In 1944 at conference held at the Mt. Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire delegates devised a monetary system in which the US dollars would be directly convertible into gold and all other currencies would be pegged to the dollar.
In 1960s, the United States had a growing trade imbalance and growing public debt which resulted in the US dollar being way overvalued. In 1971, West Germany left the Bretton Woods system and both France and Switzerland demanded physical gold in exchange for their dollars. However, the issues continued to exacerbate.
So in 1973, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger negotiated an agreement with Saudi Arabia, the largest oil exporter in the world that required all sales of its oil to be paid for in US dollars and in exchange the United States would provide Saudi Arabia with weapons and protection. Other oil exporting nations followed Saudi Arabia's lead. This event artificially inflated the demand for US dollars globally since nations that imported oil were essentially forced to maintain holdings of US dollars in order to pay for their needed oil.
The US economy is still the largest in the world and the US dollar is still the most powerful currency in the world, but this has been changing and the rate of change got a little quicker.
On Sunday, The head of the International Monetary Fund this week called for a new “Bretton Woods moment.”
IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said Thursday at the annual meeting of the IMF’s Board of Governors that governments must cooperate to glue the global economy back together after it fell apart this year due to the pandemic and is calling for a new “Bretton Woods moment” that takes into account the right economic policies, invest in people and focus on climate change.
Raoul Pal of Real Vision said in a tweet that this is going to be the biggest reset of the global financial system since Bretton Woods.
Some individuals believe that Georgieva’s speech also alludes to the probability that the fiat money system is on its last leg. “The IMF calling for help leads me to believe that the current fiat system is going to be crashing down soon,” noted another person discussing the topic.
Additionally, the author of “The Big Reset,” Willem Middelkoop, also believes that something is bound to happen soon since the IMF published Georgieva’s speech.
“In 2014, I wrote ‘The Big Reset,’” Middelkoop tweeted to his 42,000 followers. “The most important part: Chapter 6 – ‘The Big Reset.’ New rules have been discussed not only inside the advanced economies, but with all emerging economies, including China. With the status of the U.S. dollar as the international reserve currency being shaky, a new global currency setup is being conceived.”
I have never been more bullish about Bitcoin in my life. Like Raoul, I'm considering moving 50% of my liquid funds to Bitcoin. I doubt I will do it, but I do anticipate 50% of my liquid funds spread between Bitcoin, Ethereum and 2-5 other alt coins.
This post is my personal opinion. I’m not a financial advisor, this isn't financial advise. Do your own research before making investment decisions.
