with Stevie Wonder, Rodgers, Pharrell Williams as well as Random Access Memories rhythm section players Nathan East, Omar Hakim, Paul Jackson, Jr. and Chris Caswell. The ensemble performed "Get Lucky" before moving into a medley consisting of Chic's "Le Freak" and Stevie Wonder's "Another Star" as well as elements of Daft Punk's "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger", "Lose Yourself to Dance", and "Around the World".[81] The stage backdrop used for the performance was designed by Daft Arts to resemble a recording studio, incorporating a functioning mixing console operated by Daft Punk.[82] Pharrell later released his second studio album G I R L, in which Daft Punk performed additional vocals for the song "Gust of Wind".[83] On 10 March 2014, an unreleased Daft Punk song called "Computerized" surfaced on the Internet. The song features Jay Z and appears to contain elements of "The Son of Flynn" from the Tron: Legacy soundtrack.[84]

text: In April 2015, Daft Punk appeared in a short tribute to Rodgers as part of a documentary on his life titled "Nile Rodgers: From Disco to Daft Punk". In the short clip, the two send a "transmission" to Rodgers with the message, "Dear Nile, We are sending you this transmission to thank you for all your amazing songs. Your music continues to inspire the world... With love, Daft Punk".[85] Later in 2015, a documentary on Daft Punk titled Daft Punk Unchained was released. The film covers Daft Punk's music career from the 1990s up to and including their 2014 Grammy appearance. The documentary features interviews with Rodgers, Kanye West, Pharrell Williams, and others who have interacted with the duo in their projects.

text: 2016–present: Recent projects[edit]

text: On 22 September 2016, Canadian R&B singer The Weeknd released a track, "Starboy", featuring Daft Punk. The song later hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Daft Punk's first No. 1 song in the U.S. On 17 November, The Weeknd released "I Feel It Coming" which also features Daft Punk. The songs appeared on The Weeknd's album Starboy.

text: Throughout the end of 2016, many rumors began to surface of a Daft Punk Alive 2017 tour. In September 2016, the rumors led to Pitchfork reporting that Daft Punk had no plans for a future tour.[86] A website that first appeared on 27 October 2016 featured a blank page with text reading Alive in plain text. Within the website coding were geo-coordinates based in Paris, Los Angeles, London, New York, Tokyo, São Paulo, Ibiza and Indio, the last being the location of Coachella.[87] The website has since been taken down.

text: In February 2017, Daft Punk launched a pop-up shop in Hollywood, California featuring memorabilia, artwork, and a display of the various costumes the duo has worn over the years.[88] The duo also performed with The Weeknd at the 59th Annual Grammy Awards on 12 February 2017.[89] On 21 June 2017, the Australian band Parcels released the song "Overnight", produced and co-written by Daft Punk.[90]

text: Influences[edit]

text: Bangalter and Homem-Christo have credited many sources that influenced their musical style. Bangalter recalled that the records motivated him to learn English as a second language, since he wanted to understand the lyrics.[91] The duo's mutual admiration for rock bands led to the founding of their own indie group called Darlin'. Bangalter explained: "It was still maybe more a teenage thing at that time. It's like, you know, everybody wants to be in a band."[15] They also drew inspiration from the rock and acid house in the United Kingdom during the early 1990s. Homem-Christo referred to Screamadelica by Primal Scream as the record that "put everything together" in terms of genre".[9]

text: The liner notes of Homework pay tribute to a large number of musical artists and contain a quote from Brian Wilson. Bangalter stated: "In Brian Wilson's music you could really feel the beauty—it was very spiritual. Like Bob Marley, too."[15] When questioned on the success of Daft Punk's debut album and the rising popularity of their associated musical genre, Bangalter responded, "before us you had Frankie Knuckles or Juan Atkins and so on. The least you can do is pay respect to those who are not known and who have influenced people."[15] The Daft Punk track "Teachers", from Homework, refers to several influences, such as Romanthony and Todd Edwards. Homem-Christo stated: "Their music had a big effect on us. The sound of their productions—the compression, the sound of the kick drum and Romanthony's voice, the emotion and soul—is part of how we sound today."[14] A 2011 Bodytonic podcast featured tracks from all of the artists named in "Teachers", the Brian Wilson speech quoted in the liner notes of Homework, and a Kraftwerk-like 1983 track produced by Daniel Vangarde, father of Bangalter.[92]

text: Romanthony and Edwards later collaborated with Daft Punk on tracks for Discovery. For the album, Daft Punk focused on new styles of electronic music. A major inspiration was the Aphex Twin single "Windowlicker", which was "neither a purely club track nor a very chilled-out, down-tempo relaxation track", according to Bangalter.[27] The duo also utilized vintage equipment to recreate the sound of an artist from a previous era. As stated by Homem-Christo, "On 'Digital Love' you get this Supertramp vibe on the bridge," which was generated through an in-studio Wurlitzer piano.[93] During a later interview, Homem-Christo clarified that "we didn't make a list of artists we like and copy their songs."[citation needed] Daft Punk would collaborate with Edwards again on the song "Fragments of Time", featured on the 2013 album Random Access Memories.

text: During a 2009 interview, Bangalter named Andy Warhol as one of Daft Punk's early artistic influences.[94] For the Tron: Legacy soundtrack, the duo drew inspiration from Wendy Carlos, the composer of the original Tron film, as well as Max Steiner, Bernard Herrmann, John Carpenter, Vangelis, Philip Glass and Maurice Jarre.[95][96] Daft Punk later sought a "west coast vibe" during the production of Random Access Memories, referencing such bands as Fleetwood Mac, The Doobie Brothers and the Eagles.[97] They also highlighted the influence of Jean Michel Jarre in an interview following the album's release.[98] In January 2017, London-based music publication FACTmag featured a 1000 track playlist of Daft Punk's influences to mark the 20th anniversary of the release of Homework.[99]

text: Visual components and image[edit]

text: Daft Punk are well known for their use of visual components associated with their musical productions. The music videos for their singles from Homework featured distinctive characters and placed emphasis on storytelling instead of musical performance.[100] The album Discovery subsequently became the soundtrack to Interstella 5555.

text: Their outward personas have also changed over time. In one of the duo's earliest magazine appearances, Homem-Christo stated in a Jockey Slut interview that, "We don't want to be photographed. [...] We don't especially want to be in magazines. We have a responsibility." Although they allowed a camera crew to film them for a French television arts program at the time, Daft Punk did not wish to speak on screen "because it is dangerous."[101] During their Homework years, the duo would usually wear a variety of masks to hide their appearance.[15] Bangalter noted that “the foundation for a lot of what we’re about artistically" is the 1974 film Phantom of the Paradise, in which the title character prominently wears a mask.[102] Daft Punk were also fans of the 1970s band Space, known for wearing space suits with helmets that hid the performers' appearance.[103] In 1998, the Bangalter side project Stardust experimented with the band wearing reflective costumes in their music video.[104] When not wearing disguises, Daft Punk occasionally preferred to be replaced by animation (as they appeared in The Work of Director Michel Gondry DVD) or have their faces digitally obscured for press kits. Few official photos of the duo's faces exist, including a blurry one found in the Homework liner notes.

