Following the peculiarities of the Duckworth-Lewis method that resulted in defeat against West Indies on Monday, England were the recipients of good fortune as the abandonment took them through on run-rate.

BBC: England through as rain wipes out Ireland match

The introduction of supply-side policies in 1981 and the fall of the Soviet Union (and its satellites) in 1991 were crucial to making the 1980s and 1990s so prosperous, but the prior abandonment of gold-based money in 1971 has only eroded those gains by permitting a massive rate of growth in government deficit-spending.

FORBES: Gold, Reagan and the Reds: From Degraded Dollar to Downgraded Debt