Credit Suisse Strategist Says We're Witnessing Birth of a New World Monetary Order

Negotiated between 44 countries as World War II was winding down, the Bretton Woods agreement (named for the conference location in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire) pegged gold as the basis for the U.S. dollar, with other currencies then pegged to the greenback. This structure began to fray in the 1960s as U.S. trade deficits became too large to ignore, and it fell apart completely in 1971 when the U.S. abandoned the link between the dollar and gold.