text: In their more visible Discovery years, Daft Punk appeared wearing robotic headgear and metallic gloves for publicity photo shoots, interviews, live shows and music videos. The helmets were produced by Paul Hahn of Daft Arts and the French directors Alex and Martin, the duo who also designed them.[105] With engineering by Tony Gardner and Alterian, Inc., they are capable of various LED effects.[106] Wigs were originally attached to both helmets, but the duo removed them just before the outfits were publicly unveiled in 2001.[107] Daft Punk introduced the costumes to many U.S. television viewers in an advertisement during a special presentation of the music videos from the Discovery album during Cartoon Network's Toonami block.[108] Bangalter once stated, "We did not choose to become robots. There was an accident in our studio. We were working on our sampler, and at exactly 9:09 am on September 9, 1999, it exploded. When we regained consciousness, we discovered that we had become robots."[14]

text: Daft Punk have said that they donned their robot outfits to easily merge the characteristics of humans and machines.[109] Bangalter later stated that the costumes were initially the result of shyness. "But then it became exciting from the audience's point of view. It's the idea of being an average guy with some kind of superpower."[9] When asked whether the duo expressed themselves differently within the robotic suits, Bangalter stated "No, we don't need to. It's not about having inhibitions. It's more like an advanced version of glam, where it's definitely not you."[9] With the release of Human After All, the musical duo's outfits became slightly less complicated by consisting of black leather jacket and pants and simplified versions of the Discovery headgear. The attire was designed by Hedi Slimane.[9] Bangalter stated that, "We never like to do the same thing twice. It's more fun and entertaining for us to do something different, whether it's wearing masks or developing a persona that merges fiction and reality. We're happy to give back to the masses".[14]

text: According to Bangalter, the duo has a "general rule about not appearing in videos." Although Daft Punk rarely grants interviews, Bangalter is cited as being the more talkative and opinionated one of the duo. With regard to fame and stardom, he said:

text:
“

We don't believe in the star system. We want the focus to be on the music. If we have to create an image, it must be an artificial image. That combination hides our physicality and also shows our view of the star system. It is not a compromise.[100]
We're trying to separate the private side and the public side. It's just that we're a little bit embarrassed by the whole thing. We don't want to play this star system thing. We don't want to get recognised in the streets. Yes. Everyone has accepted us using masks in photos so far, which makes us happy. Maybe sometimes people are a little bit disappointed but that's the only way we want to do it. We think the music is the most personal thing we can give. The rest is just about people taking themselves seriously, which is all very boring sometimes.[15]

”

text: In the same interview, he was also asked a question if stardom can be avoided.

text:
“

Yes. I think people understand what we are doing. I know many people who maybe like the way we are handling things. People understand that you don't need to be on the covers of magazines with your face to make good music. Painters or other artists, you don't know them but you know what they are doing. We are very happy that the concept in itself is becoming famous. In France, you speak of Daft Punk and I'm sure millions of people have heard it, but less than a few thousand people know our face—which is the thing we're into. We control it, but it's not us physically, our persons. We don't want to run into people who are the same age as us, shaking our hand and saying, 'Can I have your autograph?' because we think we're exactly like them. Even girls, they can fall in love with your music, but not with you. You don't always have to compromise yourself to be successful. The playing with masks is just to make it funnier. Pictures can be boring. We don't want all the rock n' roll poses and attitudes—they are completely stupid and ridiculous today.[15]

”

text: During the filming and promotion of Daft Punk's Electroma, the duo went to great lengths to avoid showing their faces. While on the set of the film, the duo chose to be interviewed with their backs turned. As reported in October 2006, the band went as far as to wear black cloths over their heads during a televised interview.[110] During this interview they noted that the use of cloth bags in particular had been a spontaneous decision, reflecting their willingness to experiment with their perceived image in the media.[111]

text: It is believed that the mystery of their identity and the elaborate nature of their disguises have added to their popularity.[9] The iconic status of the robotic costumes has been compared to the makeup of KISS and the leather jacket worn by Iggy Pop.[112] Bangalter has noted, "The mask gets very hot, but after wearing it as long as I have, I am used to it."[112] He later stated that the helmets in their current iteration are fitted with ventilators to prevent overheating.[91]

text: Daft Punk continued to wear the robot costumes in their live performances at the 2008, 2014 and 2017 Grammy Awards, with variations in clothing. During the 2014 ceremony, they also accepted their awards on stage in the outfits, with Pharrell and Paul Williams speaking on the duo's behalf. At the time, the decision to stay in costume drew criticism from viewers on Twitter, including future White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer.[113][114][89] In both their appearance at the 2017 Grammy Awards [115] and in the Weeknd's "I Feel It Coming" music video,[116] the duo wore long black capes and chrome-plated gloves along with their customary helmets.

text: Appearances in media[edit]

text: Daft Punk's popularity has been partially attributed to their appearances in mainstream media.[9] The duo appeared with Juliette Lewis in an advertisement for The Gap, featuring the single "Digital Love", and were contractually obliged to appear only in Gap clothing. In the summer of 2001, Daft Punk appeared in an advertisement on Cartoon Network's Toonami timeslot, promoting the official Toonami website and the duo's animated music videos for their album Discovery.[108] The music videos later appeared as scenes in the feature-length film Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem, in which Daft Punk make a cameo appearance as their robot alter-egos. The duo later appeared in a television advertisement wearing their Discovery-era headgear to promote Sony Ericsson's Premini mobile phone. Their robotic costumes also make an appearance in the "Masterclass" section on Chilly Gonzales' 2006 DVD release From Major to Minor. In 2010, Daft Punk appeared in Adidas advertisements promoting a Star Wars-themed clothing line.

text: Daft Punk has also produced music for other artists. They produced the Teriyaki Boyz's debut single "HeartBreaker" on the album Beef or Chicken?. The song contains a sample of "Human After All". Daft Punk later produced N.E.R.D's song "Hypnotize U".[117] Daft Punk are featured on the cover of the December 2010 issue of British publication Dazed & Confused to promote the film Tron: Legacy, for which the duo composed the score. They also made a cameo appearance within the film as masked DJs at the "End of Line" nightclub.

