• 15:49 - 18:03
Matthew Lysiak | Fiat Food: Money Magic & The American Diet
Bretton Woods Agreement, 1944 Monetary Fraud, Purchasing Power
The 1944 Bretton Woods Agreement established the U.S. dollar as the world's reserve currency, pegged to gold. By 1971, the U.S. Treasury was functionally underwater, holding only $10.2 billion in gold against $40 billion in circulating debt. This discrepancy forced the Nixon administration to abandon the gold standard, effectively ending an era where a dollar's purchasing power remained stable or increased over time.