GOLDEN AGE

摘要

Under the Bretton Woods Agreement of 1944 the US government undertook to redeem its dollars at $35 (£23) for an ounce of gold. US gold holdings then stood at 574m ounces, more than 50% of the world's total, worth just over $20bn at that conversion rate.By anchoring the dollar to a defined unit of gold, the government was prevented from increasing the number of dollars in issue without a corresponding increase in its gold holdings.Over the next few years Germany and Japan staged a dramatic post-war recovery, causing the deutschmark and yen to rival the dollar as a trading currency of choice, particularly when the US embarked on its damaging war in Vietnam and a series of un-costed social programmes that resulted in balance of payments and trade deficits.