text: In 2011, Coca-Cola distributed limited edition bottles designed by Daft Punk, called Daft Coke. They were only sold in France. A newer version of these themed bottles now exist as collectors items, some parts of the bottles such as the cap and Coke logo being plated in gold. Daft Punk, along with Courtney Love were photographed for the "Music Project" of fashion house Yves Saint Laurent. The duo appear in their new sequined suits custom made by Hedi Slimane, holding and playing their new instruments with bodies made of lucite.[118] In 2013, Bandai Tamashii released a S.H. Figuarts (SHF) action figure for Daft Punk coinciding with the release of Random Access Memories in Japan.[119] Following a series a teaser trailers, Daft Punk made a rare public appearance at the 2013 Monaco Grand Prix in May on behalf of the Lotus F1 Team, who supported the duo by racing in specially-branded cars emblazoned with the band's logo.[120][121]

text: Daft Punk were scheduled to appear on the episode of The Colbert Report on 6 August 2013 to promote Random Access Memories, but were unable to do so because of contractual obligations regarding the duo's later appearance at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards. According to Stephen Colbert, Daft Punk were unaware of any exclusivity agreement and were halted by MTV executives the morning prior to the taping.[122] In 2015, Daft Punk appeared alongside several other musicians to announce their co-ownership of the music service Tidal at its relaunch.[123]

text: Tributes[edit]

text: The duo has been acknowledged in works by other artists. "Losing My Edge", the first single by LCD Soundsystem, bragged about being the first to "play Daft Punk to the rock kids." LCD Soundsystem also recorded the song "Daft Punk Is Playing at My House", which reached No. 29 in the UK and was nominated for the 2006 Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording. The Soulwax remix of the song also contains samples of many Daft Punk tracks as well as tracks by Thomas Bangalter. The song "Number 1 Girl" by the Dutch music project Le Le mentions the names Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo among other producers and artists. In the Flight of the Conchords episode "Sally", a music video for the Flight of the Conchords song "Robots" is shot with homemade robot costumes fashioned by the band's manager, Murray. Jemaine comments, "It doesn't look like Daft Punk. We wanted ones like Daft Punk."

text: Daft Punk tracks have been sampled or covered by other artists. "Technologic" was sampled by Swizz Beatz for the Busta Rhymes song "Touch It". In a later remix of "Touch It" the line "touch it, bring it, pay it, watch it, turn it, leave it, start, format it" from "Technologic" was sung by R&B and rap artist Missy Elliott. Kanye West's 2007 song "Stronger" from the album Graduation borrows the melody and features a vocal sample of Daft Punk's "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger". Daft Punk's robotic costumes make an appearance in the music video for "Stronger".[38] The track "Daftendirekt" from Daft Punk's album Homework was sampled for the Janet Jackson song "So Much Betta" from her 2008 album Discipline.[124] The track "Aerodynamic" was sampled for Wiley's 2008 single "Summertime".[125] "Veridis Quo" from the album Discovery was sampled for the Jazmine Sullivan song "Dream Big" from her 2008 album Fearless.[126] DJs Marc Mysterio and Téo Moss released a cover version of "One More Time" featuring the vocals of Yardi Don.[127] Daft Punk's "Around the World" was sampled for JoJo's 2009 song "You Take Me (Around the World)". The song "Cowboy George" by The Fall contains a clip of "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger".[128] A cappella group Pentatonix performed a medley of Daft Punk songs, released as a YouTube video.[129] As of July 2018, the video had been viewed over 283 million times. The medley won for Best Arrangement, Instrumental or a Cappella of the 57th Grammy Awards.[130]

text: In a December 2012 episode of The Simpsons titled "The Day the Earth Stood Cool", recurring character Disco Stu wears an outfit which is very similar in design to Bangalter's.[131] The online role-playing game World of Warcraft references the musicians with non-player characters Guyo Crystalgear[132] and Tivilix Bangalter,[133] which wear distinctive diving suits and helmets based on the duo's signature appearance. In the 2014 animated film My Little Pony: Equestria Girls - Rainbow Rocks, the character Rarity briefly dons an outfit with a helmet similar to that of Homem-Christo's.

text: The 2014 French drama film Eden includes appearances by two actors who portray Daft Punk at various points in their career.[134] An hour long documentary named Daft Punk Unchained was televised on 24 June 2015 in France and on 9 February 2016 in the UK.[135] It uses prexisting Daft Punk footage along with new interviews of their colleagues to document the rise to fame and the lives of the duo and their pioneering influence on the electronic music scene.

text: The duo was satirized in a 2015 episode of Family Guy.[136] In the 2016 reboot of The Powerpuff Girls, two ghosts shaped like both elements of Daft Punk appear in the episode "Puffdora's Box". Daft Punk was later referenced and parodied by the pigs in The Angry Birds Movie as "Daft Piggy", along with Steve Aoki (as "Steve Aoinki") in the movie.[137]

text: A medley of Daft Punk songs was played at the 2017 Bastille Day parade by a French military band, in front of French President Emmanuel Macron and his many guests, including U.S. President Donald Trump.[138][139] In the DuckTales reboot episode "McMystery at McDuck McManor!", Dewey Duck adopts the persona of "DJ Daft Duck" and wears a helmet modeled after de Homem-Christo's.

text: Discography[edit]

text:
Homework (1997)
Discovery (2001)
Human After All (2005)
Random Access Memories (2013)

text: Concert tours[edit]

text:
Daftendirektour (1997)
Alive 2006/2007 (2006–07)

text: Awards and nominations[edit]


document_title: Extreme points of South America

question_text: what is the most northern country in south america

root

text: Extreme points of South America

text: Latitude and longitude[edit]

text: Geographic coordinates expressed in WGS 84.

tag: p

text: South America[edit]

text:
Northernmost point: Santa Catalina Island in San Andrés y Providencia Department, Colombia (13°24′03″N 81°22′14″W)[1]
Southernmost point can be either:

Águila Islet, Diego Ramirez Islands, Chile[2] (56°32′16″S 68°43′10″W / 56.53778°S 68.71944°W / -56.53778; -68.71944), or, if the South Sandwich Islands are included as part of South America:
Cook Island, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (59°29′20″S 27°8′40″W / 59.48889°S 27.14444°W / -59.48889; -27.14444)

Westernmost point can be either:

Darwin Island, Galápagos Islands, Ecuador (01°40′44″N 92°00′33″W / 1.67889°N 92.00917°W / 1.67889; -92.00917), or, if Easter Island is included as part of South America:
Motu Nui (27°12′4″S 109°27′18″W / 27.20111°S 109.45500°W / -27.20111; -109.45500)

Easternmost point can be either:

