Читать книгу Financial Cold War. A View of Sino-US Relations from the Financial Markets онлайн

105 страница из 137

By ditching the shackles of gold, Nixon had established America's absolute monetary sovereignty. No longer would the US government be constrained in the amount of currency it could issue by its holdings of gold. And contrary to Harry White's concerns, the dollar maintained its role as the global reserve currency. By that time, the dollar was already too entrenched in the global monetary system and there was no obvious alternative to it. The freely floating dollar introduced volatility into the foreign exchange market that had not existed under the Bretton Woods system. It also allowed the dollar to depreciate based on America's relative economic performance versus its trading partners. However, as discussed in ssss1, steps taken by foreign central banks to maintain the stability of their currencies has limited the extent to which the dollar has actually been allowed to fall.

The second financial policy shock initiated under Nixon's administration was a domestic one. This was the move to abolish fixed brokerage commissions for trading shares on the NYSE.