All Change: The Future International Monetary System

Thoughts on the Role of Bitcoin and Gold

Although many commentators point to the watershed 1971 decision by President Nixon to close the gold window as it’s end-point, we have de facto enjoyed the Bretton Woods International Monetary System from 1944 to date. It may soon be ending.

Bretton Woods is characterised by the IMF and World Bank institutions, the US dollar as the international standard of value, and until 1973 featured fixed exchange rates. The latter was never Bretton Wood’s defining feature, which was the centrality of the US dollar. The move from fixed to floating exchange rates led to an acceleration in gross international capital movements, which underpinned the importance of US banks and financial markets, and ironically boosted the importance of the US dollar.