Ilha do Sul, Trindade and Martim Vaz, Brazil (20°29′50″S 28°50′51″W / 20.49722°S 28.84750°W / -20.49722; -28.84750), or, if the South Sandwich Islands are included as part of South America:
Montagu Island, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (58°30′43″S 26°16′7″W / 58.51194°S 26.26861°W / -58.51194; -26.26861)

tag: ul

text: South America (mainland)[edit]

text:
Northernmost point: Punta Gallinas, Colombia (12°27′31″N 71°40′8″W / 12.45861°N 71.66889°W / 12.45861; -71.66889)
Southernmost point: Cape Froward, Chile (53°53′47″S 71°17′40″W / 53.89639°S 71.29444°W / -53.89639; -71.29444)
Westernmost point: Punta Pariñas, Peru (4°40′58″S 81°19′43″W / 4.68278°S 81.32861°W / -4.68278; -81.32861)
Easternmost point: Ponta do Seixas, Brazil (7°9′19″S 34°47′35″W / 7.15528°S 34.79306°W / -7.15528; -34.79306)

text: Center: 40 km. NWbN of Fuerte Olimpo, Alto Paraguay, Paraguay (20°43′8″S 58°3′39″W / 20.71889°S 58.06083°W / -20.71889; -58.06083)

text: Elevation[edit]

text:
Highest point: Aconcagua,[note 1][3] Mendoza, Argentina32°39′12″S 70°0′40″W / 32.65333°S 70.01111°W / -32.65333; -70.01111 (Aconcagua) at 6961 m
Lowest point: Laguna del Carbón, Santa Cruz, Argentina 49°34′34″S 68°21′5″W / 49.57611°S 68.35139°W / -49.57611; -68.35139 (Laguna del Carbón) at −105 m


document_title: Gold standard

question_text: when did the gold standard end in the us

question_tokens: when did the gold standard end in the us

text: Gold standard

text: History

text: This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2010) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

tag: table

text: Origin

text: The gold specie standard arose from the widespread acceptance of gold as currency.[5] Various commodities have been used as money; typically, the one that loses the least value over time becomes the accepted form.[6] Chemically, gold is of all major metals the one most resistant to corrosion.[citation needed]

text: The use of gold as money began thousands of years ago in Asia Minor.[7]

text: During the early and high Middle Ages, the Byzantine gold solidus, commonly known as the bezant, was used widely throughout Europe and the Mediterranean.  However, as the Byzantine Empire's economic influence declined, so too did the use of the bezant.[8]  In its place, European territories chose silver as their currency over gold, leading to the development of silver standards.[citation needed]

text: Silver pennies based on the Roman denarius became the staple coin of Mercia in Great Britain around the time of King Offa, circa 757–796 CE.[9] Similar coins, including Italian denari, French deniers, and Spanish dineros, circulated in Europe. Spanish explorers discovered silver deposits in Mexico in 1522 and at Potosí in Bolivia in 1545.[10] International trade came to depend on coins such as the Spanish dollar, the Maria Theresa thaler, and, later, the United States trade dollar.[citation needed]

text: In modern times, the British West Indies was one of the first regions to adopt a gold specie standard. Following Queen Anne's proclamation of 1704, the British West Indies gold standard was a de facto gold standard based on the Spanish gold doubloon. In 1717, Sir Isaac Newton, the master of the Royal Mint, established a new mint ratio between silver and gold that had the effect of driving silver out of circulation and putting Britain on a gold standard.[11][self-published source]

text: A formal gold specie standard was first established in 1821, when Britain adopted it following the introduction of the gold sovereign by the new Royal Mint at Tower Hill in 1816. The United Province of Canada in 1854, Newfoundland in 1865, and the United States and Germany (de jure) in 1873 adopted gold.  The United States used the eagle as its unit, Germany introduced the new gold mark, while Canada adopted a dual system based on both the American gold eagle and the British gold sovereign.[12]

text: Australia and New Zealand adopted the British gold standard, as did the British West Indies, while Newfoundland was the only British Empire territory to introduce its own gold coin.[13] Royal Mint branches were established in Sydney, Melbourne, and Perth for the purpose of minting gold sovereigns from Australia's rich gold deposits.[citation needed]

text: The gold specie standard came to an end in the United Kingdom and the rest of the British Empire with the outbreak of World War I.[citation needed]

text: Silver

text: From 1750 to 1870, wars within Europe as well as an ongoing trade deficit with China (which sold to Europe but had little use for European goods) drained silver from the economies of Western Europe and the United States.  Coins were struck in smaller and smaller numbers, and there was a proliferation of bank and stock notes used as money.

text: United Kingdom

text: In the 1790s, the United Kingdom suffered a silver shortage. It ceased to mint larger silver coins and instead issued "token" silver coins and overstruck foreign coins.  With the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the Bank of England began the massive recoinage programme that created standard gold sovereigns, circulating crowns, half-crowns and eventually copper farthings in 1821.  The recoinage of silver after a long drought produced a burst of coins. The United Kingdom struck nearly 40 million shillings between 1816 and 1820, 17 million half crowns and 1.3 million silver crowns.

text: The 1819 Act for the Resumption of Cash Payments set 1823 as the date for resumption of convertibility, which was reached by 1821. Throughout the 1820s, small notes were issued by regional banks. This was restricted in 1826, while the Bank of England was allowed to set up regional branches. In 1833 however, Bank of England notes were made legal tender and redemption by other banks was discouraged.  In 1844, the Bank Charter Act established that Bank of England notes were fully backed by gold and they became the legal standard.  According to the strict interpretation of the gold standard, this 1844 act marked the establishment of a full gold standard for British money.

text: United States

text: In the 1780s, Thomas Jefferson, Robert Morris and Alexander Hamilton recommended to Congress the value of a decimal system. This system would also apply to monies in the United States. The question was what type of standard: gold, silver or both.[14] The United States adopted a silver standard based on the Spanish milled dollar in 1785.

text: International

text: From 1860 to 1871 various attempts to resurrect bi-metallic standards were made, including one based on the gold and silver franc; however, with the rapid influx of silver from new deposits, the expectation of scarce silver ended.

text: The interaction between central banking and currency basis formed the primary source of monetary instability during this period. The combination of a restricted supply of notes, a government monopoly on note issuance and indirectly, a central bank and a single unit of value produced economic stability. Deviation from these conditions produced monetary crises.

text: Devalued notes or leaving silver as a store of value caused economic problems. Governments, demanding specie as payment, could drain the money out of the economy. Economic development expanded need for credit. The need for a solid basis in monetary affairs produced a rapid acceptance of the gold standard in the period that followed.

text: Japan

text: Following Germany's decision after the 1870–1871 Franco-Prussian War to extract reparations to facilitate a move to the gold standard, Japan gained the needed reserves after the Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895. For Japan, moving to gold was considered vital for gaining access to Western capital markets.[15]

text: Bimetallic standard

text: US: Pre-Civil War

text: In 1792, Congress passed the Mint and Coinage Act. It authorized the federal government's use of the Bank of the United States to hold its reserves, as well as establish a fixed ratio of gold to the U.S. dollar. Gold and silver coins were legal tender, as was the Spanish real. In 1792 the market price of gold was about 15 times that of silver.[14] Silver coins left circulation, exported to pay for the debts taken on to finance the American Revolutionary War. In 1806 President Jefferson suspended the minting of silver coins. This resulted in a derivative silver standard, since the Bank of the United States was not required to fully back its currency with reserves. This began a long series of attempts by the United States to create a bi-metallic standard.

