https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixon_shock https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixon_shock In 1971, the US abruptly stopped backstopping Europe's Bretton Woods system

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixon_shock https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixon_shock In 1971, the US abruptly stopped backstopping Europe's Bretton Woods system that kept Europe's currencies stable, making them convertible with US dollars and gold. (I'm not an expect in this area, I just sort-of-recently read "And the Weak Suffer What They Must?" by Yannis Varoufakis, and hopefully I'm remembering it more-or-less correctly.) https://www.amazon.com/Weak-Suffer-What-They-Must/dp/1568585047 https://www.amazon.com/Weak-Suffer-What-They-Must/dp/1568585...