Preface
Bretton Woods was a dollar standard wearing the prestige of gold.
Source: Mises Institute
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DW NOTE
Rothbard wrote this in 1991, when Bretton Woods was still within living memory and the 1971 gold-window closure was recent enough to score. By 2026, with crude 34% below its year-ago high despite Hormuz being functionally closed and the U.S. running a 6%-of-GDP deficit while holding rates at 3.5%, the essay reads less like history and more like a field manual for what comes next.