text: The intention was to use gold for large denominations, and silver for smaller denominations.  A problem with bimetallic standards was that the metals' absolute and relative market prices changed. The mint ratio (the rate at which the mint was obligated to pay/receive for gold relative to silver) remained fixed at 15 ounces of silver to 1 ounce of gold, whereas the market rate fluctuated from 15.5 to 1 to 16 to 1. With the Coinage Act of 1834, Congress passed an act that changed the mint ratio to approximately 16 to 1. Gold discoveries in California in 1848 and later in Australia lowered the gold price relative to silver; this drove silver money from circulation because it was worth more in the market than as money.[16] Passage of the Independent Treasury Act of 1848 placed the U.S. on a strict hard-money standard. Doing business with the American government required gold or silver coins.

text: Government accounts were legally separated from the banking system. However, the mint ratio (the fixed exchange rate between gold and silver at the mint) continued to overvalue gold. In 1853, the US reduced the silver weight of coins to keep them in circulation and in 1857 removed legal tender status from foreign coinage. In 1857 the final crisis of the free banking era began as American banks suspended payment in silver, with ripples through the developing international financial system. Due to the inflationary finance measures undertaken to help pay for the US Civil War, the government found it difficult to pay its obligations in gold or silver and suspended  payments of obligations not legally specified in specie (gold bonds); this led banks to suspend the conversion of bank liabilities (bank notes and deposits) into specie. In 1862 paper money was made legal tender. It was a fiat money (not convertible on demand at a fixed rate into specie). These notes came to be called "greenbacks".[16]

text: US: Post-Civil War

text: After the Civil War, Congress wanted to reestablish the metallic standard at pre-war rates. The market price of gold in greenbacks was above the pre-War fixed price ($20.67 per ounce of gold) requiring deflation to achieve the pre-War price. This was accomplished by growing the stock of money less rapidly than real output. By 1879 the market price matched the mint price of gold. The coinage act of 1873 (also known as the Crime of ‘73) demonetized silver. This act removed the 412.5 grain silver dollar from circulation. Subsequently silver was only used in coins worth less than $1 (fractional currency). With the resumption of convertibility on June 30, 1879 the government again paid its debts in gold, accepted greenbacks for customs and redeemed greenbacks on demand in gold. Greenbacks were therefore perfect substitutes for gold coins. During the latter part of the nineteenth century the use of silver and a return to the bimetallic standard were recurrent political issues, raised especially by William Jennings Bryan, the People's Party and the  Free Silver movement. In 1900 the gold dollar was declared the standard unit of account and a gold reserve for government issued paper notes was established. Greenbacks, silver certificates, and silver dollars continued to be legal tender, all redeemable in gold.[16]

text: Fluctuations in the US gold stock, 1862–1877

text:
US gold stock

1862
59 tons

1866
81 tons

1875
50 tons

1878
78 tons

text: The US had a gold stock of 1.9 million ounces (59 t) in 1862. Stocks rose to 2.6 million ounces (81 t) in 1866, declined in 1875 to 1.6 million ounces (50 t) and rose to 2.5 million ounces (78 t) in 1878. Net exports did not mirror that pattern. In the decade before the Civil War net exports were roughly constant; postwar they varied erratically around pre-war levels, but fell significantly in 1877 and became negative in 1878 and 1879. The net import of gold meant that the foreign demand for American currency to purchase goods, services, and investments exceeded the corresponding American demands for foreign currencies. In the final years of the greenback period (1862–1879), gold production increased while gold exports decreased.  The decrease in gold exports was considered by some to be a result of changing monetary conditions. The demands for gold during this period were as a speculative vehicle, and for its primary use in the foreign exchange markets financing international trade. The major effect of the increase in gold demand by the public and Treasury was to reduce exports of gold and increase the Greenback price of gold relative to purchasing power.[17]

text: Gold exchange standard

text: This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (March 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

text: Towards the end of the 19th century, some silver standard countries began to peg their silver coin units to the gold standards of the United Kingdom or the United States. In 1898, British India pegged the silver rupee to the pound sterling at a fixed rate of 1s 4d, while in 1906, the Straits Settlements adopted a gold exchange standard against sterling, fixing the silver Straits dollar at 2s 4d.

text: Around the start of the 20th century, the Philippines pegged the silver peso/dollar to the U.S. dollar at 50 cents. This move was assisted by the passage of the Philippines Coinage Act by the United States Congress on March 3, 1903.[18] Around the same time Mexico and Japan pegged their currencies to the dollar. When Siam adopted a gold exchange standard in 1908, only China and Hong Kong remained on the silver standard.

text: When adopting the gold standard, many European nations changed the name of their currency, for instance from Daler (Sweden and Denmark) or Gulden (Austria-Hungary) to Crown, since the former names were traditionally associated with silver coins and the latter with gold coins.

text: Impact of World War I

text: Governments with insufficient tax revenue suspended convertibility repeatedly in the 19th century. The real test, however, came in the form of World War I, a test which "it failed utterly" according to economist Richard Lipsey.[5]

text: By the end of 1913, the classical gold standard was at its peak but World War I caused many countries to suspend or abandon it.[19] According to Lawrence Officer the main cause of the gold standard’s failure to resume its previous position after World War I was “the Bank of England's precarious liquidity position and the gold-exchange standard.” A run on sterling caused Britain to impose exchange controls that fatally weakened the standard; convertibility was not legally suspended, but gold prices no longer played the role that they did before.[20] In financing the war and abandoning gold, many of the belligerents suffered drastic inflations. Price levels doubled in the US and Britain, tripled in France and quadrupled in Italy. Exchange rates changed less, even though European inflations were more severe than America’s. This meant that the costs of American goods decreased relative to those in Europe. Between August 1914 and spring of 1915, the dollar value of US exports tripled and its trade surplus exceeded $1 billion for the first time.[21]

text: Ultimately, the system could not deal quickly enough with the large balance of payments deficits and surpluses; this was previously attributed to downward wage rigidity brought about by the advent of unionized labor, but is now considered as an inherent fault of the system that arose under the pressures of war and rapid technological change. In any case, prices had not reached equilibrium by the time of the Great Depression, which served to kill off the system completely.[5]

text: For example, Germany had gone off the gold standard in 1914, and could not effectively return to it because War reparations had cost it much of its gold reserves. During the Occupation of the Ruhr the German central bank (Reichsbank) issued enormous sums of non-convertible marks to support workers who were on strike against the French occupation and to buy foreign currency for reparations; this led to the German hyperinflation of the early 1920s and the decimation of the German middle class.

