Nixon shock

The Nixon shock refers to the effect of a series of economic measures, including wage and price freezes, surcharges on imports, and the unilateral cancellation of the direct international convertibility of the United States dollar to gold, taken by United States President Richard Nixon in 1971 in response to increasing inflation.^[1]^[2]

Although Nixon's actions did not formally abolish the existing Bretton Woods system of international financial exchange, the suspension of one of its key components effectively rendered the Bretton Woods system inoperative.^[3] While Nixon publicly stated his intention to resume direct convertibility of the dollar after reforms to the Bretton Woods system had been implemented, all attempts at reform proved unsuccessful. By 1973, the current regime based on freely floating fiat currencies de facto replaced the Bretton Woods system for other global currencies.^[4]

Economic Stabilization Act of 1970

Criticism of the Federal Reserve

Triffin dilemma

Petrodollar recycling

United States Bullion Depository

Impossible trinity

Butkiewicz, James L.; Ohlmacher, Scott. 2021. "." The Economic History Review

Ending Bretton Woods: evidence from the Nixon tapes

Bordo, Michael D. 2018. . NBER Working Paper No. 25409.

"The Imbalances of the Bretton Woods System 1965 to 1973: U.S. Inflation, The Elephant in the Room"

Bordo, Michael D.; , eds. (1993). "A Retrospective on the Bretton Woods System: Lessons for International Monetary Reform". A Retrospective on the Bretton Woods System: Lessons for International Monetary Reform. Bretton Woods, October 3–6, 1991. Chicago: National Bureau of Economic Research & University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0226065871.

Eichengreen, Barry

Gowa, Joanne. "State power, state policy: Explaining the decision to close the gold window." Politics & Society 13.1 (1984): 91–117.

Gray, William Glenn. "Floating the system: Germany, the United States, and the breakdown of Bretton Woods, 1969–1973." Diplomatic History 31.2 (2007): 295–323.

Odell, John S. "The US and the emergence of flexible exchange rates: an analysis of foreign policy change." International Organization 33.1 (1979): 57–81.

: A comprehensive history of the management of the 90-day wage-price freeze, undertaken by the Office of Emergency Preparedness and the newly established Cost of Living Council.

Stemming Inflation: the Office of Emergency Preparedness and the 90-day freeze

: A testimony of the Council of Economic Advisers before the Joint Economic Committee on economic developments since President Nixon's New Economic Policy was adopted on August 15, 1971

The Economy at Mid-1972

(at Internet Archive)