What Broke Trade Was the Fiat Dollar

President Richard Nixon (2nd-L) poses at the White House in Washington, with four government officials he named as his economic “Quadriad” on Jan. 23, 1969. (L-R) Chairman William M. Chesney Martin Jr., of the Federal Reserve Board; Nixon; Secretary of the Treasury David M. Kennedy; Budget Director Robert Mayor and Chairman Paul McCracken of the Council of Economic Advisers. AP Photo/ Harvey GeorgesCommentaryThe postwar trading order is taking on an entirely new shape. We can put brackets around the old one, like a tombstone: 1944–2025. Having known some of the economists and statesmen who put together the old order, I’m in a position to explain what they had in mind and also what went wrong with it. What will replace it is still very much in flux but the outlines are being drawn daily.