text: The US did not suspend the gold standard during the war.  The newly created Federal Reserve intervened in currency markets and sold bonds to “sterilize”[vague] some of the gold imports that would have otherwise increased the stock of money.[citation needed] By 1927 many countries had returned to the gold standard.[16] As a result of World War I the United States, which had been a net debtor country, had become a net creditor by 1919.[22]

text: Abandonment of the gold standard

text: The gold specie standard ended in the United Kingdom and the rest of the British Empire at the outbreak of World War I, when Treasury notes replaced the circulation of gold sovereigns and gold half sovereigns.  Legally, the gold specie standard was not repealed. The end of the gold standard was successfully effected by the Bank of England through appeals to patriotism urging citizens not to redeem paper money for gold specie. It was only in 1925, when Britain returned to the gold standard in conjunction with Australia and South Africa that the gold specie standard was officially ended.

text: The British Gold Standard Act 1925 both introduced the gold bullion standard and simultaneously repealed the gold specie standard. The new standard ended the circulation of gold specie coins. Instead, the law compelled the authorities to sell gold bullion on demand at a fixed price, but "only in the form of bars containing approximately four hundred ounces troy [12 kg] of fine gold".[23][24] John Maynard Keynes, citing deflationary dangers, argued against resumption of the gold standard.[25] By fixing the price at the pre-war rate of $4.86,[clarification needed] Churchill is argued to have made an error that led to depression, unemployment and the 1926 general strike. The decision was described by Andrew Turnbull as a "historic mistake".[26]

text: Many other countries followed Britain in returning to the gold standard, this was followed by a period of relative stability but also deflation.[27] This state of affairs lasted until the Great Depression (1929–1939) forced countries off the gold standard. In September 19, 1931, speculative attacks on the pound forced Britain to abandon the gold standard. Loans from American and French Central Banks of £50,000,000 were insufficient and exhausted in a matter of weeks, due to large gold outflows across the Atlantic.[28][29][30] The British benefited from this departure. They could now use monetary policy to stimulate the economy. Australia and New Zealand had already left the standard and Canada quickly followed suit.

text: The interwar partially backed gold standard was inherently unstable, because of the conflict between the expansion of liabilities to foreign central banks and the resulting deterioration in the Bank of England's reserve ratio. France was then attempting to make Paris a world class financial center, and it received large gold flows as well.[31]

text: In May 1931 a run on Austria's largest commercial bank caused it to fail. The run spread to Germany, where the central bank also collapsed. International financial assistance was too late and in July 1931 Germany adopted exchange controls, followed by Austria in October. The Austrian and German experiences, as well as British budgetary and political difficulties, were among the factors that destroyed confidence in sterling, which occurred in mid-July 1931. Runs ensued and the Bank of England lost much of its reserves.

text: Depression and World War II

text: Great Depression

text: Some economic historians, such as Barry Eichengreen, blame the gold standard of the 1920s for prolonging the economic depression which started in 1929 and lasted for about a decade.[33] In the United States, adherence to the gold standard prevented the Federal Reserve from expanding the money supply to stimulate the economy, fund insolvent banks and fund government deficits that could "prime the pump" for an expansion. Once off the gold standard, it became free to engage in such money creation. The gold standard limited the flexibility of the central banks' monetary policy by limiting their ability to expand the money supply. In the US, the central bank was required by the Federal Reserve Act (1913) to have gold backing 40% of its demand notes.[34] Others including former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Nobel Prize-winner Milton Friedman place the blame for the severity and length of the Great Depression at the feet of the Federal Reserve, mostly due to the deliberate tightening of monetary policy even after the gold standard.[35] They blamed the US major economic contraction in 1937 on tightening of monetary policy resulting in higher cost of capital, weaker securities markets, reduced net government contribution to income, the undistributed profits tax and higher labor costs.[36] The money supply peaked in March 1937, with a trough in May 1938.[37]

text: Higher interest rates intensified the deflationary pressure on the dollar and reduced investment in U.S. banks.  Commercial banks converted Federal Reserve Notes to gold in 1931, reducing its gold reserves and forcing a corresponding reduction in the amount of currency in circulation. This speculative attack created a panic in the U.S. banking system.  Fearing imminent devaluation many depositors withdrew funds from U.S. banks.[38] As bank runs grew, a reverse multiplier effect caused a contraction in the money supply.[39] Additionally the New York Fed had loaned over $150 million in gold (over 240 tons) to European Central Banks. This transfer contracted the US money supply. The foreign loans became questionable once Britain, Germany, Austria and other European countries went off the gold standard in 1931 and weakened confidence in the dollar.[40]

text: The forced contraction of the money supply resulted in deflation. Even as nominal interest rates dropped, inflation-adjusted real interest rates remained high, rewarding those who held onto money instead of spending it, further slowing the economy.[41] Recovery in the United States was slower than in Britain, in part due to Congressional reluctance to abandon the gold standard and float the U.S. currency as Britain had done.[42]

text: In the early 1930s, the Federal Reserve defended the dollar by raising interest rates, trying to increase the demand for dollars. This helped attract international investors who bought foreign assets with gold.[38]

text: Congress passed the Gold Reserve Act on 30 January 1934; the measure nationalized all gold by ordering Federal Reserve banks to turn over their supply to the U.S. Treasury. In return the banks received gold certificates to be used as reserves against deposits and Federal Reserve notes. The act also authorized the president to devalue the gold dollar. Under this authority the president, on 31 January 1934, changed the value of the dollar from $20.67 to the troy ounce to $35 to the troy ounce, a devaluation of over 40%.

text: Other factors in the prolongation of the Great Depression include trade wars and the reduction in international trade caused by barriers such as Smoot–Hawley Tariff in the US and the Imperial Preference policies of Great Britain,[43] the failure of central banks to act responsibly,[44] government policies designed to prevent wages from falling, such as the Davis–Bacon Act of 1931, during the deflationary period resulting in production costs dropping slower than sales prices, thereby injuring business profits[45] and increases in taxes to reduce budget deficits and to support new programs such as Social Security. The US top marginal income tax rate went from 25% to 63% in 1932 and to 79% in 1936,[46] while the bottom rate increased over tenfold, from .375% in 1929 to 4% in 1932.[47] The concurrent massive drought resulted in the US Dust Bowl.

