The thing to remember, though, is that Nixon did this while dealing with the fact that the Eurodollar system had already been pumping up the money supply; his m

The thing to remember, though, is that Nixon did this while dealing with the fact that the Eurodollar system had already been pumping up the money supply; his move was mostly just to avoid handing out all the gold which was already minimal relative to overall monetary supply. Bretton Woods was doomed from the start in a world where independent offshore banks were free to create ledger money and settle up with each other however they like like, but meanwhile the Treasury had the obligation to settle in gold.