Bretton Woods replaced the gold standard for three main reasons - poor performance, shifting economic demands, and growing political pressure for intervention.
Bretton Woods selected pegged exchange rates and control of domestic monetary policy, giving up the free flow of capital.
The system experienced challenges, such as the dollar shortage in Europe, and eventually faced issues like exceeding U.S. gold supplies, leading to its vulnerability and eventual unraveling.
The book 'The Dollar Endgame' argues that the US Dollar's reserve currency status leads to increasing demand for USD denominated assets like government debt.
The book presents definitions of economic terms like inflation, central banks, and monetary policy, but these definitions are criticized for being inaccurate or misleading.
Fiscal and monetary policies are meant to be somewhat independent but coordinated to prevent economic mismanagement.
Money has value based on people's belief in it and allows for indirect trade and wealth storage.
Historically, different forms of money were used in trade, not a singular currency.
During the Gold Standard, countries did not need to hold all currency value in gold reserves, and the system allowed for automatic adjustments in trade deficits.