text: The Austrian School asserted that the Great Depression was the result of a credit bust.[48] Alan Greenspan wrote that the bank failures of the 1930s were sparked by Great Britain dropping the gold standard in 1931. This act "tore asunder" any remaining confidence in the banking system.[49] Financial historian  Niall Ferguson wrote that what made the Great Depression truly 'great' was the European banking crisis of 1931.[50] According to Fed Chairman Marriner Eccles, the root cause was the concentration of wealth resulting in a stagnating or decreasing standard of living for the poor and middle class. These classes went into debt, producing the credit explosion of the 1920s. Eventually the debt load grew too heavy, resulting in the massive defaults and financial panics of the 1930s.[51]

text: World War II

text: Under the Bretton Woods international monetary agreement of 1944, the gold standard was kept without domestic convertibility. The role of gold was severely constrained, as other countries’ currencies were fixed in terms of the dollar. Many countries kept reserves in gold and settled accounts in gold. Still they preferred to settle balances with other currencies, with the American dollar becoming the favorite. The International Monetary Fund was established to help with the exchange process and assist nations in maintaining fixed rates. Within Bretton Woods adjustment was cushioned through credits that helped countries avoid deflation. Under the old standard, a country with an overvalued currency would lose gold and experience deflation until the currency was again valued correctly. Most countries defined their currencies in terms of dollars, but some countries imposed trading restrictions to protect reserves and exchange rates. Therefore, most countries' currencies were still basically inconvertible. In the late 1950s, the exchange restrictions were dropped and gold became an important element in international financial settlements.[16]

text: Bretton Woods

text: This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (October 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

text: After the Second World War, a system similar to a gold standard and sometimes described as a "gold exchange standard" was established by the Bretton Woods Agreements. Under this system, many countries fixed their exchange rates relative to the U.S. dollar and central banks could exchange dollar holdings into gold at the official exchange rate of $35 per ounce; this option was not available to firms or individuals. All currencies pegged to the dollar thereby had a fixed value in terms of gold.[5]

text: Starting in the 1959–1969 administration of President Charles de Gaulle and continuing until 1970, France reduced its dollar reserves, exchanging them for gold at the official exchange rate, reducing US economic influence. This, along with the fiscal strain of federal expenditures for the Vietnam War and persistent balance of payments deficits, led U.S. President Richard Nixon to end international convertibility of the U.S. dollar to gold on August 15, 1971 (the "Nixon Shock").

text: This was meant to be a temporary measure, with the gold price of the dollar and the official rate of exchanges remaining constant. Revaluing currencies was the main purpose of this plan. No official revaluation or redemption occurred. The dollar subsequently floated. In December 1971, the "Smithsonian Agreement" was reached. In this agreement, the dollar was devalued from $35 per troy ounce of gold to $38. Other countries' currencies appreciated. However, gold convertibility did not resume. In October 1973, the price was raised to $42.22. Once again, the devaluation was insufficient. Within two weeks of the second devaluation the dollar was left to float. The $42.22 par value was made official in September 1973, long after it had been abandoned in practice. In October 1976, the government officially changed the definition of the dollar; references to gold were removed from statutes. From this point, the international monetary system was made of pure fiat money.

text: Production of gold

text: An estimated total of 174,100 tonnes of gold have been mined in human history, according to GFMS as of 2012. This is roughly equivalent to 5.6 billion troy ounces or, in terms of volume, about 9,261 cubic metres (327,000 cu ft), or a cube 21 metres (69 ft) on a side. There are varying estimates of the total volume of gold mined. One reason for the variance is that gold has been mined for thousands of years. Another reason is that some nations are not particularly open about how much gold is being mined. In addition, it is difficult to account for the gold output in illegal mining activities.[52]

text: World production for 2011 was circa 2,700 tonnes. Since the 1950s, annual gold output growth has approximately kept pace with world population growth (i.e. a doubling in this period)[53] although it has lagged behind world economic growth (approximately 8-fold increase since the 1950s[54], and 4x since 1980[55]).

text: Theory

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text: Commodity money is inconvenient to store and transport in large amounts. Furthermore, it does not allow a government to manipulate the flow of commerce with the same ease that a fiat currency does. As such, commodity money gave way to representative money and gold and other specie were retained as its backing.

text: Gold was a preferred form of money due to its rarity, durability, divisibility, fungibility and ease of identification,[56] often in conjunction with silver. Silver was typically the main circulating medium, with gold as the monetary reserve. Commodity money was anonymous, as identifying marks can be removed. Commodity money retains its value despite what may happen to the monetary authority. After the fall of South Vietnam, many refugees carried their wealth to the West in gold after the national currency became worthless.[citation needed]

text: Under commodity standards currency itself has no intrinsic value, but is accepted by traders because it can be redeemed any time for the equivalent specie. A US silver certificate, for example, could be redeemed for an actual piece of silver.

text: Representative money and the gold standard protect citizens from hyperinflation and other abuses of monetary policy, as were seen in some countries during the Great Depression. Commodity money conversely led to deflation and bank runs.

text: Countries that left the gold standard earlier than other countries recovered from the Great Depression sooner. For example, Great Britain and the Scandinavian countries, which left the gold standard in 1931, recovered much earlier than France and Belgium, which remained on gold much longer. Countries such as China, which had a silver standard, almost entirely avoided the depression (due to the fact it was then barely integrated into the global economy). The connection between leaving the gold standard and the severity and duration of the depression was consistent for dozens of countries, including developing countries. This may explain why the experience and length of the depression differed between national economies.[57]

text: Variations

text: A full or 100%-reserve gold standard exists when the monetary authority holds sufficient gold to convert all the circulating representative money into gold at the promised exchange rate. It is sometimes referred to as the gold specie standard to more easily distinguish it. Opponents of a full standard consider it difficult to implement, saying that the quantity of gold in the world is too small to sustain worldwide economic activity at or near current gold prices; implementation would entail a many-fold increase in the price of gold.[citation needed] Gold standard proponents have said, "Once a money is established, any stock of money becomes compatible with any amount of employment and real income."[58] While prices would necessarily adjust to the supply of gold, the process may involve considerable economic disruption, as was experienced during earlier attempts to maintain gold standards.[59]

text: In an international gold-standard system (which is necessarily based on an internal gold standard in the countries concerned),[60] gold or a currency that is convertible into gold at a fixed price is used to make international payments. Under such a system, when exchange rates rise above or fall below the fixed mint rate by more than the cost of shipping gold, inflows or outflows occur until rates return to the official level. International gold standards often limit which entities have the right to redeem currency for gold.

