The Bretton Woods system effectively ended when the United States suspended the dollar’s convertibility to gold in 1971, ushering in the era of floating exchange rates. Yet the US dollar has remained the world’s primary reserve and trade currency because of the economic size and stability of the US economy. The stability of the dollar-dominated system — where, in 2025, the United States now accounts for more than one-third of global government debt — is increasingly being questioned.
