Did it? Or was it Bretton-Woods that failed? If I remember my History, Nixon decoupled the USD from gold to regain the ability to devalue the dollar, as a tool for dealing with the huge debt accrued during the Vietnam war.
It wasn't a gold-currency world, it was a world of gold-backed US dollar. It makes a huge difference. While the advantages of being a reserve currency superceded the disadvantages of not having monetary control, Bretton-Woods stood. Once the tables turned, the US ended the gold backing.
Bretton Woods stood for close to 40yrs. The current system has about the same age and much as Bretton Woods is failing because the US abused its position as reserve currency to wage war financed by debt. History does repeat itself, in slightly different color tones...
>>Did it? Or was it Bretton-Woods that failed? If I remember my History, Nixon decoupled the USD from gold to regain the ability to devalue the dollar, as a tool for dealing with the huge debt accrued during the Vietnam war.
The point is that it failed as a currency as soon as it lost the government's backing.
The gov't has outlawed gold and silver as currency in favor of its fiatbux. If my friend and I like eating Skittles then some bully come slaps us around if we eat them, that isn't failure of us liking Skittles.
No, the government came and said you can't use gold or silver to trade Skittles, because neither material is a convenient medium of exchange (which is unarguably correct).
Fiat money has been around not even 200 years while various commodities used in coins worked fine for much longer. Oh but to you it isn't convenient somehow and this is "unarguably correct", lol whatever, spoken like a true state apologist I guess. Go on believing your own alternate history where the force and fraud of government are pretended away.
It wasn't a gold-currency world, it was a world of gold-backed US dollar. It makes a huge difference. While the advantages of being a reserve currency superceded the disadvantages of not having monetary control, Bretton-Woods stood. Once the tables turned, the US ended the gold backing.
Bretton Woods stood for close to 40yrs. The current system has about the same age and much as Bretton Woods is failing because the US abused its position as reserve currency to wage war financed by debt. History does repeat itself, in slightly different color tones...