text: Advantages

text:
Long-term price stability has been described as one of the virtues of the gold standard.[61] The gold standard makes it difficult for governments to inflate prices through expanding the money supply. Under the gold standard, significant inflation is rare, and hyperinflation is essentially impossible because the money supply can only grow at the rate that the gold supply increases. High inflation under a gold standard is seen only when warfare destroys a large part of an economy, reducing the production of goods, or when a major new gold source becomes available.[62] In the U.S., inflation occurred during the Civil War, which destroyed the economy of the South.[63] Inflation also followed the California Gold Rush that made large amounts of gold available for minting.[64] Historical data shows that the magnitude of short run swings in prices were far higher under the gold standard.[65][61]
The gold standard provides fixed international exchange rates between participating countries and thus reduces uncertainty in international trade. Historically, imbalances between price levels were offset by a balance-of-payment adjustment mechanism called the "price–specie flow mechanism".[62] Gold used to pay for imports reduces the money supply of importing nations, causing deflation, which makes them more competitive, while the importation of gold by net exporters serves to increase their money supply, causing inflation, making them less competitive.[66]
A gold standard does not allow some types of financial repression.[67] Financial repression acts as a mechanism to transfer wealth from creditors to debtors, particularly the governments that practice it. Financial repression is most successful in reducing debt when accompanied by inflation and can be considered a form of taxation.[68][69] In 1966 Alan Greenspan wrote "Deficit spending is simply a scheme for the confiscation of wealth. Gold stands in the way of this insidious process. It stands as a protector of property rights. If one grasps this, one has no difficulty in understanding the statists' antagonism toward the gold standard."[70]

text: Disadvantages

text:
The unequal distribution of gold deposits makes the gold standard more advantageous for those countries that produce gold.[71] In 2010 the largest producers of gold, in order, were China, Australia, U.S., South Africa and Russia.[72] The country with the largest unmined gold deposits is Australia.[73]
Some economists believe that the gold standard acts as a limit on economic growth. "As an economy's productive capacity grows, then so should its money supply. Because a gold standard requires that money be backed in the metal, then the scarcity of the metal constrains the ability of the economy to produce more capital and grow."[74]
Mainstream economists believe that economic recessions can be largely mitigated by increasing the money supply during economic downturns.[75] A gold standard means that the money supply would be determined by the gold supply and hence monetary policy could no longer be used to stabilize the economy.[76] The gold standard is often blamed for prolonging the Great Depression, as under the gold standard, central banks could not expand credit at a fast enough rate to offset deflationary forces.[77]
Although the gold standard brings long-run price stability, it is historically associated with high short-run price volatility.[61][78] It has been argued by Schwartz, among others, that instability in short-term price levels can lead to financial instability as lenders and borrowers become uncertain about the value of debt.[78]
Deflation punishes debtors.[79][80] Real debt burdens therefore rise, causing borrowers to cut spending to service their debts or to default. Lenders become wealthier, but may choose to save some of the additional wealth, reducing GDP.[81]
The money supply would essentially be determined by the rate of gold production. When gold stocks increase more rapidly than the economy, there is inflation and the reverse is also true.[61][82] The consensus view is that the gold standard contributed to the severity and length of the Great Depression.[83][84]
Hamilton contended that the gold standard is susceptible to speculative attacks when a government's financial position appears weak. Conversely, this threat discourages governments from engaging in risky policy (see moral hazard). For example, the U.S. was forced to contract the money supply and raise interest rates in September 1931 to defend the dollar after speculators forced the UK off the gold standard.[84][85][86][87]
Devaluing a currency under a gold standard would generally produce sharper changes than the smooth declines seen in fiat currencies, depending on the method of devaluation.[88]
Most economists favor a low, positive rate of inflation of around 2%. This reflects fear of deflationary shocks and the belief that active monetary policy can dampen fluctuations in output and unemployment. Inflation gives them room to tighten policy without inducing deflation.[89]
A gold standard provides practical constraints against the measures that central banks might otherwise use to respond to economic crises.[90] Creation of new money reduces interest rates and thereby increases demand for new lower cost debt, raising the demand for money.[91]

text: Advocates

text: A return to the gold standard was considered by the US Gold Commission back in 1982, but found only minority support.[92] In 2001 Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad proposed a new currency that would be used initially for international trade among Muslim nations, using the Islamic gold dinar, defined as 4.25 grams of pure (24-carat) gold. Mahathir claimed it would be a stable unit of account and a political symbol of unity between Islamic nations.  This would purportedly reduce dependence on the US dollar and establish a non-debt-backed currency in accord with Sharia law that prohibited the charging of interest.[93] As of  2013[update] the global monetary system continued to rely on the US dollar as the main reserve currency.[94]

text: Former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman, Alan Greenspan acknowledged he was one of "a small minority" within the central bank that had some positive view on the gold standard.[95] In a 1966 essay he contributed to a book by Ayn Rand, titled "Gold and Economic Freedom", Greenspan argued the case for returning to a 'pure' gold standard; in that essay he described supporters of fiat currencies as "welfare statists" intending to use monetary policy to finance deficit spending.[96] More recently he claimed that by focusing on targeting inflation "central bankers have behaved as though we were on the gold standard", rendering a return to the standard unnecessary.[97]

text: Similarly, economists like Robert Barro argued that whilst some form of "monetary constitution"  is essential for stable, depoliticized monetary policy, the form this constitution takes—for example, a gold standard, some other commodity-based standard, or a fiat currency with fixed rules for determining the quantity of money—is considerably less important.[98]

text: The gold standard is supported by many followers of the Austrian School of Economics, free-market libertarians and some supply-siders.[99]

text: US politics

text: In the United States, strict constitutionalists object to the government issuing fiat currency through central banks. Some gold-standard advocates also call for a mandated end to fractional-reserve banking. Many similar alternatives have been suggested, including energy-based currencies, collections of currencies or commodities, with gold as one component.

text: Former congressman Ron Paul is a long-term, high-profile advocate of a gold standard, but has also expressed support for using a standard based on a basket of commodities that better reflects the state of the economy.[100]

text: In 2011 the Utah legislature passed a bill to accept federally issued gold and silver coins as legal tender to pay taxes.[101] As federally issued currency, the coins were already legal tender for taxes, although the market price of their metal content currently exceeds their monetary value. Similar legislation is under consideration in other US states.[102] The bill was initiated by newly elected Republican Party legislators associated with the Tea Party movement and was driven by anxiety over the policies of President Barack Obama.[103]

text: In 2013, the Arizona Legislature passed SB 1439, which would have made gold and silver coin a legal tender in payment of debt, but the bill was vetoed by the Governor.[104]

text: In 2015, some candidates for the 2016 presidential election advocated for a gold standard, based on concern that the Federal Reserve’s attempts to increase economic growth may create inflation. Economic historians did not agree with candidate's assertions that the gold standard would benefit the US economy.[105]

text: Critics

text:
In 2012 a poll of 40 U.S. economists in the IGM Economic Experts Panel found that none of them agreed with a claim that a return to the gold standard would result in "price-stability and employment outcomes [that] would be better for the average American." The panel of polled economists included past Nobel Prize winners, former economic advisers to both Republican and Democratic presidents, and senior faculty from Harvard, Chicago, Stanford, MIT, and other well-known research universities. (The specific question posed to the economists was: "If the US replaced its discretionary monetary policy regime with a gold standard, defining a 'dollar' as a specific number of ounces of gold, the price-stability and employment outcomes would be better for the average American.")
[3]

text: The economist Allan H. Meltzer of Carnegie Mellon University presented arguments against Ron Paul's advocacy of the gold standard since the 1970s.  He sometimes summarizes his opposition by stating simply, "[W]e don’t have the gold standard. It’s not because we don’t know about the gold standard, it’s because we do."[106]