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- From: thompson@atlas.socsci.umn.edu (T. Scott Thompson)
- Subject: Re: need details on devaluating U.S. currency
- Message-ID: <thompson.715570326@daphne.socsci.umn.edu>
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- Organization: Economics Department, University of Minnesota
- References: <5esJ03Tu76p100@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com> <183393@pyramid.pyramid.com>
- Distribution: usa
- Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1992 01:32:06 GMT
- Lines: 21
-
- breid@pyrhard2.eng.pyramid.com (Bill Reid) writes:
-
- >Nixon signed what I think was called the Bretton-Woods agreement, which
- >allowed currencies to float freely on the world market. Prior to that,
- >the value of the dollar (and the DM and yen, etc.) HAD been strictly
- >set to certain value by government decree. (Bretton-Woods came about
- >as I remember because England was devaluing the pound every two
- >weeks or so, and it got to be ridiculous).
-
- For the record, Bretton-Woods was the treaty signed at the end of WW
- II that established the International Monetary Fund and set up the
- post war system of fixed exchange rates. Nixon had not even achieved
- his McCarthy era noteriety yet.
-
- The decision of the Nixon administration, to completely abandon the
- Bretton-Woods agreement, was taken unilaterally in 1971. No formal
- treaties were involved.
- --
- T. Scott Thompson email: thompson@atlas.socsci.umn.edu
- Department of Economics phone: (612) 625-0119
- University of Minnesota fax: (612) 624-0209
-