Who killed Bretton Woods? Historians have analyzed the economists around Nixon that pushed for the decision to float the US dollar in 1971. In our new Open Access @VersoBooks book, @MGSchmelzer shows that many of them were members of the neoliberal Mont Pèlerin Society. 1/

This includes Paul McCracken, William Fellner (members of the Council of Economic Advisers), Gottfried Haberler (head of Nixon’s Task Force on US Balance of Payments Policies), and Milton Friedman. 2/

Gold standard vs. floating exchange rates was the greatest controversy within the neoliberal camp. Discussed at almost every MPS meeting, breaking friendships and almost splitting neoliberalism, it pitted older neoliberals around von Mises and Hayek against younger ones 3/

Why? All hated capital controls that “congeal the blood of capitalism" (Friedman) and lead to the “demise of Western civilization” (Mises). But they differed about what was realistic in times of Fordist capitalism. To illustrate this, the Monetary Policy Trilemma is helpful 4/

After the floating camp around Friedman had won the internal debates, they started a successful campaign of conference, think tank activities and policy consultation for floating and financial liberalization. 5/

The decision to float was central to the global order of liberalization in which hot money flows became the rule and not the exception. Since then, financialized hyper-globalization has exacerbated inequality and keeps bringing the world economy to near collapse. 6/

Key lesson according to @MGSchmelzer? Neoliberals were effective, in part, because they fought internally without splitting up. The MPS offered a two-step strategy: a space for fiery internal debate then a base for unified mobilization. 7/

Check out @MGSchmelzer's chapter in Nine Lives of Neoliberalism available free for download here http://hdl.handle.net/10419/215796  See also his earlier book on the topic https://www.metropolis-verlag.de/Freiheit-fuer-Wechselkurse-und-Kapital/791/book.do