The role of the US dollar as global key currency was constituted at the Conference at Bretton Woods (New Hampshire, USA) in 1944, when the so-called Gold-Dollar Standard replaced the Gold Standard that had to be abandoned during the war. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) founded in connection with the Bretton Woods Agreement “requested from the individual nation states to define the parities of their national currencies either in Gold or US dollar and limit the fluctuation of their exchange rates at a maximum of one percent within the ‘parity’. In order to give nations the time necessary to correct temporary imbalances concerning their international monetary transactions, the Fund granted credits out of its resources” (J. Dines).

Whilst the US dollar was pegged to Gold at a price of 35 dollars per ounce, the other currencies were pegged to the US dollar. Thereby the USA received the unique privilege to be able to print paper gold. “The advantages to the USA were obvious. The new system allowed for the painless financing of wars and economical campaigns around the whole world and made it possible to import expensive foreign products without any limit – simply because the banking system created the required dollars” (F. Lips).

This behaviour resulted in the devaluation of the US dollar against Gold, which finally forced the USA on August 15, 1971, to renege on their promise to sell Gold at a fixed price of 35 $ per ounce. Since then the currencies of the world are not pegged to Gold anymore (with the exception of the Swiss Franc, whose Gold Standard remained until it had to be abandoned due to Switzerland’s entry into the IMF in 1992).

However, the role of the US dollar as world key currency remained. Also IMF and World Bank – originally founded in order to implement the Bretton Woods Agreement – remained in existence despite the unilateral cancellation of the Gold Standard through the USA; today the IMW forbids its member states to peg their currencies to Gold, the USA are the only member with veto power.