Throughout history a handful of people can claim that they have changed the world; President Richard Nixon is one of them. Politically one can cite his trip to China. Economically one can cite his epoch making speech of August 15, 1971. The President addressed the nation to announce that “the time has come for a new economic policy for the United States.” The goal is “prosperity without war.” In particular, “we must create more and better jobs; we must stop the rise in the cost of living; we must protect the dollar from the attacks of international money speculators.” To achieve the three goals the following policies were to be implemented.
I have directed Secretary Connally to suspend temporarily the convertibility of the dollar into gold or other reserve assets except in amounts and conditions determined to be in the interest of monetary stability and in the best interests of the United States.President Richard Nixon speech of August 15, 1971.
Good old Watson! You are the one fixed point in a changing age, Sherlock Holmes to Dr. John H. Watson in “His Last Bow.”
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Although the US reduced its troops in Vietnam and was winding down its involvement, the war dragged on until the spring of 1975 when Saigon fell to Communist forces.
- 2.
Wage and price controls have a long and undignified history. See Robert Schuettinger and Eamonn Butler (1979).
- 3.
It is interesting to note the conservative Economist at the time was advocating an incomes policy noting that “all advanced countries need to bring an incomes policy into effect” (August 21, 1971).
- 4.
It still has. Witness all the talk about the “weakening” of a currency.
- 5.
Milton Friedman (1953a).
- 6.
See Kamran Dadkhah (1992), pp. 207–219.
- 7.
To understand the oil business the reader could do no better than to start with Daniel Yergin (1991).
- 8.
In 1967 Abu Dhabi joined the Organization. In the early 1970s the seven states on the Persian Gulf: Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Ras al-Khaimah, Sharjah, and Umm al-Quwain formed the United Arab Emirates (UAE). In 1974 the UAE replaced Abu Dhabi in the OPEC .
- 9.
Ecuador suspended its membership in the Organization from December 1992 to December 2007.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Dadkhah, K. (2009). The Collapse of Post-War International Economic Order. In: The Evolution of Macroeconomic Theory and Policy. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-77008-4_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-77008-4_6
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-77007-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-77008-4
eBook Packages: Business and EconomicsEconomics and Finance (R0)