The "Nixon shock" was suspending dollar convertibility to gold that lead to the dissolution of the Bretton Woods system of fixed exchange rates. The Bretton Woo

The "Nixon shock" was suspending dollar convertibility to gold that lead to the dissolution of the Bretton Woods system of fixed exchange rates. The Bretton Woods institutions that were put in place to support the system - the IMF and the World Bank, survived, albeit with new interpretations of their missions.