"The Class-Backed Dollar"

``The span labeled middle class America were years when society was "without extremes of wealth or poverty, a society of broadly shared prosperity, partly because strong unions, a high minimum wage, and a progressive tax system helped limit inequality." But the odd thing about it -- about Mr. Krugman's column -- is that he fails to mention one other feature of the period. The dollar was defined as a matter of law through most of the period as being a 35th of an ounce of gold''