09/04/2026
**Nixon’s 1971 decision to end the gold standard changed the global economy forever.** In August of that year, he suspended the dollar’s convertibility into gold, effectively dismantling the Bretton Woods system that had pegged world currencies to the U.S. dollar and gold. This move aimed to fight inflation and protect the dollar from a looming run on U.S. gold reserves, but it also ushered in a new era of floating exchange rates and expanded central bank power. (Federal Reserve History)
With inflation on the rise and a gold run looming, President Richard Nixon's team enacted a plan that ended dollar convertibility to gold and implemented wage and price controls, which soon brought an end to the Bretton Woods System.
